The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has awarded two more former service members compensation for exposure to Agent Orange while serving on Okinawa during the 1960s and '70s.
An army truck driver who came into contact with the dioxin-tainted defoliant as he unloaded barrels at Naha Port in 1966 is receiving benefits for lung cancer attributed to his exposure. The second veteran, a former marine stationed on the island in the early 1970s, developed Hodgkin's lymphoma and type 2 diabetes mellitus as a result of his work with contaminated military equipment shipped to Okinawa from the war in Vietnam, the VA ruled.
Prior to the discovery of these two successful claims, it was widely believed that only one U.S. veteran had ever won compensation for exposure to Agent Orange on Okinawa. That 1998 VA ruling, in the case of a soldier poisoned by the defoliant in the island's northern jungles, caused consternation among former U.S. service members and Okinawa residents when it was reported in 2007.
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