- Dear Mr. Secretary,
-
- I am writing to urge you to officially Service Connect
all Persian Gulf Veterans as a result of Combat Wounds. The evidence is
clearly showing that low levels of Sarin and possibly other Chemical weapons,
as well as the use of medications and vaccines, are contributing and causing
our illnesses.
-
- I can't speak for all, but I can tell you this for myself.
After Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, I volunteered to be deployed
for the simple reason of setting the Kuwaiti's free. To help those that
couldn't help themselves.
-
- As a Navy Hospital Corpsman I was sent to Saudi Arabia
with the 2nd Medical Battallion, 2nd FSSG, 2nd Marine Division. We first
arrived in Al Jubayl on Christmas Eve 1990. We stayed at a work camp, unloaded
ships at the port, and awaited our orders to move into the desert. On the
night that the Air Campaign began we were still in Al Jubayl. We finally
moved up to an area just south of Kuwait called Kibrit on Jan. 20, 1991.
We spent alot of time digging and filling sandbags for bunkers and trenches,
performing guard duties, mass casualty drilling, and setting up our field
hospital.
-
- Several nights the chemical alarms went off. Not just
the automatic ones, but many alarms were also flares sent up by other units,
so it wasn't just our own alarms. Many of these alarms were attributed
to Diesel Smoke from vehicles. I couldn't see how everyone's (surrounding
units )alarms could go off from vehicles at the same time.
-
- The same night that the Iraqi's faux surrendered and
then attacked at Khafji, our area was about to be hit by an enemy tank
division. We were put into MOPP level 4 and sent into our bunkers. The
Army's Tiger Division came up from the south and quickly stopped them.
They were within earshot of our position. While we were in our bunkers
the alarms went off again and it was again attributed to diesel smoke.
However, the next morning, first thing, we were ordered to turn in ALL
Mopp Gear worn the previous night INCLUDING protective mask filters and
their filter covers. I found this action to be quite strange if we hadn't
been exposed to anything other than diesel smoke.
-
- We spent most of our actual medical time treating the
enemies wounded. I was sent more than once to a Prisoner of War camp to
treat them as they were interned. I'm not even sure what all of them had
been exposed to, but I knew they needed our help to survive. I did so without
bias or prejudice, just as I promised when I took my Corpsman Oath. After
the cease fire went into affect we returned to Jubayl and stayed at the
Marine Corps Hospital there. Myself and several others in my unit were
then trained in "Agricultural Customs Inspection" and sent to
work at the vehicle wash stations around the area, there were several.
The vehicles that were being washed and inspected had been deep into Kuwait
and Iraq. Several vehicles had caked on oil from the Kuwaiti fields set
ablaze, sand from all over, and who knows what else.
-
- Inspecting the vehicles required us to get underneath
and crawl all over them while there was still water running heavily off
of them. Naturally we were soaked with this during every inspection. Many
of the vehicles that we inspected were Iraqi vehicles, many of them had
been hit by Depleted Uranium Rounds more than likely.
-
- We left Saudi Arabia in late March or Early April to
return home. That's when I started noticing changes in my own health. I
know now that when it comes to the Veterans Administration and post-service
dealings that I should have went to the clinics and had it all well documented
before my release from active duty, but I was worried that they would just
say that it was in my head, nothing wrong, you're a malingerer, you're
dishonorably discharged. Now of course it would help if I had that documented,
but then again, if I were to be dishonorably discharged I would not be
eligible for any VA Benefits. See the Catch-22?
-
- Now I suffer from a neurological disease that is similar
to Parkinson's Disease, but with a couple twists. My civilian neurologist
attributes the cause as "chemically induced" damage to my Basal
Ganglia area of my brain. The chemical agent Sarin in low levels, according
to several studies, damages the same area of the brain that many neurological
diseases occur in. These diseases at the least should be considered Service
Connected due to combat wounds as you can't really pinpoint the causes
until the individual has expired. We need good medicine, good support,
and good customer service from the VA , not just for the original Gulf
War Veterans, but for the hundreds of thousands of "new" Gulf
War Veterans, Bosnia Veterans, Enduring Freedom Veterans, and the Veterans
of ALL future conflicts.
