The Utah Agent Orange Veterans Foundation, or UAOVF — a 501(c)(3) nonprofit co-founded by Syracuse resident and veteran Larry Kerr — approached the Layton City Parks and Recreation Department about placing a dedicated monument near the Vietnam Memorial Wall replica at Layton Commons Park, with the organization covering the costs. Later, members of the nonprofit and other veterans pitched the idea to the Layton City Council during the body’s Feb. 20 meeting.

Flash forward to now, and the placement of such a monument in the park still hasn’t been formally considered by the council. So, earlier this month, a petition was launched in an effort to raise awareness about the effort to bring the memorial to the popular park. Hannah Turk, a UAOVF vice president who coordinates fundraising for the group, says that the time to acknowledge those impacted by Agent Orange — and the sacrifices they made in serving their country — is now.

“People my age, outside of the military world that I spend most of my time in, they don’t even know what Agent Orange is,” Turk told the Standard-Examiner. “They don’t even realize how long the Vietnam War was, you know? It’s just something that has been such a controversial war.”

Agent Orange was a chemical herbicide and defoliant used tactically by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War to clear jungle cover and eradicate enemy food supply as part of a multiyear operation dubbed “Operation Ranch Hand.” Between 1962 and 1971, the U.S. Air Force sprayed some 19 million gallons of herbicides over roughly 3.6 million acres in South Vietnam, 11 million gallons of which were Agent Orange.

The compound contained toxic chemicals, including 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, or TCDD, now a known carcinogen. Similar herbicides were also used in places like Thailand and the Korean Demilitarized Zone. According to literature from the Cleveland Clinic, over 300,000 U.S. veterans and over 400,000 Vietnamese people have died as a result of exposure to Agent Orange.

Meanwhile, living veterans who were exposed and their progeny continue to be impacted.

“This stuff could stay in your body and you never know when it’s going to manifest,” Kerr, who served in the Air Force from 1965 to 1985, told the Standard-Examiner. “A lot of us make light of it that it’s the gift that keeps on giving. That’s mostly true. It gets in your system and the lipid highway and things. It’s (still affecting) our grandkids … and the nurses and their reproductive systems.”

For his part, Kerr has experienced a multitude of health issues, beginning shortly after his return from Vietnam.

“I came back in ’68 and met my now wife here in Utah and got married in December,” Kerr said. “By February and March, I was up at the Air Force Base Hospital getting an organ removed.”

Kerr has battled cancer and suffered cardiovascular events such as heart attack and stroke as well, and he’s seen friends take their own lives after receiving terminal diagnoses or failing to secure benefits through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, or VA.

Over time, the VA has acknowledged the connection between Agent Orange exposure and a litany of health conditions. However, that work is still being done and some continue to struggle with getting the assistance they need, a problem that extends well beyond America’s borders.

“Who I really feel sorry for, though, are the Vietnamese people that had to live there and go through the regime change and still survive and try to live there and raise their food and crops and things like that,” Kerr said. “I’ve seen (pictures) that will just make you cry. The suffering that they go through is far more than what we go through.”

Said Turk: “Agent Orange, for lack of a better word, has really extended the horrid legacy of the Vietnam War. I tell people this all the time — the Vietnam War ended 50 years ago this year, but it’s still being fought. The battlefield is just in hospitals and treatment centers.”

It’s the hope of Kerr, Turk and others involved with UAOVF that Layton City will allow them the opportunity to honor those who died long after the conflict ended, as well as those who are still suffering today, alongside the more than 58,000 U.S. service members who died during the war. Not just for themselves, but for veterans from other wars who have died or battled long-term health conditions due to exposure to dangerous substances and situations — and those who could suffer in the future.

“I spend most of my time with 70-year-olds and a lot of them, unfortunately, because of Agent Orange and its impact, they’re not doing well,” Turk said. “They’re not going to have longevity, and if we don’t keep talking about it, then history is going to repeat itself.”

According to Turk, about $30,000 has been raised for the planned 8-by-10-foot memorial thus far; UAOVF continues to solicit donations to fully fund its construction and placement. To donate or for more information, go to https://www.agentorangeheroes.org/. To sign the online petition, go to https://www.change.org/p/approve-agent-orange-memorial-in-layton-commons-park/.