Agent Orange Mission Statement

The Agent Orange Act of 1991 is the only legislative pathway to add ailments to the presumptive list of service connected illnesses for Vietnam Veterans. It is set to expire on September 30th, 2015. If the Act is allowed to expire comprehensive research reviews will end. Without continued research reviews, some Vietnam Veterans will never be covered for the ailments caused by their exposure. If this legislation is not extended there will be no new ailments added to the service connected presumptive list for Vietnam Veterans (after the 2014 report is released this December).

Speaker Gary J. Augustine, in his excerpt, “Living Proof of Why We Need a Strong VA” tells readers how after returning home from a combat tour severely injured, the veteran affairs provided him with a substantial amount of assistance. Augustine’s purpose is to establish the importance of a strong veteran’s affair for every generation. He uses personal experiences to prompt an empathetic tone that persuades readers by appealing to their emotions and feelings.

How do we, the citizens of the United States of America, keep Abraham Lincoln’s promise to our veterans and their families? Over this essay I will explain what the promise is, what problems the veterans and their families are having today, and how to help the veterans and their families.

That announcement came too late for many Vietnam War veterans and survivors. In addition to the ethical implications of intentionally eliminating the jungle as a resource, the use of Agent Orange created other side effects for both civilians and American military members. Exposure to Agent Orange has been linked to over fourteen serious health issues, including diabetes and many types of cancer, as well as thousands of birth defects. (Ha) Over the next five years, U.S. veterans began experiencing symptoms, such as asthma, chronic rashes, and various cancers, as well as an increase in the number of children born with Down syndrome or spina bifida due to Agent Orange exposure.

With war comes after effects and throughout the past Forty years many American Veterans from Vietnam have had health complications and issues due to the widespread use of Agent Orange during the duration of the war, especially at base camps. These ailments, cancers, and diseases can be traced back to a series of Chemical Defoliates or herbicides that have left traces of Dioxin with whoever or wherever it once was used or sprayed.

This is like a bomb waiting to go off: Family of veterans have to live with fear, hoping that their love one would recuperate, be happy, or simply a civilian again. The Veterans Affairs Department (VA) should put a better effort to better assist veterans, and their family with a better plan to reduce this preventable death. Many veterans find it difficult to admit, control, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), let alone reaching for help; when they do so, they are considered just another number at the VA. At any moment, a veteran?s sacrifice for this country should end

An assortment of complex issues has weakened the VA’s ability to deliver on its promise “to care for him who shall have borne the battle” (VA, 2015).

All throughout the country, veterans come back into society struggling to continue living out their lives. They have troubles adjusting back into civilian life. These former soldiers went out onto that battlefield to fight for us, so the least we can do is show our support and help make their adjustment back into civilian life as smooth as possible. I believe there are four main issues that are most important in regards to the challenges returning veterans face: homelessness, suicide attempts, a need for job training and jobs, and the fixing of the disability system. Many veterans coming back from deployment struggle with homelessness.

INTRODUCTION: How many people have a Veteran in their family or know one? If yes do you help them or is it someone else’s problem. Well many people think it’s someone else problem, but the truth is it’s our problem.

There is a common belief that many combat veterans are suffering; many from invisible wounds that affect them in many ways. The challenge that the VA and other government agencies face is determining which veterans need help, there are several factors that affect this, from the individual’s desire to accept help, to the stigma that most veterans have accepted, which is “if they ask for help, they are weak.” During separation from the military it is a critical time for all soldiers, this time provides an opportunity for the military, the VA and our government to intercede and work with men and women while they are still soldiers. Veteran suicide is an epidemic, the number of veterans taking their life daily has been steadily growing, the statistic published by the VA is that twenty-two veterans end their lives every day (Suicide Data Report, 2012); steps have been taken to curb this number but the efforts have been woefully inadequate.

The goal of the V.A. is to provide quality and timely service to all veterans. The current budget deficit has made it increasingly difficult for the V.A. to provide the aforementioned services to the veterans. According to Thomas B. Edsall, in his article about veteran healthcare, “Clinics are shutting down, and appointments delayed” (Edsall 1). In both its old and new forms, the VA drew its mission statement from an extract of President Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address: “to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan” (V.A.) this means that the VA’s ultimate purpose is to take care of veterans.

One of the VA’s biggest issues right now is in regards to Quality of Care and Customer Satisfaction. Targeted media leaks and Congressional Testimony has shown how varied the opinion of care is. Some Veterans are happy with their care and statistics have borne out that of the senior population, Satisfaction with care has held at a stead 68% (Rachel Yehuda, 2015). These studies however are not taking into account those Veterans who

The numbers also did not include the millions of North and South Vietnamese and Viet Cong armed forces members who were exposed to spraying during and after their time of military service. The numbers did not include U.S. Navy veterans who served off the Vietnamese coast, those who flew over sprayed areas from carriers or bases outside the country, or veterans or civilians who were in other areas of use, testing or spraying (e.g., Korea, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Puerto Rico.) Many people still live in or near some of the “hot spots,” where their exposure continues. No accurate numbers exist for those who were affected. The Vietnamese Red Cross estimates that up to three million Vietnamese have suffered health effects from dioxin exposure, of which at least 150,000 are children with birth defects. The U.S. government provides health care and compensation on a humanitarian basis to Vietnam veterans suffering from any condition on a list of illnesses associated with Vietnam service. No studies have yet documented the extent of possible Agent Orange/dioxin-related health effects among these 1.4 million people. According to History.com, questions regarding Agent Orange arose in the United States after an increasing number of returning

Ever since the war, veterans from Vietnam have claimed to be experiencing health effects, such as diseases, that they claim is from their exposure to Agent Orange. The DVA have associated diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, heart disease, and cancer with exposure to herbicides (Young and Cecil 32). Kevin and Laurie Hillstrom tell a story about a veteran from Vietnam who said, “Because of my exposure to it, my internal organs work at a rate of a seventy or seventy-five year old man,” (Hillstrom and Hillstrom 184). The health effects caused by Agent Orange have affected many people by giving them very bad

Questions regarding Agent Orange arose in the United States after an increasing number of returning Vietnam veterans and their families began to report a range of afflictions, including rashes and other skin irritations, miscarriages, psychological symptoms, Type-2 diabetes, birth defects in children and cancers such as Hodgkin’s disease, prostate cancer and