Veterans: Westover planes fouled with Agent Orange

Veterans: Westover planes fouled with Agent Orange
Published: Sunday, April 01, 2012
By Jeanette DeForge, The Republican

The Republican | John Suchocki CHICOPEE – Vietnam veteran Robert P. Patenaude with the Agent Orange spray plane he and others crewed during the war. The C 123 transport named "Patches" because of all the bullet holes it received is now in a container that can only be accessed with hazmat suits, according to Patenaude, who receives disability payments because of Agent Orange.

CHICOPEE — For nine years they flew in them, they fixed them and they treated patients in them. Now, three decades later, veterans of the 439th Tactical Airlift Wing at Westover Air Reserve Base believe those airplanes are responsible for making them sick. Unknown to the veterans, the C-123 Providers, which had previously flown in Vietnam, were contaminated with Agent Orange. “We have crew members who are sick. We have crew members who have died ... We have people who aren’t even sick yet,” said retired Air Force Major Wesley T. Carter, who served as an air medical technician and flight instructor and examiner with Westover’s 74th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron for 20 years and flew in the C-123s from 1974 to 1980. While recovering from a heart attack last April, Carter was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Then he started hearing fellow crew members were also suffering from cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

Through word-of-mouth the group has compiled a list of 48 people who have diseases possibly linked to Agent Orange. red more here