APNewsBreak: US to pay millions for Agent Orange claims

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By HOPE YEN

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ending years of wait, the government agreed Thursday to provide millions of dollars in disability benefits to as many as 2,100 Air Force reservists and active-duty forces exposed to Agent Orange residue on airplanes used in the Vietnam War.

The new federal rule, approved by the White House Office of Management and Budget, takes effect Friday. It adds to an Agent Orange-related caseload that already makes up 1 out of 6 disability checks issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The expected cost over 10 years is $47.5 million, with separate health care coverage adding to the price tag.

"Opening up eligibility for this deserving group of Air Force veterans and reservists is the right thing to do," VA Secretary Bob McDonald said in a statement. He planned to announce the decision in private meetings with veterans' organizations.

FULL story at link.



Retired Air Force reserve tech Sgt. Ed Kienle, 73, holds a picture of himself, left, and fellow reservists during an interview at his home, Thursday, June 11, 2015, in Wilmington, Ohio. The government says U.S. Air Force reservists who became ill after being exposed to Agent Orange residue while working on planes after the Vietnam War would be eligible for disability benefits. The Department of Veterans Affairs said it has been working to finalize a rule that could cover more than 2,000 military personnel, including Kienle, who flew or worked on Fairchild C-123 aircraft in the U.S. from 1972 to 1982. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/c6a2ba5e23d24c4e9b8eb3b51b84a82e/apnewsbreak-us-pay-millions-agent-orange-claims

[marym625]

1. K&R

About damn time!

[HockeyMom]

2. My husband was a jet engine mechanic

He was recently put in a claim under Agent Orange. Oh, I hope this adds credence to his case.

[Herman4747]

3. About the Millions of Vietnamese the US Military dumped the Agent Orange On...

Is the US government going to pay them any money?

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2401378/Agent-Orange-Vietnamese-children-suffering-effects-herbicide-sprayed-US-Army-40-years-ago.html

[L0oniX]

9. +1 ...add Iraq.

[AllyCat]

4. Over 40 years later, they finally got on it.

How about the Vietnamese people we poisoned and killed? Do they wait another 40 years?

[MoonchildCA]

5. Agent Orange: Another fine, safe product...

...brought to you by Monsanto.

[Scalded Nun]

6. They trickle, trickle this stuff and act like they are so benevolent

Yet they refuse to acknowledge AO's effects on those exposed in surrounding countries supporting the war effort. My uncle Died in January from AO-related Parkinson's. He served a year in Thailand as a air traffic controller. Out in the open, exposed in his job as well as getting to/from it. AO and related defoliants were sprayed around the base (U-Tapao). AND planes carrying the stuff landed there all of the time. The DoD position is that the AO did not cross the perimeter fence to endanger troops within the compound. What a bunch of bullshit that is. For decades their position was that AO was never even in the country (all lies and they knew it). Then the truth came out and they amended their position to state that troops that had to work the perimeter (Security) could file.
I applaud every time a new truth is acknowledged as it usually results in the affected benefitting from whatever affliction that have incurred.
What is so sad is that they draw everything out so long so as to allow the affected group(s) to dwindle before actually acknowledging the truth. They are lying bastards and should never be trusted.

[erronis]

12. That's a horrible account. And what is also so sad is that we continue to lie, just like we did

before. The USofA - the leader of the world in PR - PRopaganda and Posthumous Reparations.

[jwirr]

7. The Agent Orange victim in my family is long buried. Are the surviving children going to get this

money or did the government just wait out the victims until most have already died?

[L0oniX]

8. 1st they deny any harm. Same thing with depleted uranium and many other military toxins and poisons.

Many reasons to never volunteer.

[moniss]

10. Country Joe McDonald "Agent Orange"

No matter where you are today when you read this reply stop what you're doing and play this song. Play it on your phones or whatever you have and don't play it just for yourselves but turn it up as loud as you can so that those around you have to hear it too. But most of all listen and turn it up for the victims and then go home today and hug someone you love. Then say out loud "for all the victims I did something to try and make others hear you."

[erronis]

13. Youtube link

http://agentorangezone.blogspot.com/2010/01/i-died-in-vietnam-but-i-didnt-even-know.html

[Gregorian]

11. That's what I call Pinoche time. Forty years.

In other words, they got away with it for as long as possible. In other words, you don't count. Then when most people are dead and forgotten, they lift a finger. Fuck the military. Why can't people see it's the opposite of how we should be spending our money and energy and time.

[Sunlei]

14. how come corps like Monsanto, get away with this crap? poison people & land & seas with their chems!

Our entire health care system should be paid for by these huge corps.

Even the famous "brush clearing" old-Bush is frozen with a neurological disease probably caused by the brush clearing chemicals those ranches used.

[niyad]

15. wow, it only took how many decades??

[olddad56]

16. too little, too late