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Chemical Company Hit: "Ranch Hands' Revenge"By VVAWSunday morning, May 6, 1984, was a bright sunny day, a perfect day for a Milwaukee Agent Orange demonstration to mark the start of the Agent Orange class action suit. We called it "Operation Ranch Hand's Revenge." We are unlucky enough to have a Hercules chemical company plant that we could target. About 6 month before the announcement of the trial, this factory was discussed at a meeting and, at that time, we decided that a car convoy to the site followed by a rally would be just right. On Sunday morning there were 43 people in 10 cars lined up on a neighborhood street. The action was regional in scope with people coming from the Quad Cities area of Iowa, from Chicago, from Madison and other cities in southeast Wisconsin. We had leafleted the block where the convoy started and the neighborhood the factory was in. And we had cartop loudspeaker system so that along the route we could talk to the people. I flashed back on May 6, 1968, my second day in the 'Nam. I was being sent north from Dong Ha to Can Viet by swift boat. I figured, unlike by river convoy 16 years earlier, this convoy was the beginning of the end of a 5-year struggle. Little did we know how fast things could change by the next day. The convoy went well and we arrived at the Hercules plant at high noon. After we unfurled the banner, we hit them with our first cadence: Dow, Monsanto, Hercules, We looked good, felt good and the weasly chemical company executive was at the plant gate smiling weakly. We had good press coverage and picketed about 35 minutes. Before we left we held a rally at the north end of the plant. Just like clock work Maude DeVictor pulled up in a car from Chicago. We owe a lot of thanks to this brave sister who exposed Agent Orange in the first place. We ended May 6th with a house party—a good day's work. Little did we know that May 7th would present us with a whole new battle to be fought and won.
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