dod tactical herbicide sites - United States Department of Defense

The History of the US Department of Defense Programs for theTesting, Evaluation, and Storage of Tactical HerbicidesABSTRACTEarly in 2006, the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) requested that the Departmentof Defense (DoD) provide: “an official compilation of locations and dates outside ofVietnam where the Department used herbicide agents, including Agent Orange, as wellas locations and dates where DoD personnel were likely exposed to these agents.” Theintent of this request was to obtain information that may be important in evaluating themerits of many veterans’ disability claims. Various estimates have circulated on theInternet as to the number of sites where veterans may have been exposed to AgentOrange and “other herbicides” used in Vietnam. There is, however, significant confusionby veterans and by the Department of Veterans Affairs as to the distinction between“commercial herbicides” used by the DoD and “tactical herbicides” used by the DoD.The belief that commercially available herbicides were simply purchased from thechemical companies and deployed directly to Vietnam is incorrect and contrary tohistorical records. Tactical Herbicides were herbicides developed specifically by theUnited States Department of Defense to be used in “combat operations.” The historyof the military development and use of tactical herbicides dates to World War II. Duringthe Korean Conflict, the DoD developed the first major tactical herbicide, HerbicidePurple, although it was never deployed. Subsequently, for Vietnam the DoD developed,tested, evaluated, and deployed five additional tactical herbicides, Herbicide Pink,Herbicide Green, Herbicide Blue, Herbicide Orange, and Herbicide White. This reportdiscusses the history of the development of the tactical herbicides, how they differedfrom commercial herbicides, and where they were tested, evaluated, stored, used (in thecase of Korea in 1968) OUTSIDE of Vietnam. Additionally, the report discusses thefinal disposition of Herbicide Orange after Vietnam. The report contains 32 leafletsidentifying different locations or multiple locations involved in same projects (e.g.,Leaflet 19 identifies 5 locations in Texas), or the multiple use of a specific location (e.g.Eglin Air Force Base, Florida). A total of 40 distinctly different locations are identified.For each leaflet, a description of the activity is given, an assessment is made of theactivity and the individuals involved in the project, and sources of the information aredocumented.3