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Agent Orange's blue water victims
http://hamptonroads.com/2015/08/straw-agent-oranges-blue-water-victims
Straw: Agent Orange's blue water victims
By Ed Straw
© August 16, 2015
<snip>
Agent Orange found its way into streams, rivers, harbors, bays and the South China Sea where it was ingested by U.S. Navy ships. Warships would suck up this contamination during the shipboard water-purification process conducted while operating just offshore - as it would be ingested by our aircraft carriers operating farther out at sea.
Wind-blown Agent Orange contamination also entered the ventilation systems on our ships - just as wind-blown radioactive particles from the damaged Fukushima nuclear reactor covered the USS Ronald Reagan Battle Group operating 60 miles off the coast of Japan following the earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
<snip>
However in 2002, without medical or scientific basis to do so, the VA changed the criteria for presumption of exposure from afflicted personnel holding a Vietnam Service Medal to only those veterans who served ashore with "boots on the ground" or who served in the "brown water Navy" (on patrol boats or smaller ships operating on inland waterways).
<snip>
The House and Senate have bills pending before them to re-establish the intent specified in the Agent Orange Act of 1991; however VA Secretary Robert McDonald can right this injustice immediately with the stroke of his pen.
<snip>
Ed Straw is a retired vice admiral and former president of global operations at Estee Lauder. He lives in New York.
Straw: Agent Orange's blue water victims
By Ed Straw
© August 16, 2015
<snip>
Agent Orange found its way into streams, rivers, harbors, bays and the South China Sea where it was ingested by U.S. Navy ships. Warships would suck up this contamination during the shipboard water-purification process conducted while operating just offshore - as it would be ingested by our aircraft carriers operating farther out at sea.
Wind-blown Agent Orange contamination also entered the ventilation systems on our ships - just as wind-blown radioactive particles from the damaged Fukushima nuclear reactor covered the USS Ronald Reagan Battle Group operating 60 miles off the coast of Japan following the earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
<snip>
However in 2002, without medical or scientific basis to do so, the VA changed the criteria for presumption of exposure from afflicted personnel holding a Vietnam Service Medal to only those veterans who served ashore with "boots on the ground" or who served in the "brown water Navy" (on patrol boats or smaller ships operating on inland waterways).
<snip>
The House and Senate have bills pending before them to re-establish the intent specified in the Agent Orange Act of 1991; however VA Secretary Robert McDonald can right this injustice immediately with the stroke of his pen.
<snip>
Ed Straw is a retired vice admiral and former president of global operations at Estee Lauder. He lives in New York.
1 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
