Ill reservists blame post-war 'spray bird' missions

Ill reservists blame post-war 'spray bird' missions

montgomeryadvertiser.com | May 30th 2011

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.

Carter started a blog, www.c123kcancer.blogspot.com, with links to reports and memos referencing dioxin con­tamination aboard C-123s flown by reservists after the war from Westover, Pittsburgh (Pa.) Air Reserve Base and Rickenback­er Air Force Base in Ohio.

One of the first disturbing documents found, Carter said, deals with a famous C-123, nick­named "Patches" during the war because it was hit so often by enemy fire during spraying runs. Patches was one of three C-123s, among 16 aircraft of the 731st Tactical Airlift Squadron, known to crewmen as having sprayed herbicide during the war.

Carter found a report from 1994 showing that before Patches was put on display at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patter­son Air Force Base, an analysis for toxins found that it was "heavily contaminated with PCDD," or polychlorinated di­benzodioxin, a human carcino­gen.

So work crews that prepared Patches for display had to wear hazardous material suits and respirators, and the public would not be allowed to touch it. Yet Carter and crewmates had flown it often. He remem­bered its strong smell, like the inside of one Halloween mask he had worn as a kid.

By filing an IG complaint, Carter wants the Air Force to explain why, after learning C-123s flown by reservists were toxic, the service did not warn former crewmen of their expo­sure and possible health risks.

Retired Air Force Reserve Lt. Col. John O. Harris of Mashpee, Mass., flew 2,700 hours as a C-123 command pilot for the 731st, from 1973 to 1981. Almost 400 of those hours were in Patches or in one of the other squadron aircraft that had sprayed in Vietnam. Harris, 67, has diabe­tes and peripheral neuropathy, both conditions on VA's list of 14 AO presumptive diseases.

"We knew it was there," Harris said of residual herbi­cide on some C-123 aircraft. "You could smell it on a hot day, or a cold day when the heaters were running. You could smell it so bad you couldn't stand it."

Harris said he often flew with cockpit windows open. He com­pares the smell to wasp or roach spray. Vietnam vets in the squadron identified it as Agent Orange, Harris said. But no one back then understood the dangers of compounds used in the war to defoliate jungles and kill crops.

Neither Harris nor Carter served on the ground in Viet­nam. Both men now believe re­servists who flew or main­tained these aircraft should be treated like Vietnam veterans with regard to Agent Orange-related presumptive diseases when filing VA compensation claims or seeking survivor ben­efits.

Several years ago Harris did file a claim for his diabetes, cit­ing post-war exposure to Agent Orange on his missions with the 731st. He provided flight logs listing hours aboard "spray bird" aircraft. Both his claim and his appeal were de­nied, Harris said, because he had not served in Vietnam.

Harris later remembered that, while flying F-4 Phantoms out of Thailand during the war, he had a two-hour refueling stop at Da Nang. He even re­called the guy he chatted with at the airfield that day. After finding him and supplying VA with his statement, Harris qualified for disability pay.

"Two hours on the ground with no Agent Orange in sight trumped 11 years and 400 hours of definitive exposure flying spray UC-123s," he said. Harris figures he caught a break and others haven't. So he has joined Carter's quest to find more col­leagues and notifying of them of toxin exposure. They want to help those with AO-related ail­ments get VA care and compen­sation, and for spouses of col­leagues who have died from these conditions get VA De­pendency and Indemnity Com­pensation.

Besides the memo showing Patches was toxic, Carter learned the government in 1996 stopped a contract to sell some of these C-123s because of con­tamination. Another report in­dicates Air Force struggled over how to dispose of these air­craft, worried that even bury­ing them could contaminate the ground. Some officials told Carter that last year the service tore apart and melted down re­maining C-123 aircraft.

Asked to comment on this, on Carter's complaint and his blog, an Air Force spokesman, Jonathan Stock, said the serv­ice "is going to look into these claims" but can't make any im­mediate comment. Also, VA Press Secretary Josh Taylor said VA will "carefully review this matter."

Marshall Hanson with Re­serve Officers Association added, "This cadre of Agent Or­ange casualties needs to be rec­ognized for the contamination risks they have been exposed to, similar to crews that initial­ly flew the same C-123 aircraft. Agent Orange presumption needs to be re-examined to in­clude all those who were ex­posed outside the Vietnam ter­ritories, both in the Air Force and the Navy."

To comment, or write to Mil­itary Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, Va., 20120-1111



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