FACEBOOK
TWITTER
Soldiers Trained at Gagetown, Canada Exposed to Agent Orange
Thank you to the writer, Ashley Studley, for her work on this. People have been e-mailing and asking about this for some time.
Soldiers trained at Gagetown may have been exposed to Agent Orange
By Ashley Studley/Daily News staff
The MetroWest Daily News
Posted Feb 14, 2010 @ 12:01 AM
FRAMINGHAM [MASS] —A Framingham veteran says many Massachusetts National Guard soldiers – and others from New England – may have been exposed to dangerous levels of Agent Orange defoliant if they trained at a military base in New Brunswick.Richard Pelletier, a service officer for the American Legion, says the Canadian and American governments are responsible for spraying toxic defoliants Agents Orange, White and Purple over Canadian Forces Base Gagetown, New Brunswick, and possibly exposing guardsmen and Reservists from Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Vermont to the toxins.
-Richard Pelletier Jr. of Framingham is campaigning on behalf of Army National Guard veterans who may haven been exposed to a defoliant while training at a base in Canada. According to Pelletier, Agent Orange/Purple/White was used at the base until the early 1980′s.Agent Orange gained prominence after American and Vietnamese soldiers and civilians developed illnesses attributed to large quantities of the defoliant sprayed from the air over jungles in Vietnam.
Pelletier is trying to sound an alarm about what he sees as a similar problem, even closer to home.
‘People are dying and getting cancers, and some still don’t know about (the chemicals) until this day,’ Pelletier said.
Originally of Madawaska, Maine, a town that borders Canada, Pelletier is a former Marine and member of the National Guard. He said he caught a Canadian newscast one night in 2005 revealing Canada’s use of Agents Orange, White and Purple from 1956 to 1984 over the camp in Gagetown.
He said the newscast said information revealed the U.S. had also sprayed 439 liters of Agent Orange from airplanes over about 80 acres over a period of seven days sometime in 1966 and 1967.The morning after the newscast, Pelletier notified the American Legion and other veteran service agencies. Then he reached out to U.S. senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, both Maine Republicans, and U.S. Reps. Michael Michaud and Tom Allen, two Maine Democrats.
‘I was enraged they would send us over there and not tell us (about the spray), and keep it a secret,’ Pelletier said. ‘I felt like we were betrayed, and we were.’
On March 2, 2006, Maine National Guard Adjutant Maj. Gen. John W. Libby and Director of Maine’s Veteran’s Services Peter W. Ogden issued an update on the use of Agent Orange and Purple in Gagetown.
‘In June of 2005, the Canadian Department of National Defense (DND) announced that for three days in June 1966 (14-16) and four days in June 1967 (21-24), testing of various defoliants, including Agent Orange and Agent Purple, took place over a limited portion of the Canadian Force Base (CFB) Gagetown, New Brunswick,’ the report said.
The report said the Maine National Guard began training there in 1971 and invited veterans who were on the base between 1966 and 1967 to register for an Agent Orange examination.
A couple weeks later, Pelletier was issued an award from Maine state officials recognizing him for bringing the Gagetown issue to their attention.
He said claims from Maine veterans began pouring into the Legion office, which were sent down to the Board of Veterans Appeals in Washington, D.C.
Pelletier got married and moved to Framingham the following year, and had faith the Maine government would follow up and compensate its sick guardsmen.Five years later and still without any new developments, Pelletier has only grown agitated.
‘I’ve been waiting on the congressional delegation to do their job, but they didn’t,’ he said.’They failed. It’s time to get the word out there.’
Since 2006, he and his supervisor Robert Owen, Department Service Officer for the Legion in Maine, have been working to raise awareness on the issue.‘What we’re trying to do is get those people who did go to Gagetown to file a claim if they have one of the presumptive disabilities, ‘ Owen said. ‘The sad part is, a great many of them have passed on. They may have widows out there, and if we can swing it, they can get compensation. ‘
Although Maine officials only invited veterans who served or trained in Gagetown in 1966-67 to register, Pelletier wants anyone who served and might be suffering from the effects of Agent Orange to file a claim with the American Legion.Conditions related to Agent Orange include prostate cancer, Hodgkin’s disease, respiratory cancers and Parkinson’s disease, among others.
A Canadian veteran of the Black Watch 2nd Battalion – a Royal Highland regiment that originated in Scotland – is suing the government for lung cancer he says he got from serving in Gagetown.The veteran, Gary Goode, said he was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2005, and had his lung removed a month later.
He said he is one of approximately 3,000 members of a class action suit seeking compensation from the Canadian government for exposure to the defoliant.Although he was given $20,000 through an ex gratia – a non-obligatory – payment from his government, he said Veterans Affairs Canada has not given him a pension.
‘By giving me that ($20,000, the government is) saying that `yes, there is a problem, and yes, these chemicals caused the disease and sickness’,’ he said.
He said a Department of Defence document titled ‘Overview of Herbicide Spray Programme 1956-1984’ acquired in 2005 through the Freedom to Information Act shows over one billion grams of the three chemical agents were sprayed over the Gagetown base.
‘I know and knew many vets who are sick, dying or dead because of Gagetown,’ Goode said.As a member of the Maine National Guard, Pelletier trained in Gagetown for two weeks in 1981, but says he has not developed any chemical-related illnesses.
He asks any widow or veteran who served in Gagetown and has symptoms of conditions related to Agent Orange to contact the American Legion Boston Headquarters at 617-727-2966 and file a claim.
