Agent Orange presentation today

Dick Phenneger, the founder and president of the nonprofit Veterans Services Transparency, is giving a presentation today on the lasting effects of Agent Orange on Vietnam veterans in North Idaho.

The presentation will be at the North Idaho College student union building in the Driftwood Bay room at 10:30 a.m. The presentation is one of many during NIC’s Veterans Appreciation Week.

Phenneger, a Vietnam veteran himself, has spent the last few years researching how the U.S. government handled data and other information regarding the effects of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.

In 2012, he conducted a survey with the help of the Coeur d’Alene Press to assess the damage of Agent Orange to veterans in North Idaho. He found about 20 percent of the Vietnam veterans living in Kootenai County had deformed children as a result of their contact with Agent Orange during the war.

“I think people should know what our government did. They sprayed Agent Orange, knowing it causes death and illness, and we went ahead and sprayed anyway,” Phenneger said. “This is a major factor in the character of our own country.”