Deploy, deny, dishonor, repeat. Vietnam to Afghanistan

The year listed on the Vietnam Memorial Wall and other monuments is 1975. That was the year people assumed the dying stopped due to the Vietnam War. Oh, how very, very wrong they are. It's been suggested that if we were to count all the death associated with combat in Vietnam, between PTSD and Agent Orange, the Wall would have to be big enough to hold over 300,000 names, plus the names that have been acceptable combat related deaths.
The Vietnam War did not end when 1973 rolled around and documents were signed. As of this very day, they are still dying because of Vietnam. PTSD is still killing them as they succumb to the elements of life on the street homeless and abandoned. While they self-medicate. While they find themselves so hopeless, they can no longer find another reason to want to wake up tomorrow morning. While they run out of options as their claims are yet again denied and yet again they feel dishonored for their service to this nation. They die a slow death because they were exposed to the enemy in Vietnam and the enemy sent to Vietnam in the form of Agent Orange. Their children carry the chemicals within them and perhaps their children's children. All of this adding to the finally tally of Vietnam that is still not concluded.
There are quiet heroes all over this nation fighting for themselves, but also for every other veteran that has "borne" the wounds of battle and of combat with all it entailed. They fight for women that were raped by their own "brothers" in arms while they were deployed to tend to the wounded. They fight on. One more case of deploy, deny, dishonor and repeat.
I want you to meet one of them. She is a tiny terror! She's also very well known if you travel in Veteran's circles. Irish has gone to Washington several times to offer testimony on what she's been going thru but also brining testimonies of women and men that would not have had their stories heard otherwise. Most reporters say that Vietnam is old news and they are only interested in the newer veterans but as the saying goes, those who fail to learn from history are destined to repeat it. If they do not report on what is still happening to the veterans of Vietnam, then we will be facing the same problems thirty years from now with the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. As it is, between claims being denied, misdiagnosed PTSD, contaminations to toxic chemicals, along with everything we are failing these veterans for, it looks as if it will all be an endless nightmare for them.
This is the testimony Irish gave and I really want you to read it. Then understand as her claim is continually denied, documents lost, she has been suffering all these years but instead of just caring about herself and her own problems, she's been standing as a hero to others not as bold as she is.

