Agent Orange and Our Children

BY JOHN ROWAN

Over the last several years we have focused on the effects of toxic exposure on the children of Vietnam veterans. But we don’t often deal with what that actually means.

On December 14 Mariann and I had the pleasure of attending a performance of Our Town: A Musical Adaptation by the DreamStreet Theatre Company (DTC). One of the stars of the show was Joseph Orban, my son Keith’s girlfriend Maggie’s brother, and the son of the late Richard John Orban, who had served in Vietnam in the Army and died from an Agent Orange-related illness.

Joey has Down syndrome but doesn’t let it slow him down a bit thanks to the support of his mother Jane. He works with kindred spirits in DTC, which was founded by the late Karuna Thompson Heisler, whose older brother Jimmy was a dancer, actor, and gay man who had Down syndrome. Unfortunately, there were no outlets in the 1950s for Jimmy to express himself and he ended up being institutionalized. Karuna sought to give people like Jimmy a chance. Her daughter Kendra continues that noble cause.

DTC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that provides education and inspiration for special needs individuals with a passion for the performing and creative arts (www.dreamstreetnyc.org). Mariann and I were so impressed that I made a $500 donation from VVA in honor of Joey’s father.

I imagine that similar programs exist in your community. I urge you and your chapters to seek these groups out and support them.

While we must continue our fight to get the VA to identify and treat the effects of toxic exposures on the progeny of veterans, we must not forget the affected individuals who need our support.

IRISH VIETNAM VETERANS

At the end of December Mariann and I traveled to Ireland for vacation. While there, my cousin Conor McCarthy, an Irish Air Force vet, took us to visit a friend, Tom Mangan. He showed us a memorial near his home in the town of Ennis in County Galway dedicated to thirty Irish-born troops who were killed in Vietnam while serving with the American and Australian military. I’ve included a photo.

The memorial was built by the Irish Veterans Memorial Project, made up of folks in the U.S. and Ireland (www.irishveteransmemorialproject.com). The original research identifying these veterans was begun by Declan Hughes in Ireland, who is involved in a group called Irish Veterans (info@irishveterans.org).

The U.S. casualties on the wall are Patrick C. Nevin, Paul I. Maher, Timothy Daly, Bernard A. Freyne (who lived near me
in Woodside, N.Y.), Michael F. Smith, John Coyle, Patrick Gallagher, Edward M. Howell, Maurice J. O’Callaghan, Terence P. Fitzgerald, John P. Collopy, Edward A. Scully, Edmund J. Landers, Anthony P. O’Reilly, Pamela D. Donovan, Phillip S. Bancroft, Brian F. McCarthy, Sean T. Doran, Peter M. Nee, John C. Driver, Martin S. Doherty, Arthur Fisher, James Byrne, Patrick McCarthy, Michael Murphy, and Michael N. Flaherty.

The Aussies are George Nagle, David G. Doyle, Robert Fleming, and Thomas Birnie. May they all rest in peace.