Agent Orange

VA Secretary Shinseki’s recent decision expands presumptive Agent Orange benefits to an additional 185,000 Vietnam Veterans and their widows. This new ruling will lead to a at least a 20 percent increase in VA awards for those who served in Vietnam and have any of the newly presumed service connected disabilities of B cell leukemia’s, such as hairy cell leukemia; Parkinson’s disease; and ischemic heart disease. Although VA has not finalized the rules, your encouraged to apply for these new benefits. VA expects to finalize the rules in early 2010. In order to assist with claims backlog and new exams the VA will accept letters from family physicians that support claims for Agent Orange related conditions. Thousands of widows whose husbands died of Agent Orange disabilities may qualify for retroactive benefits and back pay, as well as DIC payments. VA will re-examine about 86,000 claims, previously denied before 1985, to see if they meet the new criteria. $14 billion is expected to be paid related to heart disease alone. Both VBA and VHA expect to be deluged by this increase in new claims.

It is no secret that many veterans of the latest contrived war in the Middle East are coming home sick and die young, and sometimes pass this "sickness" along to their wife and children. The US Government is fully aware of the causes, and continue to perpetrate their War Crimes in the same manner they did in Vietnam - only this time, using "depleted" uranium, it is much worse. Art Bernklau has written reams on the subject, and we have listed many of the different chemicals and biologicals used. The impact of Agent Orange is covered in my book "Land of Childhood's Fears". Read a Chicago Tribune article on Agent Orange. The story is best told and the impact on veteran's lives is revealed by the lyrics of the song you hear playing.

I was seventeen - just a teenage kid,
The year that I enlisted.
I can't remember why I did;
My mom said, "I insisted".

I had some strange idea then,
That Uncle Sam was right.
Oh, momma cried, but she signed the card,
And then I went off to fight.

Got off the plane in Vietnam;
It didn't seem like war.
With all I saw, I started to wonder
What I had come there for.

Some officers got drunk at night,
And cheated on their wives.
And the peasants on the other side,
Were just strugglin' for their lives.

Oh, the Army tried some fancy stuff,
To bring them to their knees;
Like Agent Orange defoliants,
To kill the brush and trees.

We'd hike all day on jungle trails,
Through clouds of poison spray;
And they never told me then,
That it would hurt my health today.

But I got the news this mornin',
Yeah, the doctors told me so;
They killed me in Vietnam,
And I didn't even know.

I tried hard to forget the war,
Like everybody did.
Settled down, got married;
Even had a couple o' kids.

Well my children both have birth defects,
And the doctors had their doubts;
They never could understand it;
But I think I figured it out.

'Cause I got the news this mornin',
Yeah, the doctors told me so;
They killed me in Vietnam,
And I didn't even know.

This Agent Orange from Vietnam,
We carry it with us, still;
It stays inside for years and years,
Before it starts to kill.

You might get cancer of the liver;
You might get cancer of the skin;
You can file for disability,
But you might not live to win.

Oh, I got the news this mornin',
Yeah, the doctors told me so;
They killed me in Vietnam,
And I didn't even know.

Oh, the doctors said I've got some time,
Trying to be kind;
I've never been a radical,
But this has changed my mind.

Oh, I'd be so proud to hear my kid say
"Hell no, I won't go",
Because you killed my dad in Vietnam;
And he didn't even know.

Yes, I'd be so proud to hear my kid say
"Hell no, I won't go",
Because you killed my dad in Vietnam;
And he didn't e-ven know.

Last modified: 03/11/10