AF School of Aerospace Medicine is conducting review of Agent Orange and other military herbicide contamination of C-123 aircraft as regards use of the aircraft after Vietnam. Request all documents, including personal and official emails, recordings and notations, regarding scope of study, preliminary findings, names of researchers or at least their professional qualifications, drafts or variations final report (if any), all correspondence regarding this report, documents located dealing with C-123 contamination, correspondence with Department of Veterans Affairs & other agencies. Request documents including interoffice memos and emails, regarding decision to make the study, details of what study was to encompass, dissenting opinions of team members (if any), references used (or citations adequate to locate via the Internet), details of all 3 decontaminations of C-123K Tail #362 at the National Museum of the Air Force. Request all notes taken by all meeting participants and superiors regarding all stages of report. In all cases hyperlinks to source documents are acceptable. Request all documents regarding selection of report personnel and final authors (if different, and if different, documents about why initial researchers did not prepare final release.) Request documents of all sorts regarding review process within USAFSAM and with other agencies within AFMC and with VA, State Department, CDC/ATSDR, USAF Security Assistance Center, Air Staff or other authorities. Request any USAFSAM or other USAF documents which collectively or individually characterize those veterans. Request names and documents of any professionals providing peer review or outside consultation. Request all documentation of any JAG actions relative to eligibility or affecting veterans veterans benefits. If requested documents are available by hyperlink that is adequate. Any measure to reduce cost & speed response appreciated. We, and the aircraft we flew for a decade while being exposed to its toxic substances, are subjects of this study. The information is to provide to members & other veterans groups. Information is to inform media which has covered this topic on a national level (Gannett, NPR, AF Times, CBS), & own legitimate journalism effort, http://www.c123cancer.org. This request is to obtain and evaluate vital info re: our own medical health and essential care as addressed in the report. Request all fees be waived for multiple justifications. Acting on anecdotal information that our veterans might have been exposed to TCDD while flying the C-123, we began gathering information about the aircraft and possible contamination of it in May 2011. We are responsible for the current concerns expressed by veterans’ groups, Congress, other veterans and the public. We are greatly concerned that it has required multiple FOIAs, many at our expense, to locate much of the material dealt with in the report, and believe any further effort to require us to pay for data about us, or pay for records about how that information was interpreted and by whom, would amount to a restriction of that information from the very subjects with which the report deals. We provided 360 pages of our info (in both printed form and on DVD) to AF at no expense to the Government, and at the invitation of AFMC authorities, and at no expense to the Government, we visited USAFSAM to brief on our research and concerns. Our earlier FOIAs to AFMC, which we were charged for (unlike related FOIAs to other agencies such as GSA, CDC, etc. which were free) located documents which had improperly restricted information about our toxins exposure “to official
channels only” and further charges for this information would greatly restrict our own need to know, continue hindering the public’s understanding of Air Force actions regarding the situation, and raise concerns about legitimacy of the report’s preparation and interpretation. At our request and at no expense to the Government, several universities have provided independent expert opinions to the USAF AFMC and the Department of Veterans Affairs, including Columbia University, Harvard University School of Public Health, Oregon Health Sciences University and Oregon State University. The requested information will be provided them for continued research to accept or challenge the report. Several members of the current or prior IOM Agent Orange Committee have corresponded regarding this issue and the report in particular and the requested information will be shared with them. In January 2012, the Assistant Director, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, having been approached by our veterans and provided 360 pages of collected research and data, issued a letter of opinion greatly in contrast to the subject report. The requested data will be used by us to request a follow-on review. Two states Adjutants General are concerned about servicemembers’ toxin exposures and this requested information will be provided to them. Via Dr. Linda Burnbaum, president of the National Association of State Directors of Veterans Affairs, it will be distributed to states in their efforts to support our claims to the US Department of Veterans Affairs. Further, since beginning this turmoil in May 2011 we have already had our right to know greatly restricted due to actions by AFMC in refusing to respond to FOIAs to the AF Security Assistance Command, and by requiring fees for release of AFMC’s earlier crafting of Davis-Monthan/Hill AFB press releases specifically to conceal Agent Orange information, and earlier actions by AFMC to minimize publicity and flow of information to veterans and prevent our use of the information to approach the Department of Veterans Affairs, as documented by memos and emails for which we have had to pay. Further fees must be considered to be a continued effort to restrict information. We're the C-123 Veterans Assn, the subjects of the USAFSAM study, and these materials relate to our health, to our VA claims and medical care re: toxins exposure during our service. Many members are already dead or seriously ill. Many have claims at the “Gathering Evidence” stage of VA application and both the report and the information requested herein directly affect our essential health care benefits, provide research and background we are not able to create ourselves, and provide data to support or, in defense of our rights, to challenge the report.