Norwich — Gerry Wright will return to the road Sunday — his 71st birthday — in his unending quest to grow support for Vietnam veterans plagued by the effects of exposure to Agent Orange, the herbicide used as a defoliant in Southeast Asia some 50 years ago.

Having sprayed the stuff from the back of a truck during two tours in Vietnam, Wright’s among the victims.

At a press conference Wednesday at Otis Library, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, stood with Wright, helping call attention to Wright's drive to win support for the Agent Orange Exposure Fairness Act, a bill that would eliminate the one-year “manifestation period” for certain illnesses linked to Agent Orange.

Currently, veterans diagnosed with any of three particular diseases — chloracne, certain forms of porphyria, and neuropathy — must demonstrate they developed symptoms within a year of Agent Orange exposure to qualify for medical and disability benefits. Other diseases linked to Agent Orange do not involve such a requirement.

Courtney introduced House versions of the bill in 2018 and 2019, and Blumenthal has done the same in the Senate.

“Gerry Wright is tireless, relentless … in his advocacy for veterans,” said Blumenthal, recalling that he invited Wright to be his guest at President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address earlier this year. Watching Wright buttonhole senators as they were dining the night before the address “was a sight to behold,” Blumenthal said.

Mayor Peter Nystrom, several veterans and others attended the press conference.

Wright, of Andover, wore a T-shirt with: “We Came Home and Death Came With Us" on the back. He said he motorcycled more than 10,000 miles through 32 states last year, stopping to speak at coffeehouses and rallies and gathering petition signatures. He’ll set out again Sunday and plans to cover about 500 miles a day as he makes his way to Chicago, then heads north to Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana and beyond.

He said he suffers from heart disease, a skin rash, neuropathy and post-traumatic stress disorder. He said he never heard about Agent Orange’s effects until the late 1970s and first had his medical claims denied in 1981.

Courtney said Wright has built a considerable following on a Facebook site, “Sprayed and Betrayed,” and that he was struck by a photograph of a shirtless Wright on top of a truck in Vietnam, spray gun in his hands.

“Just a puff of smoke and you’d be covered by it,” Courtney said, referring to Agent Orange. “He (Wright) was told at age 20 that there was no harm in it. Can you imagine?”

The lawmakers said they were optimistic about the fate of the latest Agent Orange legislation, given Trump’s signing last month of the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act, which extended benefits to an estimated 90,000 service members who served on ships in the waters off the coast of Vietnam. Previously, only those who served on land and on ships close to shore were entitled to Agent Orange benefits.

The “blue water” bill had passed unanimously in both chambers of Congress.

Blumenthal said the Senate could pass the Agent Orange Exposure Fairness Act “next week” if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., would put it to a vote.

“The VA (Department of Veterans’ Affairs) could eliminate the need for legislation with the stroke of a pen,” he said, if it simply agreed to abandon the one-year “manifestation period” between exposure to Agent Orange and the development of symptoms.

Blumenthal said the department’s opposition to the bill amounts to “bogus excuses that come down to money” — the increase in benefits the government would have to pay.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com