James M. Cripps

When I filed my first claim in 2005 the DOD and the VA were very adamant that AO had never been used in CONUS, PERIOD!

In order to Substantiate my AO exposure claim I needed, first to prove that I was an MP Game Warden in 1967-1969. I needed to prove that the spraying and testing of agent orange, 24D-245T with Picloram, at Fort Gordon actually took place in 1967. Last, but most important of all, I had to show how I was directly involved and exposed, thirty eight years after the fact.

According to the VA my first denial was because I claimed that I was a Game Warden while stationed at Fort Gordon in the years 1967-1969, but the record only revealed the fact that I was a MP with a 95B20 MOS. The Army had no additional skill identifyer to substantiate that I preformed my duties as a Game Warden, and not those of an ordinary MP. At that point I realized that in order to prove my case, I needed to travel back to Fort Gordon. It was the decision to return to Fort Gordon that allowed me to come up with the air tight evidence in support of my case that I lacked.

At the BVA, I was able to furnish the judge with the spray aircraft tail number. I provided the name of the firm in Texas from which the Bell G-2 helicopter used in the spraying was leased, along with the pilot’s name. I proved the amounts, 450 gallons of orange alone, and the color names of herbicides that were used, orange, blue, and white. I furnished the exact location of the spraying and testing. I testified that the Bell G-2 had two twenty six foot spray booms attached. Each boom had six nozzles and each nozzle was set on three. They were making fifty foot swaths per sweep. Eighty six acres were involved.

It was necessary to travel to the Fort Gordon area, where I obtained and provided statements from the Fort Gordon Forester and the Fort Gordon Post Engineer, who were there and working with me during the time that I served and was involved. Both wrote sworn statements on VA forms 21-4138 stating that they remembered me by name as being the Fort Gordon Game Warden, and they swore in their written statements that it would have been my job to spray those herbicides. The Forester wrote that he had actually discovered my stash of herbicides and spray equipment in a building in the 1980s, just exactly where I said that they would be. He stated that he had actually cut the lock off of the building. I described the lock as being a railroad lock and he verified that it indeed was a railroad lock.

I also furnished a statement in support of my claim, written by the Fort Gordon Adjutant General, who had thirty five years experience in personnel and wrote the statement in support of my claim attesting to the fact that I indeed was the Fort Gordon Game Warden who served and was involved in the time period of 1967-1968, during the testing of AO.

My evidence had to be overwhelming and beyond doubt. Nothing was left to chance, and I covered all of my bases.

I furnished my Fort Gordon Game Warden badge number, my expired Richmond County GA. Deputy Sheriff credentials and my military drivers license. I presented a 1967 Fort Gordon phone book listing my office phone number and naming me as the Fort Gordon Game Warden.

The significance of producing my long ago expired Deputy Sheriff credentials was the fact that, as a military Game Warden, and in compliance with the “Posse Comitatus Act of 1878”, which removed the military from regular civil law enforcement, It was necessary that I be appointed as a Deputy Sheriff in order to have the authority to carry my weapon off post and to be able to stop and/or pursue civilians on and off post. Only MP Game Wardens carried such credentials.

The significance of the military drivers license, that expired many years ago, was the fact that only MP Game Wardens, and only MP Game Wardens, were issued a license to drive a Ford four wheel drive Bronco. Of note, there were only two Game Wardens at that time and fort Gordon only had two Ford Broncos, each of those was assigned to a Game warden.

The burial ceremony of my good friend, Army Captain Agness Bresnahan. We called her “Irish”. Her dad was a Congressman. Irish and I corresponded daily and worked feverishly together, trying desperately to prove agent orange exposure inside CONUS. Her exposure was at Fort McClellan Al, while my own exposure took place at Fort Gordon GA.

Irish died in june 2009, at her Washington hotel room from her agent orange illnesses the night before her hearing. Her claim died with her. I carried on and in November 2009, I won the very first AO exposure claim for exposure at a military post or base inside CONUS, just five months after her death. Irish’s last request was to be burried at Arlington Nnational Cemetery. I really wish that she would have won the first case, or at least lived to see me win it.

