[ Post a Response | Vipers Vietnam Veteran Message Board ]
Posted by Joe on 6/28/2005, 11:45 am
69.215.3.163
A little more about dioxin.
If I recall they sprayed Vietnam with AO most heavily in I Corps and III corps. That would put the Marines , Americal, 25th Inf ,1st Inf and others in a different situation than some. The reason being not only the soraying but the terrain these grunts had to negotiate.The grunts in paticular because they lived in the sprayed areas. They drank water from the rivers , springs etc when there was no rainfall to fill their canteens. They slept in the dirt when there were no trees to hang a hammock between.They spent all day humping through the narrow trails their pointman had cut. Some think that since they don't remember the drops falling after the planes passed they were not exposed. Dioxin has a long half life when not exposed to the sun.It lives for decades .It even outlives it's victims.Once in the body it has a seven year cycle, but during that time it is known to cause permanent damage that takes time to develop into disease .It has also been shown to cause birth defects in the offspring of those exposed. It may even cause latent damage that doesn't show up in children for many years. Some even think that this damage can be passed along to the third generation of people exposed.
Getting back to exposure. In my opinion the later in the war you were there and particularliy in I Corps and III Corps and especially for grunts the more accumulated dioxin you were exposed to.It doesn't even matter if you remember the rain from above. To this day in Vietnam the locals are experienceing a 600% increase in birth defects along with other diseases.Why the dioxin anyway?The corporations that made agent orange knew about the dioxin and knew about it's devasting ways but looked the other way because it was more profitable to do so.In effect we sacrificed our soldiers on the alter of the Corporation.
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