On Sat, 22 Sep 2007 08:53:57 -0700, "a425couple"
wrote:

"Ed Rasimus" wrote
On Sat, 15 Sep Jim34 wrote:
An Open Letter to the New Generation of Military Officers Serving
and Protecting Our Nation
By Dr. Robert M. Bowman
Lt. Col., USAF, ret., National Commander, The Patriots

This guy is an incredible flake. Runs his own church, believes the
government was complicit in 9/11, runs with the Berkeley crowd, etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_M._Bowman
An embarrassment. Ed Rasimus

My thoughts are same as Ed's.

Meanwhile (related, but not central),
I'm willing to be informed about something that
early in Bowman's letter jiggled my "flake meter".

Bowman says,
"I'm just an old fighter pilot (101 combat missions in
Vietnam , F-4 Phantom, Phu Cat, 1969-1970) who's now a
disabled veteran with terminal cancer from Agent Orange."

Can someone inform me how a AF F-4 pilot was
that exposed to Agent Orange?
(seems to me a lot of not-vets as well as vets, as they
get past age 70, have increasing cases of various cancers,
"What?! Think you are going to live forever?!")

Quickly found this:

Military installations throughout southern Viet Nam (e.g., Bien Hoa, Da Nang, Nha Trang, and
Phu Cat) served as bulk storage and supply facilities for Agent Orange (US Army documents,
1969; Cecil, 1986). These storage sites experienced spills of herbicide. In 1970, for example, a
7,500 US gallon spill of Agent Orange occurred on the Bien Hoa base. Between January and
March 1970, three other spills of lesser volume occurred at Bien Hoa (US Army documents,

It's from this report:
http://www.hatfieldgroup.com/files/HATFIELDAO.pdf

Looks pretty professional and credible. Pretty much anybody who set
foot in-country is presumptive for Agent Orange as a causative factor
for some cancers.

(I've got a VA evaluation pending right now for Agent Orange
determination of squamous cell carcinoma, primary tumor undetermined,
manifested in lymph nodes of the neck. Ten and a half hours of surgery
and 39 sessions of radiation in 2003--coming up on my five year
anniversary in January. And, I wasn't stationed in-country, merely
passed through Danang and Bien Hoa and Tan Son Nhut many times.)

And, that manifested at age 60.
Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
www.thunderchief.org
www.thundertales.blogspot.com