December 1969. Operation Ranch Hand.
Between January 1966 to December 1969 military defoliation operations in the
Con Thieu province of I Corps were estimated at more than 2 million sprayed gallons
of herbicides. By using average troop strength and turnover figures, an
estimated 218,000 Marine infantry personnel were determined to have been
assigned to I Corps between 1966 and 1969. By randomly selecting 276 of 976
Marine monthly battalion reports, the GAO tracked troop movement and compared
troop locations with herbicide mission data. Nearly 26,000 U.S. Marines and
Navy medical personnel were identified who entered within a radius of 2.5 km of
the defoliated target areas within one day of spraying; 4,300 troops were
identified as being within 0.5 km of the flight path; 11,700 were within 2.5 km
within four weeks. In the Khe Sanh-Thon Son Lam area, an estimated 4,300-8,000
troops were within 0.5 km of the sprayed area within one day of spraying;
within 28 days, 33,600-45,300 troops were determined to have been within 2.5 km
of the defoliation target. Army records were found to lack sufficient
information, so that estimates of the number of Army personnel close to sprayed
areas could not be calculated. The GAO report concluded that "the chances
that ground troops were exposed to herbicide Orange are higher than the DOD
previously acknowledged … the group of personnel most likely to have been
exposed could include ground troops as well as herbicide handlers and aircraft
crew members."
[270] Veterans and Agent
Orange: Health Effects of Herbicides Used in Vietnam. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK236347/
[271] Buckingham WA. 1982.
Operation Ranch Hand: The Air Force and Herbicides in Southeast Asia 1961-1971.
Washington, DC: U.S. Air Force Office of Air Force History.
Image: Four “Ranch
Hand” C-123 aircraft spray liquid defoliant on a suspected Viet Cong position
in South Vietnam in September of 1965. The four specially equipped planes
covered a 1,000-foot-wide swath in each pass over the dense vegetation. [152]
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| Four “Ranch Hand” C-123 aircraft spray liquid defoliant |
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