David L. Hine
August 10th of each year is Agent Orange Awareness Day. It is a day to provide awareness and information about the effects of Agent Orange on our servicemen and women who served in Vietnam.
On the evening of August 10th, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) once again held its Agent Orange “Bring Light” event at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. They illuminated the entire Vietnam Veterans Memorial site with orange candlelight — from The Wall itself to The Three Servicemen statue, the flagpole, the Vietnam Women’s Memorial statue and the In Memory plaque.
Locally, Greenfield Mayor Chuck Fewell proclaimed August 6-12 as Agent Orange Awareness Week. The message board at City Hall displayed this information, and you could see Agent Orange Awareness banners displayed on our light poles in downtown Greenfield. Orange porch lights and security lights could also be seen around the city.
Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb and Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett showed their support by also issuing proclamations for Agent Orange Awareness Week. AES even scrolled “AGENT ORANGE” on its building on Monument Circle in Indianapolis on August 9th and 10th.
The reason for selecting this date is based on its history. The first use of Agent Orange is thought to have occurred on August 10, 1961, and 62 years later, our Vietnam veterans that returned home, hoping to leave the war behind them, are fighting the effects of and dying from their exposure to Agent Orange.
Operation Ranch Hand was a program of the United States military to spray millions of gallons of herbicides and defoliants throughout Vietnam. The chemical weapons used were known as “Rainbow Herbicides” and included Agent White, Agent Purple, Agent Blue, Agent Pink, Agent Green and Agent Orange. They were named for the colored bands that were painted on their respective storage drums.
Agent Orange accounted for over 50 percent of the herbicides used in Vietnam, and the reasoning for its use is fairly straight forward. It would provide our military an advantage by defoliating the jungle canopy where the enemy could be concealed. It eliminated the areas that the enemy used to ambush American forces, as well as destroying the enemy’s subsistence crops.
On Memorial Day this year, a local Vietnam veteran shared one of his experiences about this very thing. Their unit was in the field in Vietnam and, all of a sudden, they come across areas that were completely void of any vegetation. This was the exact reason the U.S. utilized chemical herbicides and defoliants.
Although our servicemen and women were assured it was safe, the Department of Veterans Affairs eventually recognized that Agent Orange is scientifically associated with several serious health conditions. Among these are Parkinson’s disease, Hodgkin’s disease, prostate cancer, respiratory cancer, and many more.
It is estimated that 136,000 Hoosiers served in Vietnam, but the number of those that have been affected by AO related diseases, and those that have passed away, may never be known. The number of Greenfield and Hancock County men and women that served in Vietnam and have been affected by Agent Orange is also unknown.
What we do know is that Agent Orange exposure was not limited to one specific branch of service. AO and the other herbicides and defoliants were usually sprayed from helicopters or low flying aircraft, but they were sometimes sprayed from trucks, boats and backpacks. The chance of exposure was everywhere.
“A huge part of our mission is to honor those who served and survived, and many of those people and their families are still suffering over 60 years later,” says Heidi Zimmerman, VVMF’s vice president of programs and communications. “Our goal is to raise awareness of the continuing impact of exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.”
We hope that by knowing this information, our Hoosier veterans may now be compelled or encouraged to seek assistance from our service officers or Veterans Affairs hospitals if they are suffering from adverse health conditions. It is imperative that we publicly inform our Hoosier veterans, their families and the citizens of Indiana about the variety of diseases that they may encounter due to their service in Vietnam and their exposure to Agent Orange.
“There are more than 58,000 names memorialized on The Wall, and many thousands more who have died since returning home — many of whom were victims of Agent Orange,” says Zimmerman. “Vietnam veterans and their families are still battling its toxic effects. For them, the Vietnam War isn’t a historical event — it’s a current reality.”
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund would like to thank everyone involved for their efforts in spreading awareness about Agent Orange and its effects on our Hoosier Vietnam veterans.
