I am guessing that many of you may not have heard of Maude DeVictor.
She is one awesome lady. I want to tell you a little about agent orange, Maude, and the effect both have had on me. I was wading in the waters of advocacy when I
found myself neck deep in the effects of agent orange affecting so many of our Vietnam Veterans. In the year 2000, when I started forming our little vet organization, I saw a movie called Unnatural Causes....The Maude DeVictor story. The movie stuck
in my head and my husband suggested I give her a call. I thought, "I wonder if she is
still alive or what happened to her or if her phone was unlisted but I knew from the movie that she lived in Chicago. Maude became an advocate and whistleblower that
basically connected the dots of agent orange exposure, the herbicide used in the jungles of Vietnam and affected our soldiers who had served and the people of Vietnam. She was a veteran and worked for the Chicago Veterans Hospital.
UPDATE.....I was wrong about Atlanta VA.... Gainesville is much much worse than Atlanta could ever dream of being. The Malcolm Randall VA Facility in Gainesville is a joke !
I called 411 and got a Maude DeVictor's phone number and was pleasantly surprised to hear "Hello" and yes I am one and the same who was protrayed in the movie, I found out so very much that day in May and how dirty the system can get when they get caught doing what America did to our soldiers. Maude no longer had a job at the VA. She had been blackballed. Maude was a nurse and a Navy vet and a Breast cancer survivor.
Veterans for Peace Co-Founder write up
http://www.vn-agentorange.org/...
Taken from my site...United Veterans was an article I wrote and gathered from VVAW.
Some of the article was taken from VVAW and sums up the Godmother of discovery of the exposure of agent orange to our soldiers serving in Vietnam. The lady who tied the poison and illnesses of the exposure was
a VA worker named Maude DeVictor from Chicago. The movie Unnatural Causes was a hit depicting this discovery and the work of Devictor. The movie won an emmy. The true hero was not only a villan to the
government and was fired from the VA but never received her monies from the movie. How do I know this?
I spoke to Maude Devictor in the year 2000 via phone and what a nice lady she was.
I called her up and we talked about the movie being very true to life and her work at the VA being
trampled. I also spoke to some folks at the Central office in DC who do not really want to talk about
Maude. I find this very sad. She took the plight to Washington and people dismissed her but she did
get enough support from veteran organizations and veterans to accomplish something
To read the VVAW article..please visit my site and read the entire story they conducted with this lady.
Maude told me candidly that she was so befuddled over the mystery illnesses back in the 70's that led to cancer and other fatalities caused directly by this poison Dioxin.
I asked Maude, "Why is this stuff affecting the veterans in different ways " I asked how come some get cancer, others get heart disease, and some have diabetes (which has recently just been added to the list) and spinal bifida or peripheal neuropathy?
The answer was astounding, as this woman knew this chemical. She told me straight up that when the fatty tissues begin to break down with age after exposure, then certain internal organs and functions basically are just burned up from this chemical.
Think about that. Her research led to actually saying that the people exposed were burning up from inside out.
The destroyed internal workings of the human body and the DNA would make sense considering this chemical took out trees in the thick jungles of Vietnam. I have heard veteran after veteran including my husband speak of trees disappearing or die almost immediately after a spraying and then walking through a fog of this junk. The soldiers would wash their boonie hats, their clothes, their bodies, faces, all in the areas sprayed which contaminated the water. Where did the hat go? On the head. Same thing for the clothes. On the body. Maude confided to me that she never saw very much from the making the movie and starred the late John Ritter. The fact of the matter is, that Maude was living in Chicago and did not even have a computer at the time we spoke. She was unemployable and told me she hung out with vets who appreciated her work but not only was she banned from government work but also could not draw unemployment. Talk about taking on some big corporations !!!!!! Monsanto, Dow Chemical and then the government backing the corporations enough to make her totally insignificent. There is a link on here where veterans were trying to have her reinstated for government work to President Clinton. Nothing happened.
I even spoke to Don Rosenbloom at Environmenal Toxins, the gentleman who wrote the book on Agent orange at 810 Vermont about Maude and he changed the subject quickly and did not want her name brought up. Hmmmmm.
The day we invaded Iraq, I called Mr. Rosenblum and asked would there be a registry
kept for the soldiers in Iraq who were exposed to Depleted Uranium and was told yes and was sent some information. The registry has always confused me as it is IMO a tracking system to see who gets what and when from exposures because not many get compensated from agent orange even though the effects are presumptive service connected illnesses if service in Nam was between 1965 and and 1975.
They presume without evidence or suppose to, that you have this, this and this, if on the list without having to prove it. If you served in country, then our government thinks you were exposed enough to get sick. That is saying a lot. Shutting Maude DeVictor up said a lot.
When I looked Maude up online not too long ago, I saw an interview she had given to an online radio whereas she had Homeland Security called upon her when she was in a State employment line. I guess in 04 Mr. Bush felt she was a terrorist or a threat to national security. She also had made some reports regarding environmental toxins used in 83 and information regarding Sudan and still whistleblowing.
I was thinking of Maude tonight because she inspired me to do as much as I could for making veterans aware of just how much they had given to their country. I also thought of Maude because I got some news that my husband will probably be wheelchair bound from peripheal neruropathy. I will know more tomorrow. This all started with his pain and beginning to have mobility problems a couple of years ago.
He was already 100 percent disabled from PTSD which is also agent orange connected regarding chemicals and brain chemistry on top of the trauma but I just can't see this man who loves to walk and feel the earth beneath his feet, being the Native American than he is, and the nature lover of woods, being bound to a wheelchair due to this exposure and I have no doubt that is where it came from, Has anyone ever noticed most vets have a cain or wheelchair by the time they are 60? Maude noticed. I am so glad I talked with this lady for over an hour on her life with agent orange research and sorry she has paid such a high price for her whistleblowing but without the Maude's and people who out these greedy corporations who work for the MIC, we would never know what is happening to us and we probably will never know all or why.
The link to my site and the article I wrote in 09..
http://forum4.aimoo.com/...
Bits and Pieces from Unnatural Causes ..The Maude DeVictor Story