Agent Orange

Hi there....

 

I served on the USS Ranger (CVA-61) from 1961-1965.  I am in the process of applying for my disability and one of the questions asked is if anyone on the Ranger at that time could prove that we were subjected to agent orange while cruising off the coast of Vietnam during that time.  I remember several times bieng able to see the coast clearly as we were firing air strikes off the deck.  I picked up the ship in Yokosuka in September (?) of 1961 and went directly to Yankee Station off the coast of Vietnam.  We were bombing the Viet Cong as early as 1961.

Any information you have would be greatly appreciated 

Thanks a lot....

 

Jack Smart

S-4 Division Disbursing

USS Ranger (CVA-61)

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Replies

  • I have had another TIA and hospitalized 2 weeks 2 days. Second stroke and 1 heart attack. Agent orange, not anything else. Effected my right side.

  • HI Jack,

        You Don't Me but I was over there when you were over there in Vietnam. You were on the USS RANGER CVA-61, I was on the USS MIDWAY CVA-41, back in 1965 to 1966. The USS MIDWAY CVA-41 WAS About Five or six miles from Vietnam, From our ship we were watching our fighter planes, dropping there BOMBS, that is how close we were to Vietnam. So yes, I know what you are talking about.

    Our Ship and the USS CORAL Sea CVA-43, both ships were going thru discolored water at Yankee Station. Also our aircraft and I know your aircraft had A/O all over there planes. WE smelled, with that slimy oily substance, and we all broke out with Rashes all over are bodies.

    I hope this help you, you did not lie, you are telling the truth. I forgot to mention to you there were two other Carriers over there also, they were the USS Hancock CVA-19, Of course the USS Ranger CVA-61. I hope this helps you.

               Robert  Turley 

                V-3 Division

                USS MIDWAY CVA-41

  • Agent Orange Update From the 15 may 2015 RAO Bulletin.  the court of Appeals for Veteran Claims has made a Landmark ruling that will help many Navy and Coast Guard Vets who have been Classified as Blue Water Sailors. the case was Gray vs McDonal and was decided on April 24 2015. this will greatly benefit many Vietnam navy veterans effected by Agent orange. in it they declared that the Harbors of Danang, Cam Ranh Bay and Vung Tau must now be Classified Brownd Water instead of Blue Water. Basically the courts said these ports were classified as deep water, but should have been classified as being in the spray area and not by the fact that large vessels could enter them. The V.A. must now declare all vessels that entered these harbors as dioxin (AO ) EXPOSED and compensate the sailors on them that  have presumptive diseases that are recognized as having their genesis in AO exposure. in regard to service in mouth of rivers, such as minesweepers ,the court said that even the VA secretay declard that there is no definite boundaries of river mouths, thereford they cannot just make a decision by flipping a coin ass to what  vessels were exposed and which were not. I will stop here you can look up the rest on www.veteransresources.org/wp-cntent/uploads/201515-pdf-edition.pdf God bless. hope this well help. benito Garcia.

    • Thanks Benito.

      If the outer islands extent the territorial seas of Vietnam, then we "Blue Water" veterans have a win. The DVA will fine away to manipulate the issue.

  • Hello! I am Carl M. BONNER, Bonner SN/BMW to my shipmates and friends aboard the Mazama AE9. I was on board from Dec. 1967 to Aug. 1970 when we decommissioned her. We were in Vietnam in 1969. We made 1 trip from Cameroon Bay to Da Nang Harbor. We reamed offshore in sight of land.
    I'm looking for any shipmates that can remember and testify to a Working party involving me, 2 or 3 More shipmates, a winch operator, 3 55 gallon drums, and our 1st lieutenant Vadinsky. Time is of the essence. I've been fighting this fight with the VA for several years and my time is about to run out. If you reply to this you will be talking to either my son, daughter, or sister as I am not only 99 percent blind but also computer illiterate. Thank you very much, Bonner
  • I just had a Navy Veteran retired CPO, who was on the USS Kitty Hawk in Vietnam. He has had diabeties for years and just lost his left leg. The VA raised his disability, but told him it was'nt because of Agent Orange!!!! Deny deny deny NAVY, that is what they are about. I  was just approved by National Veterans Administration for Ischemic Heart or CAD, have'nt heard one word from Wisconsin Veterans Affairs !! I was Navy on the US Fred T Berry DD 858 in 1996 in Vietnam and they called me ERA!

    • Alvin try the following website: http://www.bluewaternavy.org/shiplocater.htm

      John Paul Rossie and other veterans have devised a program to locate carriers within the 12 mile territorial water limit of Vietnam by entering the co-ordinates from the carriers deck logs. Several carriers were within the limits.

