Agent Orange Spraying In Vietnam

[stevem007]

Many civilian workers at the Corpus Christi Army Depot who repaired UH helicopters during the Vietnam war were exposed to Agent Orange. The Army states that the helicopters were decontaminated before coming to the states for repairs. This is not true. Does anyone know if the Army did indeed try to decontaminate the helicopters before they shipped them off to the states for repairs?

[FormerMember]

Judging from the large numbers of ANG pilots who inherited the old Ranch Hand C-123s in the late 70s and early 80s that are now coming down with the same diseases, I think we can safely say they bubble wrapped them and sealed any AO inside before shipping. We had to clean out the gas tanks on our O-1s and U-17s frequently. That fine particulate of red clay silica that the choppers stirred up went everywhere. It eventually clogged the carburetors and contaminated the engine. To think they cleaned it all out of the fuselage is ludicrous.

Re the AO interactive maps, do they show the spraying down in the Laotian Panhandle east of Pakse and Attapeu? How about along the trail near the Parrot's beak? AO was dumped a) wherever it was needed; b) in a lot of places it wasn't and c) wherever was handy when it was overcast and the target was obscured. I doubt anyone has a clue (or a map) where all of it ended up. ROEs were not very particular or stringent about AO- just napalm. As for Cambodia, there were no ROEs.

AO and some of the others (Pink and Green) were used heavily in the beginning on the trail according to some of the old timers from AirAm. Remember they had PC-6 Porters equipped with tanks and were doing it too. The AF didn't have a monopoly on this stuff contrary to popular belief.