Agent Orange's lethal legacy: For Vietnam War veterans, injustice follows injury

[darrels joy]

...
Or they just die early. According to data from the VA, 58 percent of the 490,135 Vietnam veterans who died from 2000 to 2007 were younger than 60.
...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health...,2356181.story

[Whale]

OTOH many lived an additional 30-40 years because of the effect of herbicides on the cover and concealment of the enemy.

[darrels joy]

I didn't post this because of Agent Orange.

Sorry for the confusion.

Joy

[ussfa344]

Originally Posted by Whale

OTOH many lived an additional 30-40 years because of the effect of herbicides on the cover and concealment of the enemy.

Whale,

John Parda, my Detachment commander, and I had this very discussion as he lay in the hospital dying from multiple cancers that the VA later determined to be service connected as the result of his exposure herbicides in Viet Nam. Portions of our AO had been denuded by herbicides. We constantly patrolled in those areas and our watershed consisted of denuded areas so we drank the stuff second hand. On top of that, as the team engineer, I liberally sprayed herbicides all around our camp to deny concealment to the enemy. In effect, I contributed to the death of my best friend.

He pointed out, just as you stated, it gave him 40 years more, but more importantly to John, it gave him a daughter and two granchildren that would not have been born had he not made it home. He felt it was worth it. While it does not make the pain go away from loosing him, it does put things in perspective.

Robert