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Old 10-21-2010, 04:20 AM
RandomRamblings RandomRamblings is offline
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Default Need Info On Camp Casey 1964-1966


Hello,
I hope someone can help us.

My dad served in Korea on the DMZ at Camp Casey. He says it was also sometimes called Happy Valley and Happy Dragon. He served 1964-1967 in the US Army. He served 13 months at Camp Casey in 1964, 1965, maybe a small part of 1966.

He remembers being told, this is weed killer, spray it. It being in large barrels with an orange and white stripe. He would pump it into a backpack and spray it, and sometimes spray it from a truck. There were no aerial spraying. He said it killed everything and when the rainy season came, there was no vegetation to hold back the water. He worked with the ROK and the KOTUSA.

He has many symptoms of AO, but the VA is denying he used AO. That they didn't use it until 1968, but I have found recently declassified papers that it was being tested as far back at 1963. He has also been told that his military records were destroyed in the St Louis MO fire in 1973, but the governments own website states it was records of people that were discharged years before him. He is getting the run around and I am angry about it. If he is there are many, many more.

AO symptoms are showing up in his offspring, my sister and I, and in our children. These men served their time for their country. Now he is being asked...why did you wait so long? He didn't. He started having skin issues right upon discharge. Even went through a panel of doctors, 21 sets came in to see him, so more than 21 doctors, and not one could agree what was wrong with him.

Can anyone from that time frame, or prior, that has any memory, or knowledge, of Agent Orange, or any other toxic weedkillers please get with us? Anything can help. He has worked his whole life, and just wants to VA to recognize that he has health problems from his Army service. My name is Michelle Varney, I am his oldest daughter. I can not post our emails in here it is saying they are URLs. Reply and I will give you dad's, my sisters, and my email address and/or phone numbers.


We will be happy to share with you in return any information we find to help you as well.


We thank you in advance.

Verlin Varney
Michelle Varney
Evelyn Shaw
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  #2  
Old 10-21-2010, 05:01 AM
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Packo Packo is offline
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I cannot speak to the use of AO in Korea. Sorry. I can say that not one Vietnam Era record was burned in the St. Louis fire. Who told him that? He can order his records from the National Personnel Records Center online, I think, or he can go to his local county or VA officer and fill out a SF 180 and recieve them. If he ever used his GI Bill for school or for home mortgage, the VA Regional Office will also have a copy of his records.
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Old 10-21-2010, 05:24 AM
RandomRamblings RandomRamblings is offline
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When he applied for VA Compensation on the use of weed killer in Korea, presumptive AO since he has type II diabetes, skin problems that not one doctor can diagnose, and that started following Korea, among other issues. He was told that his records, who went on the same details he did, since it wasn't his whole unit, all their records were lost too.

The gentleman who is helping him with his Compensation appeal said it seems awfully convenient that just a few service records, and it just being those that remember being told to test the weed killer, were lost. He was told to try to find people who served there during the same time frame for buddy statements, since things just seemed to vanish in mid air. The one gentlemen he did find, is no longer answering his emails. Things just seem so flaky to me.
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Old 10-22-2010, 05:09 AM
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Well...you said that he was told they were lost in a fire...which would have been the fire at the NPRC in St. Louis. The Army didn't necessarily write down everything everybody did while in the army. It was a detail and that would probably not be in his records. I spent 3 weeks with an Assault Helicompter Company in Vietnam. That's not in my records. Spent 3 months in Hawaii and none of that is in my records. They were TDY assignments. I guess I agree...the only way he's going to prove what he did is to get sworn statements from others that were with him and that can be about impossible. If you get his records from St. Louis you may be able to see orders that contain the names of men he served with if they were promoted at the same time, recieved a unit commendation, came in or left at the same time, etc. Through those names, he may be able to find guys who were with him and locate them today. Then you'd have to convince the Congress or the VA Secretary to include his years as part of the AO ruling. You are looking at climbing Mt. Everest, but it's been done. Good luck.
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"TO ANNOUNCE THAT THERE MUST BE NO CRITICISM OF THE PRESIDENT...IS MORALLY TREASONABLE TO THE AMERICAN PUBLIC." Theodore Roosvelt

"DISSENT IS PATRIOTIC!" (unknown people for the past 8 years, my turn now)
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