mels

I am looking for anyone who was on Kadena AFB, Okinawa or .Chanute AFB, IL. My dad was there from Oct. 68-April 70. He has ichemic heart disease, diabetes which has resulted in the amputation of his right leg below the knee and peripheral neuropathy. We were denied in 2002 AMVETS filed a claim on his behalf for heart condition, diabetes and back problems. I refiled in December 2011 and have just received the claim statements and medical release forms. I am familiar with filling out this paper work because my husband is a combat veteran of Iraqi Freedom. I have been reading articles from the Japan times and I am a member of the Agent Orange Okinawa facebook page. Another thing that helps make my dad's case is that he was on Chanute AFB, IL and it is on the EPA Superfund list and has PCBs/Pesticides and Dioxins/Furans listed as ground and water contaminants. I welcome any advice, tips or articles that I may have missed in my own research.

Kadena USAFB
From Wikipedia
In June 2013, the government of Japan discovered 22 barrels buried on former base property that tests showed had previously contained dioxins and herbicides. Tests on the surrounding soils found dioxin levels at 8.4 times and groundwater at 280 times the legal limit. The land in question is a soccer field bordering the base's Bob Hope Primary School and Amelia Earhart Intermediate School. Angry parents accused base officials, under base commanders Brigadier General Matt H. Molloy[11] and Brigadier General James B. Hecker, of failing to notify them of the toxins near the school and not investigating into the matter. The parents established a Facebook group on 10 January 2014 titled, "Bob Hope/AEIS - Protect Our Kids." After the issue was reported in the Japan Times and Stars and Stripes, USAF officials tested the soil and water at the schools and said that no excessive toxic substances were found.[12][13]

http://agentorangelegacy.blogspot.com/search/label/Kadena%20Air%20Base
Two leading Agent Orange specialists have weighed in on the recent discovery of 22 barrels buried on former military land in Okinawa City.1 Richard Clapp, professor emeritus at Boston University School of Public Health, and Wayne Dwernychuk, the scientist previously in charge of identifying defoliant contamination in southeast Asia, likened the levels of dioxin contamination in Okinawa City to dangerous hot-spots in Vietnam where the U.S. military had stored toxic defoliants during the 1960s and ‘70s.2
Both scientists cited the risks to Okinawa residents and urged immediate clean-up of the land to limit the threat to human health. Dwernychuk also noted that the discovery of the barrels may disprove the Pentagon’s repeated denials that military defoliants were ever present on Okinawa.
Continue Learning: http://japanfocus.org/-Jon-Mitchell/3998

US Gov document contradicting the Japanese results. (You expected something different?)
I thought the high dioxin level mentioned for Da Nang was interesting.
http://www.kadena.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-140214-006.pdf

This claim was originally filed in 2003 and was denied several times, lost a few times, kicked around to various regional offices and eventually remanded for a C&P exam. I was asked to take a look in 2011 and I started working feverishly with the widow. There was a lot of evidence gathering in the face of the usual sea of naysayers but we never lost focus. It is very difficult for a Thailand veteran to win, much less the thought of a sole surviving widow signing on upon the death of the veteran and seeing the claim through to a win. Needless to say, the evidence needed to be overwhelming. I venture to say that this the very first win for a sole surviving spouse in a Thailand herbicide exposure claim. It is important to note that the veteran was not an MP nor was he a dog handler. When it is posted on the BVA list of prior decisions web site it is DOCKET NO. 09-17 560 and dated June 02, 2014.

It is such an honor for me to be able to work these kind of claims to a win. I expect that a 100% award will be awarded in the claim because the death of the veteran was the result of the now service connected chronic lymphocytic leukemia.



The following is an excerpt from an email that I received from the widow this afternoon.

It has been a long, emotional, and painful ordeal, but I did receive a letter today from the Board of Veteran’s Appeal that says – For accrued benefits purposes, service connection for chronic lymphocytic leukemia is granted.

I had James Cripps, a friend who has guided me, the first vet to win an AO claim stateside, who works daily with vets – read the decision tonight to re-assure me.

I am going to copy two paragraphs that I thought was so interesting and James also pointed it out:
An August 2007memorandum of the Compensation and Pension Service confirmed that herbicides such as Agent Orange were only applied in Thailand from April-September, 1964, 3 ½ years prior to the Veteran’s duty there. Moreover, the only application site in Thailand was the Pranburi Military Reservation, not U-Tapao. However, the memorandum determined that routine maintenance such as brush clearing, weed killing, and range management was conducted by the base civil engineer at U-Tapao, and that involved commercial herbicides applied by certified applicators. The memorandum notes that security police units and dog handlers were known to have walked the perimeters and therefore have a greater likelihood of exposure to commercial pesticides and herbicides.

Several letters were submitted by fellow-servicemen who served with the Veteran, or served at the same base in Thailand. These accounts endorsed the Veteran’s assertion that he was present at the perimeter of the base at U-Tapao. While the Veteran is not presumed to have been exposed to any herbicide based on his service, based on the Veteran’s assertions as corroborated by these statements, the Board finds that, it is at least likely as not that he was actually exposed to herbicides during his service.