VETERANS DAY MARKS FINAL PHASE OF FAIRBANKS-BASED AGENT ORANGE CLASS ASSISTANCE PROGRAM

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 8, 1995

Fairbanks, Alaska - A program created with funding from the settlement of the Agent Orange class action lawsuit is entering its fifth and final year of service to Alaskans who served in the Vietnam War. The Agent Orange Class Assistance Program (AOCAP) was established in 1988.

Since its establishment, AOCAP has distributed more than $60 million in grants to 89 organizations throughout the country to support social and human services for Vietnam veterans and their families.

Projects receive grants from a portion of the settlement money in the lawsuit filed in 1977 against seven chemical companies supplying herbicides used in the U.S. war effort in southeast Asia from 1961 - 1972. Vietnam veterans claimed their exposure to the chemical herbicide Agent Orange caused a variety of illnesses and birth defects to them, their spouses and their children.

In Fairbanks, a grant from AOCAP helped create The Other Forgotten Warriors Project, a cooperative community counseling and outreach program between the University of Alaska Fairbanks community psychology program and the Fairbanks Vet Center. Created in 1991, The Other Forgotten Warriors Project has served some 350 Alaska Vietnam Veterans and their families.

"It is part of the legacy of the Vietnam War that 20 years after its end, there are still people who are suffering from the results of that war," said Tima

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Priess, program coordinator of The Other Forgotten Warriors Project, which operates out of the Fairbanks Vet Center.

AOCAP will provide project funding through June 30, 1996. "This means that services placing special emphasis on counseling Vietnam veteran families and outreaching to Alaska Native veterans and their families living in Bush Alaska will end next summer," said Priess.

Priess says many Native Vietnam veterans and their families have little access to services because they live in remote areas of the state. One way the project has helped reach Native Alaskans is through production of a short documentary, "Soldier's Heart: The Warrior's Journey in Alaska."

"I've interviewed veterans, their families and front-line care providers in villages throughout the state and a common thread emerged in all these discussions — the need for cultural knowledge of war, warriorship and healing, and how trauma of war impacts families and communities," Priess said.

Funding is still actively being sought to complete a longer, 58-minute version of the film to provide a lasting legacy of the service and sacrifices of Alaska Native veterans and their families, said Priess. She also says the film has been just one way AOCAP funding has provided services to Vietnam veterans in Alaska by encouraging a dialogue on the trauma caused by war.

"Veterans Day is a reminder that while parades may honor veterans and their sacrifices, they don't provide the real help and understanding that some veterans and their families continue to need to survive day-to-day," Priess said.

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Note to Editors: Video clips of "Soldier's Heart" are available upon request. Please contact Tima Priess.

CONTACT: Program Coordinator Tima Priess (907) 452-8438, or UAF Public Information Officer Debra Damron (907) 474-7581.

DPD/11-8-95/96-28