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The generational effect of Agent Orange
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Another case:
ETA:
The WGBH Openvault Wheeler interview link is no longer working, but here is a transcript excerpt about Agent Orange:
Heather Bowser describes herself as a child of Agent Orange. Bowser, who was born without several fingers and is missing part of her right leg, is convinced the cause was Agent Orange. Her father, Bill Morris, fought in Vietnam and was exposed to Agent Orange. Bowser is haunted by the aftermath of Agent Orange and visited Vietnam to meet other second-generation Vietnamese who also suffer from the same birth defects.
Another case:
Interview with John Wheeler, 1981
(He talks about his daughter's unusual birth defect about 42 minutes into the tape. Mr. Wheeler was a prominent advocate for Agent Orange injured veterans until he became the victim of a still unsolved homicide late in December 2011.)
Summary
West Point graduate and Vietnam veteran, John Wheeler discusses the major effects of the Vietnam war and its place in history. He discusses at length the idea of a dialogue between veterans like himself and the anti-war protesters. He suggests that there is a common ground between the two groups. He also talks about the anger he felt towards the protestors and how he was unprepared once he arrived back in the US after his tour. Wheelers talks about Agent Orange, his suspicions about it, and how one of his children has a birth defect, which he attributes to Agent Orange.
(He talks about his daughter's unusual birth defect about 42 minutes into the tape. Mr. Wheeler was a prominent advocate for Agent Orange injured veterans until he became the victim of a still unsolved homicide late in December 2011.)
Summary
West Point graduate and Vietnam veteran, John Wheeler discusses the major effects of the Vietnam war and its place in history. He discusses at length the idea of a dialogue between veterans like himself and the anti-war protesters. He suggests that there is a common ground between the two groups. He also talks about the anger he felt towards the protestors and how he was unprepared once he arrived back in the US after his tour. Wheelers talks about Agent Orange, his suspicions about it, and how one of his children has a birth defect, which he attributes to Agent Orange.
The WGBH Openvault Wheeler interview link is no longer working, but here is a transcript excerpt about Agent Orange:
Agent Orange, illness, and veterans
Interviewer:
...That?s a challenger...
This is room tone for the John Wheeler interview. Test.
Turning. Mark it.
(Clapper) Sound forty-one.
Interviewer:
Tell me about your experience with Agent Orange and your suspicions about it.
Wheeler:
[Snipped discussion of daughter's health problem]
Wheeler:
I?ve been thinking over the past several years, watching Katie grow up that there was a possibility that there?s a dioxin connection to her birth defect. My hypothesis is grounded in some of the things I learned at West Point about how you manage a battle field.
Now the main thing that people have focused on so far with respect to Agent Orange may be the wrong half of the question. They are focusing on surface content with dioxin by brushing against it or perhaps having it rub against you when you are delivering it as an Air Force person in a C-130 in Vietnam. That is an important question to examine. The protocol so far have zeroed in on that.
But there is another half, perhaps the most important one. Imagine if you are the officer in charge of clearing a field of fire in...one of those huge fire bases or secure zones in Vietnam like Long Binh or Camp Eagle or in and around Nha Trang or Cam Ranh or Cu Chi, all of which were stripped with vegetation as any Vietnam veteran who flew up in a helicopter over and will tell you.
How did you do your job. Well, you can use Rome plows, those big bulldozers, or you could use diesel fuel and burn or you could dig it out with machetes or I think in a lot of cases there is a possibility that the army officers involved borrowed some dioxin from the Air Force.
Those big barrels and couple of Jeeps and some steaks would go over to, say Bien Hoa and then...or maybe to Long Binh come the juice to spray the stuff or to squirt it out and clear the fields of fire. We need to find out how much that happened. I know it happened some. We need to find out how much it happened. Because if it did the stuff went into the water table.
Then we need to find out if the engineers filtered it out. If they were just filtering for sepsis, for disease, but not for dioxin, then it might have been in the drinking water. The drinking water that went into the lister bags that the helicopters flew out to the troops in the boonies as well as what was being drunk in each of the major base areas.
