Our troops are living with Agent Orange conditions

I see in the last VFW magazine, they now list about 17 Agent Orange conditions. Myself, I have about five of them.

For those who don't know, Agent Orange was a chemical that was used to de-foliate the jungle around base camps. The chemicals including 2,4-D, were in an orange barrel, thus the name. Reason is so the Viet Cong and NVA couldn't creep up the the perimeter and shoot and kill troops. It was to give a better "field of view."

Of course the infantry troops and some of us support troops walked through this stuff. In addition, with the heat, the fumes would raise into the air, then the rain would bring the stuff down on everyone in the base camps, especially those of us in infantry divisions and other military personnel who were out in the field.

Myself, I have thought that maybe myself and others would have gotten some of these medical problems anyway, but when you have several of them, that can't be a coincidence — and I am not the only one. For me, the ones I have are  high blood pressure, heart disease (have had 19 heart surgeries), prostate cancer, (still have it), bladder cancer — three times — and sugar diabetes.

At the VA , they always used to ask if any of my kids had any birth defects. I said "no" except they are "hard headed."

I have always thought about the guys who handled this stuff and dropped it. My guess is that probably all or most are now dead.

Roger Gregory is a Vietnam veteran and business owner in Priest River.