By Mike Hixenbaugh
Reginald Russell Sr., an Army veteran from Suffolk spoke up during Vietnam Veterans of America’s Faces of Agent Orange town hall meeting Saturday at the Virginia Beach Convention Center.
The forum was intended to draw attention to possible health consequences for children and grandchildren of veterans who were exposed to toxic herbicides during the Vietnam War.
Russell’s first son, born shortly after he returned from Vietnam in 1971, died inexplicably at 9 months old. His youngest son, born a few years later with a heart defect, died in 2012 at the age of 32.
“The doctors told us he would outgrow it,” said Russell, tearing up as he described the heart problem. “He didn’t outgrow it.”
Vietnam Veterans of America, which has gathered similar stories at forums across the country, is lobbying Congress to pass a bill requiring the Department of Veterans Affairs to study generational impacts of Agent Orange exposure.
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