Yes, Brian, I know how you feel. In my job, we pretty much knew, from day to day, where the VC or RVN were, thus we knew where our troops were targeting and inserting.

I was fortunate enough to put the war as behind me as I could. My brother, not so lucky. He spent his life on the street. I spend mine with DoD and USCBP. I sometimes wonder what my legacy will be, if any. Yours is right here in these forums. Thanks for founding this group of folks who, in my book, are the salt of the earth. One could be cynical about the purity of the human race until they share in this forum and see the goodness in the folks who come together here in a sad brotherhood and sisterhood.

I'm cannot honestly say I believe in heaven and hell but if there is a heaven, you will get your reward there.....

My husband was in Nam in 1966-67 and was in the areas heavily sprayed with Agent Orange. He bathed in it and drank it and no pill to make your drinking water safe would probably makes it safe. He was contacted by the Marine Corp years ago and is listed on the Agent Orange registry. His oncologist seems certain that AO is the cause of his BOT cancer since my husband never smoked and barely drank. I don't know if they checked for HPV when they did the biopsy but since I just tested negative for HPV I would doubt that this is the problem. And no he doesn't mess around. So I believe AO could definitely be the cause, look at the onset dates of cancer for all of you. Coincidence?

I was in Viet Nam (Marine Corps) 1966-67 but my primary cancer was on my tonsil with mets to lymphs. I have a list from the VA of 11 medical conditions associated with agent orange including all forms of leukemia, soft tissue sarcoma other than osteosarcoma chondrosarcoma Kaposi's sarcoma or mesothelioma, Hodgkin's diseasem, multiple myeloma, respiratory cancers inc. lung, bronchus, larynx and trachea, non Hodgkin's lymphoma and prostate cancer. Trying to make a claim for any other cancer would be a tough battle.
Best of luck in your battle with cancer and with the VA if you pursue that.

With a 70% chance that HPV is the cause for SCC of the BOT or Tonsils, I would recommend one get tested for HPV before I searched for other unproven causes.

My husband had bot and one of my first thoughts was about the possible contribution of agent orange. Like many of you, I did some research on it but didn't find much. My husband also started smoking when he was in Vietnam so this seemed the more likely culprit. This weekend the Chicago Tribune published a special feature entitled "Agent Orange a Lethal Legacy" on the effects of agent orange. They have an interactive map which shows the spraying missions by year, month and location. It was quite disturbing to see that my husband was there in 1969 in a location where the spraying occurred. I was curious if others on this site had seen any association between oral cancer and agent orange and found this thread. I thought I would post this info for those who are still interested.