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Toxic herbicide storage on Johnston Island
Episode 2510 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a look at the Thailand Veteran Situation. The information shared in this episode is a portion of the report created by the Merry Band of Retirees titled, Use of Agent Purple, Agent Orange and Agent Blue on Royal Thai Air Force Base Perimeters in Thailand during the Vietnam War.
The paper was submitted by Kenneth R. Olson and Larry Cihacek. Olson was a professor in the College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois [krolson@illinois.edu]. He is a US Army Vietnam Era Veteran and professor emeritus of soil science. Cihacek is a professor at the School of Natural Resource Sciences, North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota. He is US Army veteran and professor of soil science.
In this episode, the following portions of the paper that is titled 2.5.2 The Thailand Veteran Situation, 2.5.3. The Thailand Veteran Solution and 2.6 In Thailand Cases, VA Faces the Same Challenges of Determining Exposure Details as with Vietnam veterans will be featured. According to Olson and Cihacek, There are no current statutes or VA regulations to automatically concede veteran exposure to Agent Orange while serving in Thailand during the Vietnam Era. The VA’s adjudication manual (M21-1) does recognize Vietnam-era veterans whose service involved duty on or near perimeters of military bases in Thailand anytime between February 28, 1961 and May 7, 1975 may have been exposed to Agent Orange and may qualify for VA benefits.
Five bases in Thailand, including Nakhon Phanom (NKP), Ubon, Korat, U-Tapao and Udorn endured sniper fire interdiction, perimeter penetration, and sapper (combat engineer) attacks. Nam Phong an eighth Royal Thai Air Force base was used by the United States Marine Corps air operations starting in 1972. The Rules of Engagement (ROE) provided authorization and limits for the employment of herbicides throughout the Southeast Asian conflict.
Listen to episode 2510 and discover more about the Thailand Veteran Situation.