Agnes “Irish” Bresnahan)testimony before VA disability commission

I came here today to address the total and intentional failure of the VA in
processing and approving service connected entitlements for women and men exposed to weapons of mass destruction in the performance of their military duties both stateside and overseas.
Exposed and lied to and denied proper medical attention. Unknowingly we women and men in uniform were used as experiments dating back to the 1950's exposing us to chemical agents which include but are not limited to PCB, mustard gas, nerve gas, seran gas and many other chemicals containing dioxin/Agent Orange.
I wish to address the VA's hierarchy’s constant, immoral and intentional denial of
service connected compensation and entitlements to veterans exposed to these
chemical agents and total disregard to the regulations pertaining to this exposure.
And to their widows/widowers and most of all the innocent, who bear our service, the
children and grandchildren who die from Agent Orange or those who lived and
bear the scars of their parents or grandparents service. The Agent Orange babies. I am one of those Agent Orange (Dioxin) victims, service connected, who have been denied entitlements, medical care and compensation. Diagnosed at Walter Reed Medical Hospital, on active duty, source of exposure identified as Fort McClellan, Alabama. Fort Ritchie, Maryland and Fort Drum, NY have also been identified as Agent Orange sites and I have served on these Installations also. I have had this poison of multiple chemical exposure, including Agent Orange, in my body since I was 20 years old and I will be 56 years old next month.
There is no such thing as Agent Orange... a colored stripe on a 55 gallon drum. Yet
there were many other colored stripes on Legislation: Carolyn Tyler hundreds of thousands of 55 gallon drums.
All had one thing, Dioxin. This is what is killing those who were exposed. And Dioxin
is why the reproductive systems of women and men in uniform pass on to our children
and grandchildren. Our DNA is mutated and our immune systems are compromised. Yes both for women and men and in many ways more for women.
The Dioxin, after traveling and destroying each and every organ of our bodies, takes
and destroys the reproductive system.
And I know the suffering of men who have bore this. But only in the past few months
have I come to understand so deeply the pain and sorrow that women in uniform
have suffered.
The medical conditions of Agent Orange do not discriminate. AO doesn't care where you were exposed. AO is an equal opportunity poison. I have the same brain
damage, nerve damage, bone disease, multiple chemical sensitivity, chronic pain,
chronic fatigue and a long list of other AO illnesses as anyone who served in Viet
Nam, Korea, Cambodia and Laos.
I have come here at a great financial expense, because the VA Commission does not post when it will be convening in advance. Those of us who come to be heard are unable to take advantage of hotel and airline discounted prices. This short notice of the hearings has precluded many from coming here today. These women and men who cannot be here today have asked that I bring their testimonies with me. I am honored to do so and request that these statements be read out loud and entered into the official record of these hearings.
I have been in a Leave Without Pay status since September 21, 2005 from my position
as a GS12/9 Computer System Analyst with the Department of the Treasury, Internal
Revenue Service, Andover, Massachusetts.
I have a pending reconsideration of Disability Retirement with the Office of
Personnel Management. As OPM required PAGE 8 THE FOUR FORTY EIGHTHE EIGHTER
causation of the Agent Orange diagnosis supported by clinical and scientific
evidence which" my doctors" used, the VA Hospital, Office of the Chief of Staff
advised him that he was advised by the legal department that he could not do that because it would amount to "expert testimony". Including my active duty and my IRS Federal Service, I have over 30 years of service. My position at the IRS was
eliminated due to a reduction in force and was a violation of OPM regulations and
laws that protect active duty disabled 30% or more, including the Viet Nam
Readjustment Act of 1974.
The Viet Nam Readjustment Act was the law that I was hired under at the IRS in
August of 1983. During the reduction in force, I was placed in a position and shift
that management knew that I could not physically do. The VA Hospital and Parkland Medical Center submitted letters to support my medical condition and my limitations. But they were ignored by all levels of management. My medical conditions worsened after 2 and a half days of working after the RIF stand up date of September 19, 2005. Since that date I have been homebound and require assistance from my friends and family in all aspects of daily routines. The only money I receive is the $870.00 VA compensation and much of that is used for medical services and medications which the VA will not provide or cover.
My military career came to an end as the physical pain, chronic fatigue, the multiple
chemical sensitivity, brain and nerve damage and other AO illnesses was so great that I could no longer do my job as a Combat Support Signal Officer. If not for
the exposure the Army would have been my career, as I loved being a soldier.
A civilian again and walking wounded and dying, My outward appearance remained
unchanged until 2001 when I went through "wasting again" and the Dioxin, which is
stored in fatty tissue, once again traveled through my body. Since my exposure,
internally my body raged with poison. Outside it appeared normal.
The challenge to find a good paying job, that I could perform with the chronic pain
and fatigue and other AO illnesses, took years. And I went from a GS 4 in 1983 and I
crawled my way in pain to a ladder position 7/9/11/12 Computer System Analyst. This was a job that I could do and excel in and I did and I received the maximum performance ratings for years.
Overcoming the physical obstacles of my AO illnesses with the pain. Never pain free
but manageable pain. Pain and fatigue was my motivation to work each day.
Every day that I went to work was another day that I lived and the Agent lost. I was
productive and had the dignity of a pay check and I was not a burden. On the
days and sometimes for a week, that I could not work, due to the pain, the Agent
did not win, I would tell myself that my body needed to rest and this is how it must
be.
All those who are chemically exposed must reach far into themselves to pull all
that is there and push away smells, visual memories of service and sounds that send
fear and hate to our minds and heart. To search our minds for words, to search for
the name of a common object or the name of a loved one or how to spell a simple word. We must work around the brain damage. How well it is done depends on where the brain damage is.
We must do this in order to survive and to function. And many do so and for those
that don't there is comfort for them in other veterans who understand. Been there,
done that. Then comes the VA, established by Abraham Lincoln, that the real battle
begins. And in many ways it is more painful then any battle ever fought. To have to beg and plead for their compensation and entitlements only to be told to prove it and the proof is ignored and rejected and slapped down. And when the entitlement is for a spouse or a child that the pain is so intense that it eats away the soul.
Those of us who have PTSD and the brain and nerve damage, which Admiral E.R.
Zumwalt Jr. stated in his classified report to the Secretary of the Department of
Veterans Affairs dated May 5,1990 and other writings of Admiral Elmo Zumwalt Jr...
the label of PTSD does not address the brain and nerve damage which is a significant attribution to PTSD, but rather the label of PTSD is a stigma of mental frailty and/or a personality defect and not a valid condition. PTSD carries a stigma which the VA and other government agencies have used to negate valid and life threatening conditions to prevent the filing of service connected illnesses.
Dealing with the VA will cause PTSD and I am serious about that because you go
back to every day that you served. For me it was back 36 years.
The VA assignment of 30% disability for central nervous system disorder, effective
June11, 1977, is not adequate nor was I given proper medical care for the other
illnesses which triggered other medical conditions, such as immune diseases and
disorders.
In 1994 I received the Agent Orange form letter from the VA which states that you
were exposed to herbicides and pesticides used in Viet Nam. (Agent Orange)
When I reopened my claim and filed for Degenerating Bone Disease and Disc Disease, it was denied. "Your 214 does not show service in Viet Nam". I reopened my claim for the brain and spinal, central nervous system...DENIED "it is as likely as not" that your neurological condition is caused by anxiety and depression and your military medical records are silent for anxiety and depression. This was refuted by a complete neurological exam done by Derry Neurological Associates and the damage I have is not a result of anxiety and depression. My MRI and neurological exams by both the VA and civilian doctors confirm and validate the diagnosis made by Walter Reed Hospital.
And my fight with the VA goes on. I went before the Decision Review Officer, Appeals on May 10, 2005. As my medical exposure was diagnosed on active duty and the denials of the VA were so blatant, I still brought medical documentation to support my claim. But I ask this commission why that was necessary and still I have been denied over and over again by the VA. The decision of the DRO increased my service connection compensation from thirty to sixty percent. But it was not retroactive to June, 1977. I filed papers for entitlement to 100% unemployability. The VA rating guide states that the employment will not be held against the veteran. It also states to err on behalf of the veteran.
I also submitted for entitlement for my mother, who will be 81 in January, for loss
of my financial aid. I have always been able to assist my family with financial,
emotional and physical support until my second wasting. Also my entitlement for
my primary care taker. Entitlement for assisted living and adapted housing which
was all denied by the VA. Why, because the veteran is gainfully employed even
though I have not been able to work since September, 2005. This veteran has not
been able to do many things and I have to hire people to maintain my home and
yard. The many things I used to love to do myself, like cook and garden, are long
gone. I am confined to the first floor of my home and among the things that I cannot
do, unless someone is with me, is to walk up the stairs and take a bath.
Where is the dignity, the honor, the self esteem and the self worth of the officer
and the soldier I was and still am-- denied by the VA. DELAY, DENY UNTIL WE ALL DIE.
This replaces the words of Abraham Lincoln----TO BIND THE NATION'S WOUNDS, TO CARE FOR HIM WHO SHALL HAVE BORNE THE BATTLE, AND FOR HIS WIDOWS AND ORPHANS.