Contacted at the Massachusetts National Guard in Milford, Lt. Col. John McKenna said he didn’t know when the state started sending troops to Gagetown, but said the last troops to go went in 1988.
‘Elements of the 26th Yankee Division used to train in Gagetown, but the last time we have a record of anyone from Massachusetts training there is in 1988,’ McKenna said.
While Pelletier tries to find out which units trained in Gagetown and when, he is calling on elected officials throughout New England to investigate.
Newly elected U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass, said he’s willing to review the matter.
Brown, a longtime member of the Mass. National Guard, said he, personally had not trained at the New Brunswick site.‘I know that we trained in Gagetown, but I don’t have any knowledge of this particular claim,’ Brown said. ‘I look forward to getting (the information) and seeing what I can do to answer his questions.’
Pelletier said if any sick veteran or widow needs help filing the claim, he can be contacted at mrpelletier@ rcn.com.
‘I expect to win, for the truth to come out, and that people will get what they deserve,’ he said. ‘And we will punish whoever has been keeping this silent all these years.’
- Ashley Studley can be reached at 508-634-7556 or astudley@cnc. com.
Related Posts:
Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=19594
Posted by Yanira Farray on Mar 4 2010, With 0 Reads, Filed under Agent Orange, Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
COMMENTS
To post, we ask that you login using Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, or Hotmail in the box below.Don't have a social network account? Register and Login direct with VT and post.
Before you post, read our Comment Policy - Feedback
Let me preface this question by saying tht my Grandfather died from cancer that was brought on by AO, and I am in no way shape or form mocking anything or anyone when I ask this question…
Do you think that the survivors or their families or the families of those that did not survive the test blasts of the Atomic Bomb should receive benefits?
Mike than you for writing about this, I am afraid the government will tell these men that at the times they were there that it was “safe” and they are not entitled to file claims for AO, just as they have done to Korean DMZ veterans you have to be there during a very narrow window, the VA and DOD do not recognize the half life of the dioxins, they use the dates it was last sprayed forget how many years after the water is not safe, and the water is used to water vegetables the army was buying from farmers in the DMZ’s Freedom Village, which means the food was contaminated. State department employees have a few years after AO was sprayed that they are allowed to claim exposure to AO, military veterans do not have the same windows, treated as second class citizens when civilain employees get the better deal.
I hope these veterans prevail they deserve to, what people do not get told either is that the veterans of Gagetown in the Canadian military were all paid lump sum payments of 24,000 dollars 2 years ago when this became public, Great Britain compensated their veterans of Porton Downs last year 12,000 pounds for cold war test subjects and the few veterans that died from test exposures, their families were paid 100,000 pounds, both of those nations have universal health care, so they and their families do not need VA or CHAMPVA benefits, they compensated them for possibly exposing them or exposing them. Why is the US the last nation to deal with chemical weapon exposures?
Mr. Bailey: Only one half of one percent of those eligible for the government’s ex gratia payment of $20,000 received it. Hundreds of thousands of Canadians have died from this atrocity but only about 2,500 received that pittance.
Thank you for reprinting this Mr. Leon.
CFB Gagetown was my childhood home from 1958 until 1964. The Canadian government kept this story covered up until 2005. When I learned of this I plunged into research and discovered that the USA and Canada collaborated in massively field-testing chemical weapons destined for Vietnam on the base. Don’t believe that 1966 and 1967 BS, the spraying started in the 1950′s and continued throughout the 60′s and 70′s. The spraying was so immense, so wanton that they even used Agent Orange to burn down a forest to create a huge Maple Leaf that can only be seen from the air. To me, our national symbol has a new meaning now.
To all U.S. soldiers who trained in CFB Gagetown that are still alive: You may not have gone to Vietnam but you did go someplace worse.
The base was sprayed at least three times as heavily as Vietnam. I have a database showing what was sprayed and where, by year, and will gladly share it with whoever wishes to see it. It is a horrific document. I also have documents proving there was a direct connection between the Vietnam War and CFB Gagetown. American Chemical Corps officers fresh from running crop destruction missions Vietnam “advising” on what to spray in 1963, for instance. A U.S. Army manual about defoliating Vietnam that mentions New Brunswick on page 42, etc.
I can be reached at kelly_franklin@telus.net if you want to see my research.
There is a doctor in Gladstone, a section of Kansas City, MO who cured 64 agent orange viet veterans. When he contacted the VA and Congress with his results, he heard not a thing! His clinic is the Mcdonagh Medical Center. He is a true Doctor.
There is no known cure Jack.
To kelly. Just because you are unaware of a cure doesn ‘t mean a cure doesn’t exist.
Jack,
You mentioned the McDonagh Medical Center. Do you have a contact name & phone #. Our non-profit is working on building a specialized health facility for those affected by chemical or toxin exposures, including Agent Orange. I would like to learn more about the treatment the doctor used. Thank you.
http://www.rememberrally.com
Diane
I aam not a veteran, but am a strong supports of our veterans and active service men and women. I lived through the Veitnam War era, and saw first hand the injustices that they endured, both during the war and for many years after. This is another sad chapter, and it appears that they are getting the same treatment that all of them have gotten from the government(s). They put their lives on the line for us, and deserve better. We as citizens need to rise up and demand that our government(s) do what is right.
[...] great Gagetown summer camp of 1988. I did not go because I was sent to Camp Shelby that year. But here is something that should interest anyone who was there before or maybe even during [...]