[null, null, {"document_url": "http://www.guampdn.com/story/news/2017/01/07/air-force-veteran-72-alleges-agent-orange-use-guam/96274458/", "unformatted_src": "https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/fff804b4f0d3c5bfec2bc041d2f0645a38d47073/c=0-60-2228-1735&r=x404&c=534x401/local/-/media/2017/01/06/Guam/Guam/636193386388619966-andersen-gate.jpg", "src": "https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/fff804b4f0d3c5bfec2bc041d2f0645a38d47073/c=0-60-2228-1735&r=x404&c=534x401/local/-/media/2017/01/06/Guam/Guam/636193386388619966-andersen-gate.jpg", "formatted_filename": "andersen gate", "alt_text": "636193386388619966-andersen-gate.jpg"}, null, {"document_url": "http://www.guampdn.com/story/news/2017/01/07/air-force-veteran-72-alleges-agent-orange-use-guam/96274458/", "unformatted_src": "https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/9065941e142eb769bb76794c742e08d1e14ee558/r=300/http/www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/9065941e142eb769bb76794c742e08d1e14ee558/r=300/http/www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/07cfeaf4a26075842512004a9ee3e1a89b35b93a/c=533-0-2958-2425/local/-/media/2016/09/03/Guam/Guam/636084669013220071-Andersen-Air-Force-Base-03.JPG", "src": "https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/9065941e142eb769bb76794c742e08d1e14ee558/r=300/http/www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/9065941e142eb769bb76794c742e08d1e14ee558/r=300/http/www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/07cfeaf4a26075842512004a9ee3e1a89b35b93a/c=533-0-2958-2425/local/-/media/2016/09/03/Guam/Guam/636084669013220071-Andersen-Air-Force-Base-03.JPG", "formatted_filename": "Andersen Air Force Base"}, null, {"document_url": "http://www.guampdn.com/story/news/2017/01/07/air-force-veteran-72-alleges-agent-orange-use-guam/96274458/", "unformatted_src": "https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/9f2587513d77e30cba9bd2ce2fd82d7aaf17c3ae/c=111-0-3460-4465&r=183&c=0-0-180-240/local/-/media/2016/12/21/Guam/B9325366029Z.1_20161221015724_000_G51GQURC8.1-0.jpg", "src": "https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/9f2587513d77e30cba9bd2ce2fd82d7aaf17c3ae/c=111-0-3460-4465&r=183&c=0-0-180-240/local/-/media/2016/12/21/Guam/B9325366029Z.1_20161221015724_000_G51GQURC8.1-0.jpg", "formatted_filename": "B Z", "alt_text": "Delegate Forum 02.JPG", "rendered_width": 180, "rendered_height": 240}, null, {"document_url": "http://www.guampdn.com/story/news/2017/01/07/air-force-veteran-72-alleges-agent-orange-use-guam/96274458/", "unformatted_src": "https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/9065941e142eb769bb76794c742e08d1e14ee558/r=300/http/www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/9065941e142eb769bb76794c742e08d1e14ee558/r=300/http/www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/0e726299fbb574bc092e1dc3f6bc06722cd8f3c4/c=690-0-3522-2832/local/-/media/2015/10/07/Guam/Guam/635797751930085018-Solar-Farm-opens-14.JPG", "src": "https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/9065941e142eb769bb76794c742e08d1e14ee558/r=300/http/www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/9065941e142eb769bb76794c742e08d1e14ee558/r=300/http/www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/0e726299fbb574bc092e1dc3f6bc06722cd8f3c4/c=690-0-3522-2832/local/-/media/2015/10/07/Guam/Guam/635797751930085018-Solar-Farm-opens-14.JPG", "formatted_filename": "Solar Farm opens"}, null, {"document_url": "http://www.guampdn.com/story/news/2017/01/07/air-force-veteran-72-alleges-agent-orange-use-guam/96274458/", "unformatted_src": "https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/9065941e142eb769bb76794c742e08d1e14ee558/r=300/http/www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/9065941e142eb769bb76794c742e08d1e14ee558/r=300/http/www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/07cfeaf4a26075842512004a9ee3e1a89b35b93a/c=533-0-2958-2425/local/-/media/2016/09/03/Guam/Guam/636084669013220071-Andersen-Air-Force-Base-03.JPG", "src": "https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/9065941e142eb769bb76794c742e08d1e14ee558/r=300/http/www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/9065941e142eb769bb76794c742e08d1e14ee558/r=300/http/www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/07cfeaf4a26075842512004a9ee3e1a89b35b93a/c=533-0-2958-2425/local/-/media/2016/09/03/Guam/Guam/636084669013220071-Andersen-Air-Force-Base-03.JPG", "formatted_filename": "Andersen Air Force Base"}, null]








