Agent Orange eats away at Vietnam veteran — Transcript

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1. 0:01Voices of bravery honoring the veterans
2. 0:04of Vietnam. Sponsored by Duvall Motor
3. 0:07Company.
4. 0:08We're by the USS Orlick, marking 50
5. 0:10years since the last American combat
6. 0:12soldier came home from Vietnam.
7. 0:14But how much do we really know about the
8. 0:17sacrifices they made?
9. 0:21Agent Orange
10. 0:24used by the United States to deforest,
11. 0:26defoliate, kill as much vegetation as
12. 0:29possible, to take away the ambush hiding
13. 0:31spots of the Vietkong. Soldiers sprayed
14. 0:34it from river boats and dropped it on
15. 0:36forests from the [music] sky, and no one
16. 0:39could hide from it.
17. 0:42Everybody's got a story.
18. 0:45Tony Mann's raspy voice tells a story
19. 0:47too and likely will for the rest of his
20. 0:50life.
21. 0:51They go down [music] and clean up the
22. 0:54they check the esophagus, make sure
23. 0:55there's no cancer cuz I was a very I was
24. 0:58borderline cancer [music]
25. 1:00for the esophagus.
26. 1:02So they burn off the cells, they [music]
27. 1:04send them in and find out what the
28. 1:06status is.
29. 1:07His two-year exposure to Agent Orange
30. 1:09has him making frequent trips to the VA.
31. 1:12I had two minor strokes
32. 1:14uh back in [music] 2016 and they they
33. 1:18said it was due to Asian orange because
34. 1:19[music] they cut me open and uh um I
35. 1:23have to go back to Minnesota every year
36. 1:25for the rest of my life [music] and have
37. 1:26a procedure done.
38. 1:27But before that, Tony's Vietnam story.
39. 1:30I joined the service basically to serve
40. 1:32my country
41. 1:34and I served it very proudly. He
42. 1:36enlisted in the US Army knowing he'd be
43. 1:38sent overseas. Was assigned to the 199th
44. 1:41Infantry Brigade, became a specialist
45. 1:44handling artillery known as the Ford,
46. 1:47[music] patrolling a perimeter around
47. 1:49Saigon.
48. 1:50We were the best that the that that the
49. 1:54government ever had till this day. We're
50. 1:56still the best that the government ever
51. 1:59had. The minute that phone rings,
52. 2:01everybody grabs their steel pot, their
53. 2:02bulletproof vest, [music] and runs out
54. 2:03to the gunpit and sits there and waits
55. 2:05for the coordinates.
56. 2:06And that patrolling meant long marches
57. 2:09through the jungle and the swamps, all
58. 2:11while clouds of gun smoke and chemicals
59. 2:15fell from the sky, exposing some 3
60. 2:17million US troops.
61. 2:19When you're in water, you're walking
62. 2:21around with you're you're absorbing
63. 2:23Asian orange. I have a friend of mine
64. 2:25that um in Minnesota Uh he was dying
65. 2:30from Agent Orange big time. He was
66. 2:31dumped on four times out in the field
67. 2:34literally. I mean his heart was being
68. 2:35eaten away.
69. 2:37One of the consequences of the vast
70. 2:39amounts of Agent Orange that were used
71. 2:41is that now it constitutes a war crime.
72. 2:45Of course, it wasn't just US soldiers
73. 2:47exposed to the chemical. Countless cases
74. 2:50of cancer and extreme birth defects
75. 2:53plagued the Vietnamese as well.
76. 2:56long-term impact of exposure to Agent
77. 2:59Orange has been cancer. It has been
78. 3:02birth defects. It's been a variety of
79. 3:04health related ailments that only
80. 3:07recently has the Veterans Administration
81. 3:10acknowledged.
82. 3:11Do I have friends that are still alive?
83. 3:14Um, no, not so many.
84. 3:19One that I know of.
85. 3:21It's eaten at him. Three times in
86. 3:23country, he says he had a gun in hand,
87. 3:26ready to commit suicide.
88. 3:28The first time is when I took somebody
89. 3:30out.
90. 3:31Second time was when friend of mine got
91. 3:34killed. The third time is when I lost
92. 3:37five guys.
93. 3:38Haunting memories he continues to live
94. 3:40with and physical scars, constant
95. 3:43medical treatment from a war he still
96. 3:46has to fight internally. [music]
97. 3:47It changed my life. Yeah.
98. 3:49For for for the rest of my life.
99. 3:52And of course, Tony, we salute you for
100. 3:54the sacrifice you continue to make each
101. 3:56and every day.
102. 3:57And don't miss our special April 13th,
103. 4:00Voices of Bravery. We continue to honor
104. 4:02the veterans of Vietnam.