Do Vietnam veterans suffer from higher rates of cancer than the general

[Bouncy Ball]

population?

We just found out my father-in-law is terminally ill. Dying of leukemia. He's 57 years old and has about six to eight months to live.

He served three tours of duty in Vietnam, one as a private, the second as an NCO, and the third as an officer ("it was a long damn war" were his words when he explained that to me).

He knows he was exposed to different chemical agents while there, because of the jobs he did.

I have only found a couple of articles on this topic:

http://members.aol.com/vetcenter1/vvcancer.htm

http://www.kansasvets.org/Vietnem/Agent%20Orange%20linked%20to%20form%20of%20leukemia.htm

I knew there was a link before (Vietnam vets and future health problems), but now that it is personal, I find I am even more outraged at this possible connection. He's too young.

Though he has been successful in his professional life (architect and engineer, very bright man), he has also been suicidal and very violent with his family in the past. He's also struggled greatly with alcoholism.

With this war, we are creating a whole new generation of veterans with health problems, emotional dysfunction, post-traumatic stress disorder, and coping problems. Yet funding to help them just keeps getting slashed more and more. I know we have a lot of problems in this country, but I'm sickened by how veterans are treated. Many of them join the military because they see no other option in their lives. My father-in-law didn't feel he was good enough for college, and the Army was seen as an honorable thing to do (he joined up in 1965, when he was 18). Too many of them see the military as the only way out of poverty, then find they are paid so little they qualify for food stamps.

[kikiek]

1. I encourge you to keep looking. I am positive there is. Already has

started with the Gulf War 1 vets too it appears. I am very sorry for your father and your family. I know agent orange has been implicated, and some people I know from the Vietnam war who have died from cancer related exposure.

[Bouncy Ball]

2. It's shameful that this isn't talked about.

I mean, I know it isn't a glamorous story, or front page news.

My husband was in Desert Storm and so many of his buddies have had such weird unexplained physical problems and they've been so blown off by the medical community.

[kikiek]

15. Yea I guess support the troops only goes as long as they're selling the

war to the masses. Then blind patriotism is the best thing. Turn on the troops when they get home though, and they get people to go along with that too. What a shallow society.

[benddem]

3. Check out

the VA's website. There is a page on Agent Orange. All soldiers who served in Vietnam are considered to have been exposed. It depends on what kind of Leukemia he has...but one is caused by exposure to agent orange http://www.VA.gov He should at the least be able to collect some disabilities payment. The suit against monsanto has been dropped due to some conservative judge. But there is an agent orange lawsuit on line.
If you have trouble finding the VA go to my website http://www.36thevac.com and go to the Agent orange page.

[Bouncy Ball]

8. I checked out your page

Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia is what he has. It was caught too late and he is already in the last stages of it. They did try one drug (VERY strong) but it failed to work.

Geez. This is incredibly sad. 57 is just too damn young. I will pass this information on to my husband, who will get it to his parents.

I don't know if they'll do anything with it, though, since they seem to think all this stuff is just conspiracy theory, but if the VA already presumes CCL in Vietnam veterans is caused by Agent Orange exposure, then there's nothing to fight. Just let them know, right?

He is being treated through the VA system. He retired from the Army in the 80s.

Thank you.

[whistle]

4. Agent Orange victims of Vietnam had suffered greatly, many...

...have died, no statistics though have ever been released. Then there has been Gulf War Syndrome which was from the first war in Iraq in 1990. Again, the military has covered that up. Now, we will see new illnesses due to the use and exposure to other toxic agents in this war (i.e. depleted uranium, bio-weapons, untested vaccines, etc.) and all of these will be hidden from the American public. But, the families of the war veterans who are affected will suffer as loved ones sicken, become disabled and even die premature deaths.

[AnotherMother4Peace]

5. My brother has a seizure disorder linked

to his exposure to Agent Orange as an 18 year old in Viet Nam. He would be drenched in it. This war in Iraq is eerily similar to Viet Nam. Where is the outrage?

[Bouncy Ball]

11. I'm so sorry. My father in law told me a similar story of being soaked

in Agent Orange many times.

I didn't get the sense they really thought much of it back then.

[Sporadicus]

6. I Don't Know the Stats

but I've known two Vietnam veterans who died from cancers attributable to agent orange exposure. I've also known one Gulf War I veteran who died from 'gulf war syndrome.' I feel certain that many veterans of this current conflict will succumb prematurely to nebulous illnesses. Exposure to DU will probably account for many of these cases - not to mention to the Iraqi civilian casualties (including the unborn).

[madrchsod]

7. check this site out

http://www.gulfwarvets.com/
American Gulfwar Veterans Association
they cover this story with the gulf guys and have links to other sites

[Bouncy Ball]

14. I will, thank you very much.

[mahina]

9. In my family? No...alcoholism and depression did him in before

the agent orange etc ever could.
They used to feed it to the goats because it made them grow faster.
Yum.

They were covered in it.

edited to add- I am sorry about his illness, wishing your family well through the challenges ahead. There are some wonderful people at the VA, once you get past your vet's resistance and the VA's great efforts to keep them out. Good luck, god bless.

[Bouncy Ball]

10. I remember my father in law telling me that he

would be going along and just be "soaked" in Agent Orange. At the time, he said they all joked about it, dark humor.

That's the only time he's ever mentioned it to me.

[riverwalker]

12. Joyce Riley website

www.gulfwarvets.com
Founded by a former army Registered Nurse, and Gulf War vet Joyce Riley. She has tons of medical research, and probably some on Vietnam vets as well.

[Bouncy Ball]

13. Thanks.

I just realized something that brought tears to my eyes. If my father in law's leukemia was indeed caused by exposure to Agent Orange, then that will mean the Vietnam war is going to kill him after all, thirty years after it ended.

:cry:

[Bouncy Ball]

16. Kicking.

My father in law has also had Hepatitis C, which I just discovered in my VA research is also linked to Agent Orange exposure.