      Ships that were inside Territorial Water of Viet Nam 12 miles
      Ship
      Date
      Bennington
      Dec 66, May '68
      Bon Homme Richard
      August '69, Oct. 1970
      Constellation
      Jun '66
      Coral Sea
      Jan '69, Dec 71
      Hancock
      Dec '68, 4/29-4/30 '75
      Hornet
      Jul '67
      Independence
      Sept'65
      Intrepid
      May, Jun, Jul, Aug '66
      Oriskany
      Jun '66 Jul '66, Sept '70, July '72, Oct '72
      Ranger
      Dec '69
      Saratoga
      May'72
      Shangri La
      Jun '70
      Ticonderoga
      Nov '65, Jan Feb Mar '66, Jun '68
      Yorktown
      Feb '66, Mar '68

      Dennis

      • How did you get the information on the deck logs? I was told they were destroyed and the only logs left were the "Officer of the Deck" logs. There was more information in the Deck Logs kept by Navigation Div. From the navigation bridge you could see the tree tops when the bombs would explode. I was on the Ranger CVA-61 from May 1965 to July 1968 and would like to find out how you got your information. If you could send the information to my email address rewicker2@gmail.com. Thank you.
  • Hi jack I hope you and all blue water sailors keep fighting the va..I was on the kitty hawk in 1963 to 1967 and we mostly were on Yankee station. I was flight crew on C-1A crew (ships cod ) .We flew into danang just about daily and spent a lot of over nites in danang and Saigon. In danang they had all these barrels of ao . These barrels were leaking into soil and into the water. They would spray that stuff every day all over Vietnam nam along rivers and the coast . We seem to get sprayed weekly in danang. I'm sure that stuff went miles out to sea. When I retired in 1978 I was already having chest pain. I finally went to civilian doctor and open heart surgery in 1985. I filed a claim with va and was denied. I continue to work for the airlines and had to go out on SMS disability in 1991.i finally got approved and retro back to 1987 when my claim was denied thanks to Newmar law suit saying agent orange was the cause of ish. Enough rambling good luck to all you shipmates Walt williams USN retired
  • Hello former shipmates. My name is Robert E. Wicker Jr. and I served on the USS Ranger CVA-61 from May 1965 to July 1968. I hope I am not too late to pass on some information that might help in a law suite. What you will need is a satellite view of the rivers on the coast of Vietnam to see how far the waters flowed from the shore line. I was in Navigation and remember standing watch at night on the bridge, you could see the tree tops as the bombs exploded from our planes. Some will say you couldn't get that close to shore to see that but just pull out the charts of the shoreline and check the depths. I have tried to locate navigation log books that we kept which gives the in depth information to most of the above decks on goings. Things like our positions at sea and more that could help prove our case about agent orange and blue water navy have been destroyed and only the officers deck logs were kept. If you were to read the officer logs and the navigation log books you would think we couldn't have been on the same ship, they didn't keep that much detail and sometimes they would look on ours after our watch was over. Does anyone remember us going into the Gulf of Tonkin to bomb Haiphong? Anyone remember when we went to the sea of Japan after the Pueblo was captured? Well, I guess it is my time to let you know a little about my health I now have non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma for the second time. The first time I had a lymph node that was pushing against the ureter of my right kidney which slowed down the flow and after about 4 years the kidney died and it had to be removed. The pathology report said it had kidney cancer and I asked the doctors if the kidney could have developed the cancer from the fact that waist urine was not being expelled. Guess what the answer was? If you said no, you were right, they said it just happened to be that kidney that developed the cancer or it could of been the other just as easily. After all of that then I was told by the doctors they know of plenty of people with one kidney and do just fine. I guess I should of told them I don't give a damn about that because before I had non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma I had two healthy kidneys. I have neuropathy or as one doctor told me, he has seen people with neuropathy in their hands or feet but I was his first to have it virtually all over my body. They tell me I have type 2 diabetes and to lose some weight, so I am waiting for New Years to start. After being in the service and getting sick with cancer and some other ailments who isn't depressed? I have more than once thought about getting out of this old world but when I see my grand-kids I just keep on trying to stay around. This time around with the non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma the VA has finally given me a 100% disability but here is the kicker, it is only while it is active. In other words I will get paid until I go into remission or I die which ever comes first because ether way they can clear one off the books. Well, I better say smooth sailing for now it's 0230 and hope to hear some good things from all soon.
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