A novel, written by Kaylon Bruner Tran. (left) a promenent Vanderbilt professor/author presenting me, James M. Cripps (right) with an autographed copy of her 2021 novel containing the Conus agent orange win. (Book 2 of a three book series) “Agent Orange Trigogy”.

Kaylon Bruner Tran was a guest speaker, attending the March 29th “Vietnam Welcome Home day” celebration in Springfield TN,.2023. After her presentation, I decided to buy the three volume novel that she had written. In conversation, she asked me if I had served in country, Vietnam. I said, “no, I am a Vietnam era veteran, but I did win the very first ever granted claim for agent orange exposure at a military instillation within CONUS”. She flipped to chapter sixty seven in the second volume of the series, pointed to the text, and said, “you are in my book”! She had never imagined meeting me in person, and I did not know of the existence of her novel collection.

I testified before the BVA Judge the fact that I defoliated around the Fort Gordon Controlled lakes and then often caught and ate fish from those lakes, within hours of the spraying operation. I furnished my wife’s and my original 1967 Fort Gordon Hunting and fishing license along with the documented set of orders as proof that I was on separate rations at the time to back up that statement.

Dr. George Dewey Dunn, The “Tennessee Valley Health Care Clinitian” at the Nashville Tn. VA Hospital made the connection when he preformed my Agent Orange Exam in 2005. He concluded that my disease of Chloracne was a “bio marker, a tell tell sign” of my Dioxin exposure. Dioxin is the contaminnant that is contained in agent orange. Dioxin is the deadliest substance known to man! Dioxin is man made, as it does not occur in nature.

KL Bruner

March 30  · 

Yesterday was Vietnam Veterans Memorial Day. I was privileged to attend the memorial ceremony at the Agent Orange Memorial in Springfield, TN. One of the special moments was meeting James Cripps. It was his lawsuit against the U.S. Veterans Administration that led to public awareness that Agent Orange had been used in the United States. He approached me at the memorial service because he wanted me to know his story. Mr. Cripps was surprised that I was already familiar with it and even more surprised to learn he is Chapter 67 in my second book “Lives Intertwined.”

The following was written by KL Bruner about March,2023.

March 30  · 

Yesterday was Vietnam Veterans Memorial Day. I was privileged to attend the memorial ceremony at the Agent Orange Memorial in Springfield, TN. One of the special moments was meeting James Cripps. It was his lawsuit against the U.S. Veterans Administration that led to public awareness that Agent Orange had been used in the United States. He approached me at the memorial service because he wanted me to know his story. Mr. Cripps was surprised that I was already familiar with it and even more surprised to learn he is Chapter 67 in my second book “Lives Intertwined.”

The Orange Heart Wall of Honor in Springfield Tn. March 29, 2023

My name as carved on the Agent Orange wall.

My Richmond County Georgia deputy sheriff credentials. Ordinary MPs were not appointed as Deputy Sheriffs. Only Game Wardens carried those credential in order to be able to stop, search and arrest a civillian and to carry a weapon off of the military instillation.

I furnished a statement written for me by a Doctor who was involved in AO research and employed by the CDC in Atlanta GA in support of my exposure. I submitted a statement from the Georgia State Agriculture Director as to the name and chemical designation of the herbicide that I sprayed. That being 24D-245T.

My most overwhelming proof of AO exposure was the fact that I had Chloracne, first diagnosed on my ETS medical exam and there were many diagnosis post service including VA and civilian doctors. I had thirteen Medical opinions that concurred in the fact that the only cause of Chloracne is Dioxin exposure, Dioxin being the contaminant in AO and the other rainbow herbicides.

Arlington National Cemetary. All gave some, some gave all!

Following my AO grant in 2009 by the BVA, there have been many more claims filed, but few have prevailed.

• I am still here! Be sure to select from the top menue, and read about my Fournier’s Gangrene experience that dammed near killed me!

The three book series written by Kaylon Bruner Tran.

Thank you KBT!