My dad-Art Bounds born in 1946-has been denied claims for many, many years. He just recently had a final appeal-he should know the outcome in a couple months.
He’s not sure what month the slide (picture) was taken & isn't aware of any other photos like this one. He is 2nd from left as looking at pic. The date on this only showed the year 1966. The guy to the left of him when you are looking at the picture is Charles Long (tall black man) who was from Detroit Michigan area, and on the Kitty Hawk 1965-1967. Art Bounds, my dad was on the ship 1965 until it docked in 1967 in San Diego, he thinks around early fall. The guy on his right as you look at the picture was Hershall Judd who was from Salt Lake City Utah area. My dad says these canisters were stored in magazines, where he had been in approximately 4-5 of them. In these magazines-where there were far more than this-stored defoliant, bombs, missiles. They were stored like in the picture with little cart like thing with a handle. These drums were white aluminum with a orange stripe on each end (depending on defoliant) which told what was inside these. On left side of these drums said "DEFOLIANT". In the center of the drum was a 5 sentence listing the nasty chemicals & the last two words were" Contains Dioxin". He says they were used on a fixed wing aircraft maybe a 115. The defoliant had two hooks, like the bombs did to attach to the planes. There would be no deck log regarding the incident with the forklift, he has checked. There were only operations listed. I have a picture of AO on Kittyhawk which I am happy to e-mail this to share with any other vets needing help. Obviously proof of just this picture is not enough for the VA to help someone who risked his life for his country. My dad lives in Arlington, WA. His health is not good-his quality of life is very poor.
If you want to see this photo-go to main page of this website-select photos-select photo album-select photo memories-select photo saying "Agent Orange On USS KittyHawk".
Sandy thanks for that info, it's actually really good info. A good friend of mine in Alaska who was one of the VFW SERVICE OFFICERS at the VA clinic once told me that any evidence can be considered and I remember the staffer in charge of the benefits unit at the Alaska VA also said her unit did everything they could to use supporting evidence. Hope this info is helpful to Cindy but I think photographic evidence is great.
