My husband was a good Marine, a good American, and a strong, good man until he ran into a substance called Agent Orange, a dangerous herbicide which got its name from the orange stripes on the 55-gallon drums in which the stuff was stored. Unfortunately, back in 1968 he was with the U.S. Marines in Hue City when the U.S. was spreading the stuff to clear out the jungle foliage where the Viet Cong were hiding. By the early 1970's my husband started developing several of the diseases that have been traced to the poisonous effects of exposure to Agent Orange. Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), diabetes, chronic heart disease, asthma, and panic attacks are just the ones we know about so far. He is clearly not a healthy man, and my once tough marine sergeant now has to take 23 pills per day to cope with those problems. However, there are many other "orange" diseases that we could still encounter. Birth defects in our children or grandchildren, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, soft tissue sarcomas, peripheral neuropathy, multiple myeloma, and on and on - there is a very long list of other horrible-sounding ailments that could still affect him . . . and me. He is still a good American and a good man who would gladly serve his country again, but somewhere along the line - alas! -- Agent Orange destroyed the career of a proud, patriotic, and brave Marine Sergeant.

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