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INTERVIEW WITH GLORIA SELLAR, THE CANADIAN
AGENT
ORANGE WHISTLEBLOWER -- For three days in 1966
and
four days in 1967, Agent Orange, the infamous
chemical
efoliant used over Vietnam by the U.S., was
sprayed over
a small area of Gagetown as part of a U.S.
military test.
For more on Agent Orange use at Base Gagetown,
use the VA Watchdog search engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/ses
search.php?q=gagetown&op=and
Story here...
http://cnews.canoe.ca/
CNEWS/Rogers/Macleans/20
07/08/23/4440765-mac.html
Story below:
-------------------------
The Macleans.ca Interview: Gloria Sellar
The Agent Orange whistleblower on being there
when Gagetown was sprayed, the toll it took and why compensation for
victims could finally be on the horizon
By KATE LUNAU -- Maclean's
A crash course in... Agent Orange
From 1963 to 1966, Gordon Sellar (who would retire with the rank of
Brigadier-General) was stationed at CFB Gagetown in New Brunswick. His
wife, Gloria, and three young children joined him there.
For three days in 1966 and four days in 1967, Agent Orange - the
infamous chemical defoliant used over Vietnam by the U.S. - was sprayed
over a small area of Gagetown as part of a U.S. military test. The
herbicide, according to the U.S. Institute of Medicine, has since been
associated with an array of medical conditions including leukemia,
prostate cancer and diabetes.
In 2004, the Canadian government granted Sellar what's widely believed
to be the first-ever medical disability pension related to his exposure.
When Sellar died months later, his wife of 60 years went public with the
news of his pension.
That revelation led to the creation of a fact-finders' project by the
federal government, which is due to release an epidemiological report -
the first ever done on the Gagetown-area population - on Tuesday.
Since breaking the news of her late husband's pension, Gloria has also
been a tireless campaigner for Agent Orange victims. She sits on the
advisory board of the fact-finders' mission, and - like everyone else -
is eagerly anticipating the report's release on Tuesday.
(Note: The above-mentioned report has
been released. You can find a story about the report here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/
nf07/nfAUG07/nf082307-4.htm
Macleans.ca: Tell me how you got involved in all this.
Gloria Sellar: My main interest in all of this, right from the very
beginning, is that it killed my own husband. We were there, in Gagetown,
staying at the hotel with the people who were doing the spraying - the
Americans with their trucks and barrels were staying across the hall
from us.
We were between houses at the time and my husband was commanding the
Black Watch [regiment]. And of course we chatted with them. [The
sprayers] would come in at night just absolutely filthy dirty, smelling
of petroleum. They were just covered with this stuff and [our] children
wondered why they were out there killing the trees.
When [Gordon] came in from the field, he'd always have this smell on
him, all over his uniform. He'd walked through [the herbicides].
Soldiers are down on their stomachs all the time - they don't stand up
or they're getting shot. So they crawled through this stuff, and walked
through it. It sprayed all the vehicles that they had. They were all
camouflaged at night in the woods and of course when they went out, in
the morning, all this stuff had dripped off the trees all over their
jeeps and what have you.
M: Tell me about when your husband came home from the field.
GS: He'd scrub and shower, and I'd take all his clothes and put them in
the washing machine. Once the soap and hot water hit them, it was
overpowering. And I laughed at myself, because there was such a smell of
petroleum I was always afraid the dryer might blow up.
One night we were both restless; it was hot. And I woke up and turned
over, and he was awake. And I said, "You know darling, you smell as if
you worked in a service station." It was in his system. It got in
through his skin. It soaked into their bodies, all of them.
M: And I'm assuming that at the time your husband didn't know Agent
Orange might be dangerous?
GS: They were constantly told there was nothing dangerous about it. That
it was perfectly alright, and just to carry on. He had no idea, and was
absolutely horrified when he found out. Because, of course, he and all
of his men had been out there - but it wasn't just them, everyone was
out there. The artillery and the service corps and the tanks. They were
all over that area.
M: When did your husband become ill?
GS: My husband became ill about 20 years before he died [on Oct. 1,
2004]. I kept saying to everyone, "This man has been exposed to Agent
Orange." By then, we were all learning what terrible stuff it was. He
was having dizzy spells, he was weak, he just wasn't himself. And he was
having appalling nosebleeds and headaches.
