Jerry Deible of Murrysville can remember standing on the ground at a Vietnam firebase in the early 1970s, staring up at a massive C-130 airplane passing overhead.
He craned his head back and snapped a photo of the plane as liquid streamed down from tanks strapped to its sides. The C-130 was spraying Agent Orange, an herbicidal defoliant that got its name from the orange band wrapped around the drums it came in.
While there were other chemicals used to thin the triple-canopy Vietnamese jungles, Agent Orange accounted for 12 million of the 20 million gallons dropped over an area roughly the size of Massachusetts, according to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.
After more than 15 years of denying that the dioxin in Agent Orange was linked to cancers, birth defects and other medical issues with Vietnam veterans, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs was empowered in 1991 to declare a range of 19 diseases as probable effects of Agent Orange exposure, including several cancers.
But its poisonous legacy has gone largely unacknowledged by the federal government.
“We were told it was perfectly safe,” said Deible, 76. “There were guys who’d go around the border of the firebase with jungle pants, boots and no shirts on with a pump tank of Agent Orange strapped to their backs, spraying it all over.”
Deible has joined with Murrysville Alliance Church Pastor Dan Lawrence to host an April 12 ceremony presenting Vietnam veterans with recognition from the nonprofit Orange Heart Medal Foundation. The foundation was created by Vietnam veteran Ken Gamble, who was diagnosed with cancer as a result of Agent Orange exposure.
“This is recognition not by the federal government, but by one of their veteran brothers,” Lawrence said. “Jerry came to me and said he felt like we needed to do something to recognize our vets dealing with this. We can’t forget.”
The foundation’s name comes from the medal presented to participating veterans, which is an orange heart with the letters “A” an “O” on either side of an outline of Vietnam.
“When the Purple Heart was commissioned, it was the only award permitted to be in the shape of a heart,” Deible said. “But when Ken Gamble started the foundation, he got permission from the government to make it in the same shape.”
The foundation was created in Tennessee, where the state legislature was the first in the nation to pass a law recognizing veterans affected by Agent Orange, in 2019. Nine additional states have joined Tennessee in the years since. In early 2024, the Pennsylvania Legislature convened a task force with the goal of helping better communicate treatment options to exposed veterans.
Vietnam veterans or their surviving spouses can fill out an application to take part in the April 12 ceremony and receive an Orange Heart. Applications are available at MurrysvilleAllianceChurch.org.
Deible and Lawrence said poor treatment of Vietnam veterans returning to the U.S. after the war was compounded years later by a lack of recognition that millions of them had been exposed to a toxic herbicide.
“The thinking today goes, if you were boots-on-the-ground in Vietnam, you were exposed to Agent Orange in some way,” Deible said.
Said Lawrence: “When these guys talk to me about how they came home and all that transpired, it’s heartbreaking. We’re saying to the community: Let’s come together, pay respect to our Vietnam vets, acknowledge that Agent Orange is a real thing and not walk away from it.”
Medals have been given to more than 11,000 veterans during the nonprofit’s short history.
The public is invited to attend the April 12 event, which will start with an 11:30 a.m. luncheon at the church, 4130 Old William Penn Highway in Murrysville, followed by the medal ceremony.
Applications are due by March 30. For more information or to RSVP, call 724-327-7206 or email office@murrysvillealliancechurch.org. For more on the foundation, see OrangeHeartMedal.org.