ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – Fifty years after the Vietnam War ended, veterans exposed to Agent Orange are still fighting the federal government for benefits — and many are losing.
An investigation by our national team found that hundreds of veterans who served in Subic Bay, Philippines, have filed claims with the Department of Veterans Affairs saying Agent Orange exposure caused their cancers, diabetes, and other serious illnesses. More than half have been denied.
Listen: Behind the Investigation
In the latest episode of Behind the Investigation, InvestigateTV reporter Kristin Crowley sits down with Atlanta News First investigative reporter Anastassia Olmos to discuss the case.
What the investigation found
Art Gentry, 77, of Kansas, served in Subic Bay in 1971. He said he swam at beaches near an Agent Orange storage facility that he said was leaking chemicals into the water. He has since been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, prostate cancer, myasthenia gravis, hypertension, tinnitus, and skin cancer.
Gentry filed a VA claim and was denied. The reason: Subic Bay is not on the government’s list of “presumptive exposure locations” — the specific areas where the VA automatically grants Agent Orange-related benefits…