Forwarded courtesy of Bob "Gibbo" Gibson - Duty First (
D&E
Platoon Rifleman -
Vietnam) - 1967-oct1968.
AUSTRALIA
If you drank milk in 'Nam
between 1965 and 1972 you ingested Agent
Orange and a variety of other
herbicide residues.
As you may know, the Foremost Milk Company (now out of business in
the
US) based in
Los Angeles held the DOD contract
for the
US
military's milk supply in So'east Asia. Before and after shipping
packaged 'finished milk' in its distinctive orange/white
containers, Foremost shipped a milk concentrate to 'Nam
which was
to be mixed with water. Unfortunately the water used was taken
from the
Saigon
River which, DOD belatedly
learned, was infested
with herbicide drainage. Foremost
USA went defunct several
years
ago but Foremost Vietnam is still in operation.
Milk became an essential export by the USG to
Vietnam after 1967
after doctors in the States discovered they were treating large
numbers of
Vietnam vets suffering
from gastroenteritis and other
colon inflammatory illnesses due to lack of the enzyme used by the
intestines to digest milk. If a person continues to drink milk
their body will continue to produce the enzyme (kind of like a wet
nurse who continues to manufacture breast milk for decades after
giving birth as long as her milk continues to be suckled.)
However, if a person stops drinking milk their body stops
producing the enzyme. Because milk was not as available in 'Nam
during
America's early deployment
thousands of Americans assigned
to
Vietnam gradually stopped
producing the enzyme... but when they
returned back to The World the first thing they consumed in large
quantities was milk... which made them sick because they could no
longer adequately digest it.
As a result, Foremost was contracted to ensure there was always a
large supply of milk for GI's to consume. Unfortunately, the high
demand resulted in its
Vietnam production being
mixed with tainted
water. Hence, many American's who served in
Vietnam but had no
direct contact with herbicide distribution or deployment
contracted the chemicals through the milk they drank.