Navigation Agent Orange at the SeaBee Base in Gulfport, Mississippi
Ever since the Agent Orange Act of 1991, the VA has recognized that service members’ exposure to Agent Orange and other herbicides, defoliants, and dioxins was likely to lead to a handful of diagnosable conditions later on in the Veteran’s life. These conditions include, among others, Coronary Artery Disease, Diabetes Mellitus Type II, and various forms of cancer. However, the VA has only recognized presumptive exposure to the Agent Orange for those Veterans that were boots on the ground in Vietnam or the surrounding waterways, as well as select locations in the Vietnam Theatre of war. However, it is well documented that Agent Orange was also stored stateside in a number of states. In fact, these substances were stored in mass quantities at the Naval Construction Battalion Center (NCBC) in Gulfport, Mississippi, known as the SeaBee Base.
The Department of Defense has released a memorandum detailing various areas within the United States where they concede that these herbicides were either used or stored. Among those bases are Eglin Air Force Base in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida, Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, and the NCBC base in Gulfport, Mississippi.