Our own doctor was very concerned about Gordon and had a lot of tests
run on him, and found to his horror that he had leukemia - chronic
lymphocytic leukemia, which is the most prominent disease that this
causes.
The last five years or so, he was in and out of hospital all the time.
All this was just terrible for someone like him, who'd always been such
a strong, quiet leader. He led by example and just to suddenly have all
of that on him, it was pretty awful.
M: And then you yourself got sick?
GS: Well, I have cancer. It was diagnosed in 2004; maybe it was before
Christmas. My husband had died, and I was absolutely distraught because
I'd done nothing but nurse him for 20 years. Day and night I just never
left him, and so I was utterly exhausted.
I went in to my own doctor, and I said, "I'm worried because I can feel
something in my breast." I'd had regular mammograms and they all said,
"Don't worry it's perfectly normal," but it turned out not to be. I was
told that I would have to have surgery.
This is very common among the wives of Gagetown servicemen. Many of
these women have beaten their husbands into the graveyard.
M: How are your children doing?
GS: Mine are alright, so far. But many, many other children are not. I
deal with [Agent Orange victims and their children], it's part of what I
do. They have brain tumours and clubfeet and are born deaf - all sorts
of terrible chronic illnesses which should not happen to young, healthy
people such as all of us were.
Miscarriages were very common. Nurses would say they were surprised by
the number of miscarriages that were coming out of Camp Gagetown.
M: Tell me about the pension your husband received.
GS: I applied for it as soon as I could. It was awarded in the summer of
'04. I'm very methodical - I submitted all his doctors' reports and
everything. We sent it all off, and they did look after him. Our doctor
specified [that his illness was likely related to Agent Orange].
M: And it was the first medical pension awarded to a veteran in
connection with the use of Agent Orange at Gagetown?
GS: I believe so. Some people say it was the second, but I wouldn't
haggle over a point. It was a groundbreaking thing.
M: When did you decide to go public with the news of the pension Gordon
received?
GS: After Christmas, it seemed to me that nothing was happening, so I
decided to publish. And it took more courage than I had. I phoned the
editor of the Globe and Mail - they'd already done a wonderful obituary
on Gordon, and I'd written on him too.
So, the Globe and Mail had their journalists and photographer ready;
they were to come and to interview me on the Agent Orange part of this.
Then Belinda Stronach crossed the floor. And they phoned me and said,
"Can you wait a week, because everyone's rushed off to Ottawa for this
big news about Belinda?" And I said, "I'm sorry, I can't." The reason
that I couldn't was that I was booked for surgery in less than a week,
but I didn't tell the editor why.
I phoned my son that night, and I told him what had happened. I said,
"It took all of my courage to gather this up, and now it isn't going to
happen." And he said, "As a matter of fact, I'm having Greg [Weston]
over for dinner," who was at Sun Media.
Greg phoned me the next morning, woke me up, and said, "I've got to have
this story. I'll be down there in two hours." He went through all of
these files and papers and clippings and everything else that I had, and
wrote that wonderful article that appeared in the Sun.
That lit up the switchboards. Because at this stage, we all knew that
something was terribly wrong, but no one was talking about it. And this
blew the whistle.
M: Because nobody knew a pension had been awarded?
GS: That's right, and I wanted people to know. And Gordon had said,
"You've got this through for me; now see what you can do for my
soldiers." So that was my impetus right there. My husband and I were
very much in love.
M: And now the first-ever epidemiological study is due out Tuesday. Do
you think its contents could push the government to finally announce
compensation?
GS: Probably, if they're going to be pushed. Veterans Affairs Minister
Greg Thompson has said that he hopes to have an announcement by Labour
Day weekend, and I will be down in Gagetown at that time. Minister
Thompson is a nice man - he thinks very kindly of these people.
It's all in the hands in the government. All we can do is send in our
reports and information. Ideally the government should compensate anyone
who was exposed. Some people, I'm sure, will be happy, and others I'm
sure will not. That's always the case. I would hope they'd at least be
able to move forward.
-------------------------
Larry Scott --
