And it broadens that experience to a worldwide audience - to those who can contribute to and appreciate the stories of those patriots who we've loved and lost. LAPAGLIA: We want to broaden the experience of what you might typically see in a cemetery, where a loved one has left flowers or a note or is standing there talking to their loved ones. SUMMERSS: So James, what is the goal of this project? What experiences - what feelings are you hoping people experience when they use this website? James LaPaglia of the Department of Veterans Affairs helps manage the memorial and joins us now. This year, the memorial has added 27 new cemeteries to its database, including Arlington National Cemetery. That means anyone who visits the site can submit a tribute, add biographical information, even photos. The Veterans Legacy Memorial features an interactive page for every veteran in its database. It is an online memorial for millions of deceased U.S. But visiting a physical space isn't possible for everyone. The VA offers disability compensation and money for survivors of the deceased.īut as of now, almost all benefits claims related to Agent Orange for C-123 reservists have been denied.For many Americans, Memorial Day includes a visit to a cemetery, honoring their loved ones who died while serving in the military. Because of that, vets who were in Vietnam and have health problems that could be associated with Agent Orange can get benefits based on just the possibility they were exposed.

Now lots of the folks who worked on the planes have health problems that the VA concedes have been associated with Agent Orange: diseases like prostate cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma or diabetes.īut it's hard to show cause and effect in a lot of these cases. Kienle was one of as many as 2,100 people who crewed on the C-123s here in the U.S., although there's no official count. But you really weren't that concerned about it at the time - until later on, after you're retired, and these health issues start popping up.' When the planes returned to the United States in 1971, guys like Kienle flew long missions for years in close contact with leftover chemical residues. Department of Veterans Affairs for recognition - and they're starting to get it.īack during the war, the issues with Agent Orange hadn't all come to light. Vets who worked in those planes have been pushing the U.S. That's because the planes used to spray Agent Orange were used for another decade by the Air Force reserves at Rickenbacker, the Westover Air Reserve Base in Massachusetts and the Pittsburgh Air Reserve Station. And it turns out that some Air Force reservists may also have been exposed to the chemical after the war - not in Vietnam, but in the U.S. troops and Vietnamese civilians were exposed to Agent Orange, the chemical defoliant the U.S. 'We know that most of the airplanes we flew had done duty in Vietnam.'Īn unknown number of U.S. For most of the 1970s, he was a flight mechanic on a plane just like Patches at Rickenbacker Air Force Base in Columbus. 'They're big and slow, and they're extremely noisy,' says Ed Kienle, laughing. A Fairchild C-123K Provider at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.

Npr echoes of vietnam agent orange