Bloomfield museum to honor vets exposed to Agent Orange

Roger Flynn East's name can't be found on the wall at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. His parents in Cape Girardeau still say Roger died serving his country.

While the federal government never acknowledged the cancer he developed was a result of Agent Orange exposure, Dorothy East has a letter from Sen. Kit Bond thanking her for her son's "ultimate sacrifice."

"I 100 percent feel like it was a result of Agent Orange, but they could not say exactly," said Roger's widow, Pam. "He was right there where they sprayed."

The squamous cell carcinoma in his throat that eventually killed him isn't one of the 43 illnesses acknowledged by the federal government to be linked to Agent Orange exposure. However, his family received a kind of closure some three years after his death in 1999 that most don't. Roger's service and subsequent death were recognized at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., by the not-for-profit Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.

Now the Stars and Stripes Museum and Library Association in Bloomfield, Mo., hopes to honor those vets exposed to Agent Orange who haven't been recognized. The association has teamed with the Order of the Silver Rose, a not-for-profit organization, to recognize Vietnam vets who developed illnesses after their exposure to Agent Orange.

Those veterans will be honored at a ceremony at the Stars and Stripes Museum July 22. The presentation of the Silver Rose is part of a larger Vietnam Living History Day event that will honor Vietnam veterans and hear their stories.

All veterans are encouraged to attend, but organizers say the Silver Rose recognition will be the highlight of the day.

"Most Vietnam veterans aren't even aware of this award," said Jack Dragoni of Chaffee, Mo., one of the event organizers. "There are 43 diseases related to exposure to Agent Orange, and they don't even know that."

Dragoni was a platoon leader with the Army in Vietnam. He worked in areas defoliated with Agent Orange and drank water from the streams in those areas. He would later develop one of the 43 diseases linked to Agent Orange exposure.

"It's personal, and ever more so because I have Type II diabetes," said Dragoni. "And you live waiting for the other shoe to drop once you find out there are all these deadly cancers associated with it."

Dragoni has little history of diabetes in his family. He also wonders if the brain tumor that killed his son at age 13 was due to the exposure but will probably never know. He's one of the veterans who will be presented with a Silver Rose at the event.

Agent Orange was one of several herbicides used in Vietnam to kill plants in order to eliminate cover for the enemy and make movement through jungles easier. During the manufacture of Agent Orange the chemical dioxin was created, the same chemical that caused the evacuation of Times Beach, Mo. Before the use of herbicides was stopped in 1971, the Department of Defense estimates about 20 million gallons were dumped on Vietnam.

After the war, several Vietnam veterans began to develop seemingly unexplained cancers and other illnesses. In the late 1970s the Veterans Administration began to examine Vietnam veterans and keep a registry of their illnesses. The federal government then began identifying diseases linked to Agent Orange exposure, giving benefits to veterans for those illnesses.

However, no medal honors the sacrifice of lives and health those veterans made during the war. The Order of the Silver Rose seeks to address that situation.

The order was founded in 1997 by Mary Elizabeth Marchand after her father, U.S. Navy chief hospital corpsman Frank Davis, died from an Agent Orange-related illness. She fought to get a Purple Heart for her father, but veterans exposed to Agent Orange don't qualify for the medal.

So Marchand made her own medal -- the Silver Rose.

She died in 1999. Today Vietnam veteran Gary Chenett administers the order with several other volunteers.

The Silver Rose is not recognized by the military or federal government -- it is a private, not-for-profit organization. It is completely the project of those with ties to veterans who feel Agent Orange-exposed vets aren't getting the respect the desere.

The goals of the organization, said Chenett, are to recognize Agent Orange-exposed veterans for their sacrifice, to encourage them to get full physicals with CAT scans yearly and to educate them on the diseases covered by the VA.

"What I found is so many veterans are sick and dying, and the only national veterans group that will talk openly about getting a full physical with CAT scans is Vietnam Veterans of America," said Chenett.

All too often Vietnam vets die of diseases linked to Agent Orange exposure that could have been treated if found earlier, he said Many veterans also don't get compensation because a doctor may misdiagnose their disease. If the site of origin for cancer is misdiagnosed that could cost them benefits.

That could have happened to East. The cancer that killed him started in his throat but not in the larynx or trachea, two cancers recognized as related to Agent Orange exposure.

East would not be eligible get a Silver Rose because the order only gives its free recognition to veterans who developed one of the 43 recognized Agent Orange-related illnesses.

But for those who do have those illnesses, receiving the Silver Rose could be as fulfilling as the ceremony for Roger East was to his family, said Chenett.

"None of these veterans is recognized for the fact they served the country or that they gave their life for this country," said Chenett. "Some hold the Silver Rose in higher esteem than the Purple Heart or any other medal."

For more information on the Order of the Silver Rose and the Stars and Stripes ceremony July 22, call the Stars and Stripes Museum at (573) 568-2055.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182

Want to go?

What: Vietnam Living History Day

When: July 22

Where: Stars and Stripes Museum and Library in Bloomfield, Mo.

Info: (573) 568-2055