Friday, December 30, 1994<\/p>\n
By DAWN SHURMAITIS; Times Leader Staff Writer<\/p>\n
Agent Orange sufferer Mike Milne received his last check from a
\nmulti-million dollar compensation fund last year.<\/p>\n
He used the $512 to buy trees.
\n“It’s better than nothing,” said Milne, who served in the U.S. Army
\ninfantry in the Mekong Delta from 1967-69.<\/p>\n
Milne got the money from the fund because he was exposed to Agent Orange, a
\ntoxic, vegetation-killing chemical the U.S. government sprayed in Vietnam
\nto make it difficult for enemy soldiers to hide and find food. Veterans
\nsaid it caused illnesses such as cancer and produced birth defects in their
\nchildren.<\/p>\n
Ten years ago, veterans and their families reached a $184 million
\nsettlement in a class-action lawsuit against makers of Agent Orange.
\nVeterans started receiving checks in 1989.<\/p>\n
Thursday, a federal judge extended a deadline for disabled Vietnam veterans
\nto apply for money from the fund.<\/p>\n
U.S. District Court Judge Jack Weinstein in New York signed an order
\npushing the deadline for veterans and their families to apply for payment
\nfrom the Agent Orange Settlement to Jan. 17. The deadline had been
\nSaturday.<\/p>\n
Weinstein decided to make the change after the insurance company
\nadministering the fund, Aetna Insurance Co. of Connecticut, was deluged
\nwith thousands of telephone calls this week from veterans trying to meet
\nthe deadline.<\/p>\n
About $21 million has not been claimed. Disabled veterans can get from $256
\nto $12,800; families of deceased veterans can receive from $340 to $3,400.
\nLeftover money will be distributed to those who put in valid claims.<\/p>\n
About 39,000 veterans and their families have received money from the fund,
\nwhich is supported by seven chemical companies: Dow Chemical, Uniroyal,
\nMonsanto, Hercules, Agricultural Nutrition, Diamond Shamrock and Thompson
\nChemical. Nearly 28,000 claims have been denied.<\/p>\n
In 1985, the Wilkes-Barre based Veterans Outreach Center estimated 20,000
\nto 25,000 Vietnam-era veterans lived in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
\nApproximately 2,500 to 3,000 had filed disability claims with the federal
\ngovernment for various illnesses related to their service, including
\nproblems associated with Agent Orange.<\/p>\n
Federal disability payments range from $89 to $1,823 a month for
\nservice-related illnesses.<\/p>\n
Most of the veterans exposed to Agent Orange suffer from skin cancer, said
\nSkip Kaufman, benefits counselor for the Department of Veterans Affairs
\nMedical Center in Wilkes-Barre. Veterans can receive disability benefits
\nand payments from the Agent Orange fund.<\/p>\n
In the last five years, only about 50 area veterans have filed for money
\nfrom the Agent Orange compensation fund, Kaufman said. The number has
\nsteadily dwindled during the years but Kaufman expects a surge this week
\ndue to the publicity surrounding the deadline.<\/p>\n
Most of the veterans are now in their late 40s or early 50s.<\/p>\n
The Dec. 31 deadline to apply for compensation was set by U.S. District
\nJudge Jack Weinstein, who ruled that the 1984 settlement should include
\npeople who had not yet become ill.<\/p>\n
Milne is executive director of the Wilkes-Barre-based Veterans of the
\nVietnam War, a national organization with 35,000 members. The organization
\njoined 34 other groups in a lawsuit filed to extend the deadline. The
\ngroups argue that some veterans who were exposed to the agent have not yet
\ndeveloped symptoms.<\/p>\n
The suit is expected to be heard in court next year, Milne said.<\/p>\n
Milne’s symptoms started in the mid 1970s. In 1976, he went to the Veterans
\nAdministration Hospital in Wilkes-Barre, which he said failed to properly
\ndiagnose his illness. In 1978, private doctors determined he suffered from
\nherbicide poisoning.<\/p>\n
The poisoning caused bone and nerve problems in Milne’s spine and hands.
\nMilne, now 50, uses a cane. He also collects monthly disability payments
\nfrom the government for his service-related illness.<\/p>\n
The Aetna Insurance Co. is accepting the calls from veterans. A company
\nspokeswoman said her staff of 16 has been inundated with 800 to 1,000 calls
\nper day in the last three weeks, up from about 200 calls a day.<\/p>\n
Neither the government nor the insurance company could estimate how many of
\nthe callers were from Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
Aetna will accept telephone inquiries about the fund from at (800)
\n225-4712. Applications may be requested by fax at (203) 636-0444.<\/p>\n
— The Associated Press contributed to this story<\/p>\n
Mike Milne<\/p>\n
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Friday, December 30, 1994 By DAWN SHURMAITIS; Times Leader Staff Writer Agent Orange sufferer Mike Milne received his last check from a multi-million dollar compensation fund last year. He used the $512 to buy trees. “It’s better than nothing,” said Milne, who served in the U.S. Army infantry in the Mekong Delta from 1967-69. Milne […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}