Kyla P Mora, email@example.com Published 7:02 p.m. ChT Jan. 7, 2017 | Updated 7:49 p.m. ChT Jan. 7, 2017 A sign at the front gate to Andersen Air Force Base is shown in this March 25, 2015, file photo. A second veteran has come forward to say Agent Orange was used on the base in the Vietnam War era.(Photo: PDN file foto)

âWe worked around the Tumon Tank Farm, and around the immediate storage areas along the flight line. There were 10 pump houses,â Laitres said. âWe had no problem getting into anything we had to get to. I always wondered what happened, how they cleared that out. Now I know it.â

âThey did that, on the pipeline, and thatâs a lot of mileage of defoliation,â Laitres said. âAnd so, are they going to admit it?â

Laitres, who moved back to Guam after he retired, said that he has never told anyone about the use of Agent Orange at Andersen AFB until now. He was motivated to come forward with his story after reading about 68-year-old veteran and Florida resident Leroy Foster, who recently shared his story of spraying Agent Orange at Andersen AFB during the 1960s and 1970s.

Related story: 

âIâm 72 years old. I donât know what the congresswoman is going to find out when she has her briefing,â Laitres said. âAs long as the truth gets out. Thatâs important.â

Guam Del. Madeleine Bordallo has requested a briefing from the military, detailing the handling of the toxic herbicide Agent Orange at Andersen Air Force Base during the 1960s and 1970s. Bordallo (Photo: PDN file photo)

Speaker Benjamin Cruz said an Oct. 13, 2005, decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans upheld an unidentified Air Force veteranâs claim that Agent Orange exposure while stationed at Andersen Air Force Base from Dec. 1966 to Oct. 1968 caused him to develop diabetes mellitus.

However, Agent Orange's use on Guam has never been officially verified. Therefore, even if veterans can provide dates and locations, they still may be denied benefits on the basis that they cannot prove Agent Orange was present on Guam.

Laitres said he assumed the Air Force was using âsome kind of defoliantâ to keep the brush clear. While he says he never saw anyone spraying defoliant, he does remember seeing barrels along the flight line.

“As long as the truth gets out. Thatâs important.”

Gerard Laitres

During his stay at Andersen, Laitres never saw anyone using any lawn equipment to maintain foliage, and doesnât believe it would have been possible to âcut everything that close around the pump houses, and leading up to them, and down into the refuel pits.â

Laitres volunteered for Vietnam while stationed on Guam. As a native French speaker, he knew the military needed personnel fluent in French. He wasnât accepted because, at the time, he was considered to be in a critical career field at Andersen.

In 1965, Laitres returned to the United States and transitioned to a career in high-altitude reconnaissance, working as a precision photo-processing technician. In 1968, Laitres deployedÂ to Vietnam as the NCO in charge of quality control with the 460th Reconnaissance Technical Squadron.

When he got there, Laitres said, he put two and two together: what he had seen at Andersen and what he was seeing in Vietnam.

âI spent a whole year in the jungle because we werenât allowed to put our facility on base. We were out there in the middle of nowhere,â Laitres said. âAnd guess what? They didnât use lawnmowers there, either.â
 Navy wants to keep land near Tumon Bay, defers GPA solar farm

As for the alleged use of Agent Orange on Guam, Laitres said, he âcanât blame them. It was so easy. They used Agent Orange here, and in Vietnam, we used Agent Orange and Agent White.â

Laitres knows the impact the use of these chemicals had, particularly on the Montagnard Degar tribes who assisted American forces in Vietnam.

âThe Montagnards were friends of ours. They fought with us. And we treated them like poop. Because we rained down white rain, and they didnât know it was coming, and they were soaked in that stuff,â Laitres said. âWe were killing them. And either we didnât realize it, or we didnât advertise it if we knew it.â

As for Agent Orange, Laitres said he was exposed to it on Guam and âwas swimming in it in Vietnam.â LaitresÂ has health claims pending with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

As a Vietnam veteran, any Agent Orange-related health claims Laitres may submitÂ wouldÂ likely be handled differently than those of veterans who claim exposure only on Guam. Because no official acknowledgment of Agent Orange use on Guam exists, veterans who claim exposure to the toxic chemical on Guam have largely had their claims denied.
 Bordallo requests briefing on Agent Orange use on Guam

Read or Share this story: http://www.guampdn.com/story/news/2017/01/07/air-force-veteran-72-alleges-agent-orange-use-guam/96274458/