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spraying herbicides
Episode 2511 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a look at the PACT Act and the summation of the report on toxic herbicide use the Thailand by the U.S. during the American Vietnam War. The information shared in this episode comes from 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 sections of the paper titled 2.7 PACT Act Established Presumptive Service Connection for Thailand Veterans, 3.0 Summary and Acknowledgments will be featured. According to Olson and Cihacek, with the passage of the PACT Act on August 10, 2022, veterans who served in Thailand are eligible for presumptive service connection, regardless of their MOS or where on the base they were located. The VA now recognizes that any service member with active military naval, air, or space service who served in Thailand, at any U.S. or Thai base, between January 9, 1962 and June 30, 1976 were likely exposed to Agent Orange.
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 2511 and discover more about the PACT Act and the summation of the report on toxic herbicide use in Thailand by the U.S. during the American Vietnam War.
