HANCOCK COUNTY — Robert Williams served in the Vietnam War with the U.S. Army in 1967 and 1968. He traveled with materials — mostly electric equipment for communications towers and generators — and ensured they got to where they needed to be, whether by helicopter, convoy or jeep.
“I thought I got out of that place without a scratch,” the 73-year-old said, “but I guess I didn’t.”
After avoiding all of the threats the enemy posed, the one that got to him was from his own side, and didn’t manifest until years later. Williams, like millions of others during the Vietnam War, was exposed to Agent Orange, a chemical that U.S. forces spread to defoliate areas the enemy used as cover and to destroy their subsistence crops. The herbicide was later linked to a host of medical complications, including several cancers. Williams’ exposure led to health issues of his own that he continues to grapple with to this day. He’s one of many veterans from Hancock County coping with the chemical’s effects decades after their service.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryThe U.S. military used a variety of chemical weapons known as “Rainbow Herbicides” during Operation Ranch Hand amid the Vietnam War, information from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund recalls. The herbicides got their name due to the variety of colored bands on their respective storage drums, one of which was orange.
Agent Orange was first sprayed in Vietnam in 1961, about four years before U.S. combat troops were deployed there. Between 1962 and 1971, it’s estimated that the U.S. sprayed 20 million gallons of Rainbow Herbicides in Vietnam, eastern Laos and parts of Cambodia, usually from helicopters and low-flying aircraft, but also via backpacks, boats and trucks. Agent Orange made up more than half of the amount of herbicides used.
Williams said it’s difficult to determine how often he was exposed to Agent Orange.
“Anytime you’re over there, I guess you’re exposed to it,” he said.
He recalled spending a few weeks in the area of the Army base Long Binh Post, the vicinity of which was cleared using Agent Orange.
“That’s probably where I was exposed to it the most at,” Williams said.
Agent Orange contains dioxin, which is highly toxic even in small amounts. About 375 pounds of dioxin were deployed during Operation Ranch Hand throughout an area about the size of Massachusetts, contaminating the ecosystem and exposing millions of people on all sides of the conflict. It’s been tied to long-term effects like skin diseases and cancers, along with birth defects in children of those exposed.
Neither Williams nor his fellow service members had any inkling that Agent Orange was dangerous at the time.
“That’s just the way it was,” he said. “We didn’t think that much about it.”
The ecological, health and legal issues that the use of herbicides during the Vietnam War sparked continue to be debated today. In 1991, the Agent Orange Act was established, allowing the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to declare diseases as probable effects of exposure to the herbicide, giving veterans the opportunity to seek services for those diseases.
Williams said he first started noticing how Agent Orange exposure was affecting his health about 15 years after returning from the war. He’s had to undergo several surgeries to remove polyps from his stomach, so far none of which have been cancerous. He estimates that over the past 10 years, he’s had to have such surgeries about every other year. A few days after one of the surgeries, he started hemorrhaging so badly that he lost consciousness and had to be rushed to a hospital to have the issue remedied.
Williams also had to have his lower lip removed earlier this year due to the cancer that formed there.
He has diabetes as well, a disease that does not run in his family.
“It just takes an enormous amount of insulin for it,” he said.
After more than 20 years of insulin shots, he’s developed so much scar tissue that his body doesn’t absorb the hormone as well.
Williams said he’s had difficulties with his medical treatment through the VA over the years too.
He maintains a positive outlook throughout it all.
“I got my arms and legs,” he said. “I don’t have a brain injury. My wife says I do, but that’s just her opinion,” he added with a laugh. “I’m luckier than most.”
Williams doesn’t harbor any resentment over the use of Agent Orange.
“The only thing that really bothers me about it (the war) is when we came home and we weren’t treated very well,” he said.
He also said that so far, his children don’t appear to have been affected by his exposure to Agent Orange and that he hopes it remains that way.
Bob Workman, Hancock County veterans service officer and a U.S. Marine Corps Vietnam War veteran, estimates he works with Vietnam War veterans exposed to Agent Orange or their widows on three to four occasions a week.
“We see a lot of it,” he said.
For the veterans, Workman helps them file disability claims to make sure they get the proper medical care. For the widows, he helps them with pensions available to spouses of those who have died from Agent Orange-related complications.
David Hine, a U.S. Air Force veteran who helped create the Hancock County Veterans Park in 2010 in downtown Greenfield, advocates for Agent Orange awareness. Last month, at his request, the city funded several Agent Orange remembrance banners that now hang downtown.
He said he’s noticing more and more obituaries for Vietnam War veterans.
“You have to wonder, was it a factor in how they died?” he said of Agent Orange.
Hine’s brother-in-law, Charles Murnan III, was a Greenfield resident and U.S. Army veteran who served in the Vietnam War and died at age 58 in 2006, 24 days after his diagnosis of glioblastoma, a cancer that occurs in the brain and spinal cord. Murnan experienced health complications due to exposure to Agent Orange, Hine said.
In 2013, Murnan was inducted into the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund’s In Memory program, which honors those who served in the Vietnam War and later died as a result of their service. Hine has been an advocate for the In Memory program ever since.
“It’s a great way of honoring them for their service and sacrifice,” he said. “It’s something they didn’t get when they came home.”
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WHAT: Veterans Day ceremony
WHEN: 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 11
WHERE: Hancock County Veterans Park, southwest corner of State Road 9 and West South Street, downtown Greenfield
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