Military Update: Ill Reservists Blame Post-War ‘Spray Bird’ Missions

[allan]

Military Update: Ill reservists blame post-war ‘spray bird’ missions

Written by Tom Philpott

Tuesday, 05 July 2011

http://lakeconews.com/content/view/20450/919/

In a complaint to the Air Force inspector general, a retired officer alleges health officials have known since at least 1994 of Agent Orange contamination aboard C-123 aircraft flown by reserve squadrons for a decade after the Vietnam War, and failed to warn personnel of the health risks.

After the Air Force stopped using UC-123K Provider aircraft to spray herbicide on the jungles of Vietnam, some of those aircraft, their spray tanks removed, were reassigned in 1972 to new missions at three stateside bases.

For the next decade Air Force reservists flew and maintained them. Last month one of the post-war crewmen, disabled retiree Maj. Wesley T. Carter, 64, of McMinnville, Ore., had a heart attack requiring surgery, and also learned that he has prostate cancer.

A medical service officer, Carter said he thought about the many hours he had served aboard foul-smelling C-123 “spray birds” after the war, flying out of Westover Air Force Base, Mass. So in recent weeks he conducted online searches, looking for any report of lingering Agent Orange contamination on these planes assigned Reserve missions until 1982.

What Carter found alarmed him, enough he told me, that he began to contact crewmen from his squadron. The first five he reached had prostate cancer, Carter said. He heard of others who had died, most of them from more diseases that Department of Veterans Affairs presumes, at least for veterans of Vietnam, were caused by Agent Orange exposure.

From: RetAirForceMan@aol.com [mailto:RetAirForceMan@aol.com]

Sent: Tuesday, July 05, 2011 9:41 AM

To: rstanton@stjoelive.com; mporter@vva.org

Cc: colonel-dan@sbcglobal.net

Subject: Check out Lake County News | California - Military Update: Ill reservists bla

Lake County News | California - Military Update: Ill reservists blame post-war ‘spray bird’ missions

LeRoy G. Foster, MSgt, Retired

MSGT LEROY G. FOSTER, USAF, RETIRED

100% Service Connected disabled from Agent Orange on Guam

Life Member of the VVA of New York

Life Member of the DAV of New York

Member of the American Legion Post 777 of NY

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"Keep on, Keepin' on"

Dan Cedusky, Champaign IL "Colonel Dan"

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