The MASH subculture was drinking the stuff and the battlefield subculture was drinking the stuff as a possibility.
The protocol at the centers for disease control where Agent Orange investigation has been going on now has to include all possibilities. It therefore has to include inquiry into the possibility of this hypothesis.
Interviewer:
Do you think it will? [Inaudible]?
Wheeler:
I think the centers for disease control will include it in the hypothesis because they are the same people among other medical centers who are focusing on the question of what happened at Love Canal or Times Beach which is where dioxin or problems similar to dioxin have confronted our domestic culture.
The important thing is to integrate our knowledge about what happened in the United States as say at Times Beach with what we believe or know happened in Vietnam and then do careful research to find out. But there?s a possibility is right, if this hypothesis is right, at least as to a lot of Vietnam veterans that a lot of us will die much younger than the other members of us in the generation.
That?s something that I don?t feel angry about. I think one of the things a Vietnam veteran got ready for was to die. But I would like to have it sorted out because I?m interested in Katie and claims that she may need to make when she?s much older.
Interviewer:
Cut. That?s fine. Thank you.
Interviewer:
...That?s a challenger...
This is room tone for the John Wheeler interview. Test.
Turning. Mark it.
(Clapper) Sound forty-one.
Interviewer:
Tell me about your experience with Agent Orange and your suspicions about it.
Wheeler:
[Snipped discussion of daughter's health problem]
Wheeler:
I?ve been thinking over the past several years, watching Katie grow up that there was a possibility that there?s a dioxin connection to her birth defect. My hypothesis is grounded in some of the things I learned at West Point about how you manage a battle field.
Now the main thing that people have focused on so far with respect to Agent Orange may be the wrong half of the question. They are focusing on surface content with dioxin by brushing against it or perhaps having it rub against you when you are delivering it as an Air Force person in a C-130 in Vietnam. That is an important question to examine. The protocol so far have zeroed in on that.
But there is another half, perhaps the most important one. Imagine if you are the officer in charge of clearing a field of fire in...one of those huge fire bases or secure zones in Vietnam like Long Binh or Camp Eagle or in and around Nha Trang or Cam Ranh or Cu Chi, all of which were stripped with vegetation as any Vietnam veteran who flew up in a helicopter over and will tell you.
How did you do your job. Well, you can use Rome plows, those big bulldozers, or you could use diesel fuel and burn or you could dig it out with machetes or I think in a lot of cases there is a possibility that the army officers involved borrowed some dioxin from the Air Force.
Those big barrels and couple of Jeeps and some steaks would go over to, say Bien Hoa and then...or maybe to Long Binh come the juice to spray the stuff or to squirt it out and clear the fields of fire. We need to find out how much that happened. I know it happened some. We need to find out how much it happened. Because if it did the stuff went into the water table.
Then we need to find out if the engineers filtered it out. If they were just filtering for sepsis, for disease, but not for dioxin, then it might have been in the drinking water. The drinking water that went into the lister bags that the helicopters flew out to the troops in the boonies as well as what was being drunk in each of the major base areas.
The MASH subculture was drinking the stuff and the battlefield subculture was drinking the stuff as a possibility.
The protocol at the centers for disease control where Agent Orange investigation has been going on now has to include all possibilities. It therefore has to include inquiry into the possibility of this hypothesis.
Interviewer:
Do you think it will? [Inaudible]?
Wheeler:
I think the centers for disease control will include it in the hypothesis because they are the same people among other medical centers who are focusing on the question of what happened at Love Canal or Times Beach which is where dioxin or problems similar to dioxin have confronted our domestic culture.
The important thing is to integrate our knowledge about what happened in the United States as say at Times Beach with what we believe or know happened in Vietnam and then do careful research to find out. But there?s a possibility is right, if this hypothesis is right, at least as to a lot of Vietnam veterans that a lot of us will die much younger than the other members of us in the generation.
That?s something that I don?t feel angry about. I think one of the things a Vietnam veteran got ready for was to die. But I would like to have it sorted out because I?m interested in Katie and claims that she may need to make when she?s much older.
Interviewer:
Cut. That?s fine. Thank you.