Arizona airmen finally to receive disability for Agent Orange exposure
Jun 18, 2015, 10:12 AM | Updated: 10:13 am
PHOENIX — Active-duty personnel and reservists at Arizona’s Luke Air Force base who were exposed to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War will receive disability benefits, a U.S. government agency announced Thursday.
Luke Air Force Base,near the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, was among the bases whose units came into contact with the herbicide used in Vietnam from 1961 to 1971.
The Department of Veteran Affairs listed active duty units at Luke from 1970 to 1973 as newly eligible to receive benefits.
The new federal rule, which includes pilots, ground crews and medical personnel, goes into effect Friday and comes with a price tag of $47.5 million over 10 years.
“Opening up eligibility for this deserving group of Air Force veterans and reservists is the right thing to do do,” VA Secretary Bob McDonald said in a statement.
After a review of military records, the VA learned that between 1,500 to 2,100 had possibly been exposed to Agent Orange residue on Fairchild C-123 airplanes that had seen war action.
The VA said in a statement, that it “will presume that their Agent Orange-related condition had its onset during their Reserve training.”