CAMP VERDE, Ariz.—When they were young men nearly 60 years ago, Dennis Blessman, David Lucas, and Jerry “Doc” Spulecki survived the war in Vietnam, only to fight another battle at home against a silent killer decades later.
The men now suffer from similar “presumptive” conditions of service-related exposure to the highly toxic herbicide Agent Orange—ischemic heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, prostate cancer, and high blood pressure.
“It’s just cancer after cancer after cancer. All of us are in our 70s. What are you going to do?” Spulecki said.
On March 29, the three veterans attended a solemn gathering at Fort Verde State Historic Park in Camp Verde, Arizona—the weeklong site of The Wall That Heals, a touring memorial to Vietnam veterans.
The wall is a scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans National Memorial in Washington, which honors the 58,178 soldiers who died in the war.
Operation Ranch Hand
Part of the Vietnam War’s painful legacy remains the military use of Agent Orange to clear away vast swathes of foliage from 1962 to 1971.The project, dubbed Operation Ranch Hand, included spraying 19 million gallons of Agent Orange over some 20 million acres in Vietnam.
Agent Orange was a defoliant containing dioxin, a known carcinogen associated with more than 14 chronic and potentially lethal health conditions.
Among them are Type 2 diabetes, ischemic heart disease, leukemia, lung cancer, Parkinson’s disease, bladder cancer, and prostate cancer.
“Dioxin is a compound made from burning chlorine with carbon and hydrogen,” reads the Cleveland Health Clinic website. “The molecules of these chemicals are toxic to plants, animals, and humans. When dioxin enters your body, it can damage or destroy vital organs, cells, immune systems, and hormones. Dioxin is a carcinogen, which means it can cause cancer.
“Agent Orange was extremely deadly because the U.S. sprayed 20 times more than the manufacturer recommended in the environment. The effects of Agent Orange use are still present today among Vietnam veterans and Vietnamese people living in central and southern Vietnam.”
Monsanto and Dow Chemical were the primary companies that made Agent Orange, which the U.S. government banned in 1971 because of its harmful effects.
Although the exact number of American soldiers exposed to Agent Orange remains unknown, the Cleveland Clinic says at least 300,000 have died as a result.
Exposure to the chemical also has clinical ties to birth defects such as spinal bifida, a condition of abnormal spinal cord development in newborns.
U.S. soldiers who served in Vietnam and the Korean demilitarized zones and military bases in Thailand came into contact with Agent Orange.
Lucas was an Army corporal, just 19 years old, when he served a tour of duty from 1969 to 1973 as a helicopter door gunner while stationed at Chu Lai Air Base in South Vietnam.
“I hated Vietnam. I didn’t want to be there,” said Lucas, now 71, who lives in Camp Verde. “But I enlisted. We flew to areas where they sprayed a lot [of Agent Orange].”
The Army helicopters were called Hueys, and their massive rotor blades would kick up thick clouds of dust from the ground that the soldiers breathed in.
Lucas believes that’s how he got exposed to the toxins.
About 17 years ago, Lucas began to experience neuropathy in his feet. Then one night, he awoke to find his toes were bleeding heavily.
“Look at my arms. That used to be muscle pushing on that skin,” Lucas told The Epoch Times. “I used to be a big fellow.”
The doctors diagnosed him with Type 2 diabetes, prostate issues, and neurological disorders related to Agent Orange exposure.
‘Downhill Since’
“I was in intensive care for a while,” Lucas said. “I got vertigo, and I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t even sit up. I'd fall over. After five days in the hospital, I came home and needed a walker. I’ve gone downhill since.”Wearing a white T-shirt and camouflage cap, Lucas appeared frail. He struggled to use a cane to cross a field of grass to get to the traveling memorial.
He sees only grim health prospects ahead of him, but has made peace with his maker.
“I don’t see much time left. It’s better up there than it is here. I’m telling you, man,” Lucas said, looking at all the names of fallen soldiers engraved on the traveling wall, nearly breaking into tears.
“They’re honorable people. I love them all. They shouldn’t have died there. It’s the politicians that put them there.”
Dennis Blessman, 77, of California, said his Type 2 diabetes diagnosis came in 2010.
“Type 2 diabetes [comes from] presumptive exposure to Agent Orange. Anyone who served boots on the ground in Vietnam is presumptively exposed,” Blessman said. “Mine manifested with a diagnosis of diabetes and ischemic heart disease.”
Blessman was 21 when he served a tour in Vietnam from January 1967 to January 1968.
While stationed with a ground crew at Bien Hoa Air Base about 20 miles east of Saigon, Blessman spent long hours servicing aircraft weapons and C123 cargo planes that sprayed the herbicide.
“The planes had huge tanks and cargo bays and nozzles that went under the wings,” Blessman said. “That’s how they sprayed it.
Cancers ‘Some of the Worst’
Blessman would later recall in civilian life that Agent Orange smelled like Roundup, a commercial weed killer manufactured by Monsanto.“When I bought my home, I went and bought some Roundup to kill some weeds and said, ‘Nope, I’m not going to spray this stuff,’” Blessman said.
“The cancers associated with Agent Orange are some of the worst. Once you get diagnosed, it’s like, ‘Hey, go home and get your affairs in order.’ Pretty nasty.
“The jungles in Vietnam, they'd spray the top, and it would grow back. I don’t think it helped much. I think they should have checked on the ingredients of Agent Orange closer and not relied on the chemical companies.”
He added that it’s “a real shame” that Vietnam veterans are still dying because of Agent Orange. “I’m fortunate to have the health that I have at 77,” he said.
Dow Chemical’s position today is that the U.S. government is responsible for the military use of Agent Orange in Vietnam.
“Dow also firmly believes that historic wartime issues, including the use of Agent Orange, are appropriately a matter of resolution by the governments of the United States and Vietnam. The U.S. government has committed resources to address this issue, and collaboration between the U.S. and Vietnamese governments continues on a number of fronts.”
Better Treatment
“Treatment at the [Department of Veterans Affairs] got a lot better when Trump was president,” Blessman said. “I know a few guys who do their full medical care at the VA, and they seem pretty happy, but that may change.”Blessman, a retired aerospace engineer, receives government compensation for his service-connected disabilities, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
He takes several medications daily for diabetes and does daily finger prick blood sugar tests.
Jerry “Doc” Spulecki of California was an Army combat medic and staff sergeant who went to Vietnam when he was just 19 years old, and Agent Orange was in heavy use.
“Just being in the bush—yeah, it was everywhere,” Spulecki said.
Now 75, he suffers from ischemic heart disease and prostate cancer, and accepts his fate with a dispassionate, “What can you do about it?”
In six weeks, he will receive a defibrillator to help manage his heart disease, which does not run in his family.
Spulecki had his first experience with ischemic heart disease in 1994, while playing ice hockey in Anaheim at age 48.
“I dropped dead on the ice,” Spulecki said. “That was my first indication of heart disease.”
Though clinically dead, he was brought back to life with CPR.
Spulecki not only deals with heart disease, a presumptive condition, but he also has high blood pressure and PTSD.
Government Should Have Done More
“I resent that, and I'll blame the 94th Congress [1975–1977] and Dow for lying to the American public,” Spulecki told The Epoch Times.
“If they knew the results, they should have warned everybody. We drank the water [in Vietnam]—we drank whatever we could. We had iodine tabs, but they never purified the water.”
The Department of Veterans Affairs didn’t respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.
Standing beside the traveling wall with his arms folded, Spulecki felt a kinship with his fallen comrades while mourning their young lives cut short.
“The way that I look at it—we that are standing above ground—I feel bad for them. We got to live. They didn’t.”
