Agent Orange continues to haunt lives of U.S. veterans trained in New Brunswick

Legislators in Maine are reopening a New Brunswick controversy many thought had already been consigned to the history books.  

They have established a commission to study whether U.S. military veterans may have been exposed to Agent Orange and other toxic defoliants while on training exercises in the province.  

The action, signed into law last week by Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, mandates a commission to "study the impacts of exposure to harmful chemicals on veterans who served at the Canadian military support base in Gagetown, New Brunswick, Canada."

Maine Senate president Troy Jackson is the man behind the new law. He took up the cause on behalf of veterans in his Aroostook constituency who claimed they weren't getting a fair hearing from their own government.

Thousands of U.S. National Guard volunteers travelled to CFB Gagetown for training beginning in the early 1970s.

"The idea was that, at minimum, we should start a commission so that all these people get a chance to come and talk about it and bring light to what has been a seemingly very challenging issue for Maine servicemen and women," Jackson said.

"And that's why we went forward now."

Defoliant used at base

The most notorious of the "harmful chemicals" was Agent Orange, a toxic defoliant sprayed from the air during the conflict in Vietnam and Cambodia to eliminate the jungle canopy that provided cover to Vietnamese fighters.  

The U.S. government has already acknowledged the harm caused to its servicemen and women who came into contact with the herbicide while serving in Southeast Asia. 

U.S. veterans claiming ill health effects, including a variety of cancers and even death, from exposure to Agent Orange have already been able to claim federal financial assistance if the exposure occurred while they served in that war.  

But members of the National Guard, a state-based military reserve force, are not able to do the same. 

They are excluded from federal compensation because they did not serve in Vietnam and because service in the National Guard does not confer veteran status.  

U.S. military veterans point to the acknowledgement of the Canadian government as compelling proof that they, too, deserve compensation.  

In 2007, the Canadian government established a $95.6 million fund to compensate Canadian military members who may have been exposed to Agent Orange during limited test spraying of the U.S.-supplied herbicide at the New Brunswick base in 1966 and 1967. 

The Department of National Defence maintains it only received two barrels of Agent Orange and another chemical, Agent Purple, for testing during those two years. The Defence Department also admitted it sprayed for three days in 1966 and four days in 1967 over a limited and remote area.

Agent Orange has been linked to several ailments according to Jim Gehring, a U.S. veteran and service officer with the Aroostook Veterans' Alliance.

"You are talking about Type 2 diabetes. You are talking about probably 12 to 15 types of cancer. Prostate cancer, leukemia, lung cancer, liver cancer, kidney cancer, go right down the list. It's the same list that the United States uses to award veterans who served in Vietnam," said Gehring.

Gehring said many of his members recall widespread use of herbicides while training in Gagetown. 

"They would spray to kill the grass, and then the gentlemen that were there training would sleep on the grass. And they also noted a lot of dead animals."

Different approaches

National Guard veterans have since registered a wide variety of medical complaints, from Type 2 diabetes to at least a dozen forms of cancer. Their appeal is not for compensatory payments, said Gehring, but for the U.S. government to cover the cost of their medical care as it has for other military veterans.

Compensation payments in Canada were limited to $20,000 for military personnel or surviving family who could prove they were exposed to the defoliant and as a result had been diagnosed with one of 12 illnesses associated with Agent Orange.   

Senator Jackson is at a loss to explain the differing approaches.

"If the Canadian government made that admission ... why isn't the U.S. government making the very same admission and actually put it in a very public light to where they're going to have to decide if they want to continue to stonewall our servicemen and women, and I just think that that is an unbelievable disgrace."

While Jackson credits Canada with owning up to its responsibilities, he doesn't expect any compensation from Ottawa for U.S. claims. But co-operation would be welcome.

"I'm hoping the Canadian government can, you know, at least give us the truth about what was there in Gagetown and why Maine's servicemen and women were exposed to the very same chemicals that the Canadian servicemen and women were."

The newly established commission has until Dec. 6 to report its findings and recommendations.