-
- Let's face it Mr. Secretary, there aren't as many people
volunteering to join the military for reasons like; "They won't take
care of us after we serve", "They'll say I'm mentally ill",
"They'll send us die, and if we don't they'll just wait until we do
to bring out the truth". Sir, I've heard those reasons and more. It
really bothers me. I'm bothered by this because I still believe in the
reason that I volunteered to serve my country and go to war for those that
couldn't, to help anyone in the field that needed my care, to serve not
just my country but also humankind.
-
- If I physically could I would join those that are serving
again, even knowing what all I've been through, sacrificed, and suffered.
I have the heart of a patriot. I have went to war and came home sick. I
feel like I've been largely forgotten about. I held up my end of the deal.
I'm not asking for more medals. ALL that I ask is that the truth be told
and a promise followed through with.
-
- ALL Persian Gulf War Veterans that are ill should be
given Service Connection for their injuries and justly compensated for
these injuries. I thank you, Mr. Secretary.
-
- Sincerely, Keith V. Romine
- Navy/ Marine Corps Persian Gulf Veteran
-
- Posted to the NGWRC Web 1/15/2003 2:21:22 PM
-
-
- More Clues To Gulf War Vets' Illnesses
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- Insecticides, Anti-Nerve Gas
Drug Linked To Infetility In Soldiers
-
-
By Kathleen Sullivan
- San
Francisco Chronicle<http://www.ngwrc.org/%3E>
-
- A trio of chemicals used to protect troops against insect-borne
diseases and nerve gas poisoning during the Gulf War -- substances expected
to be used in any future attack on Iraq -- may be the cause of infertility
and sexual dysfunction among veterans of the 1991 war. That is the conclusion
of researchers at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina whose
study based on animal experiments will be published today in the Journal
of Toxicology and Environmental Health. Mohamed Abou-Donia, professor of
pharmacology and cancer biology at Duke and one of the study's authors,
said some cells responsible for the production and maintenance of sperm
were damaged or killed by exposure to the three substances when combined:
the insect repellent DEET, the insecticide permethrin and an anti-nerve
gas drug known as pyridostigmine bromide, or PB. "It appears moderate
stress, combined with the three chemicals, caused the most severe deterioration
in testicular structure and sperm production, and these conditions were
likely experienced by some Gulf War soldiers in the combat environment,"
Abou-Donia said. He said the Department of Defense had funded the study
because Gulf War veterans had expressed concern about infertility and sexual
dysfunction.
-
- The study is one of many investigating the causes of
Gulf War illnesses, the puzzling array of medical problems that plague
men and women who served in the Persian Gulf. According to epidemiological
studies, about 200,000 Gulf War veterans -- out of 700,000 deployed --
have suffered illnesses since the war. During the war, troops were exposed
to pesticides, chemical warfare agents, biological warfare agents, vaccines,
PB (pyridostigmine bromide), infectious diseases, depleted uranium, oil
well fires and smoke and petroleum products. Veterans have long wondered
what role exposure to that "cocktail" of substances has played
in their ailments.
-
- EXPOSURE AFFECTED FAMILY LIFE
-
- Steve Robinson, executive director of the National Gulf
War Resource Center, a Washington, D.C., advocacy group for ailing veterans
and their families, said no one kept statistics on how many Gulf War veterans
suffered from infertility. But Robinson said he had seen the emotional
-- and financial -- devastation those problems had caused in their families.
"I know families who have spent their life savings trying to have
children and have gone under," he said. "I've seen marriages
crumble. It's a big deal." Barbara Goodno, a spokeswoman for the Pentagon's
Deployment Health Support office, which advises the agency on protecting
the health of troops, declined comment, saying the office had not seen
the study. Professor Abou-Donia said soldiers had sprayed DEET on their
skin, and several thousand of them wore uniforms impregnated with the pesticide
permethrin. In addition, 250,000 men and women took PB pills as a "pretreatment"
to enhance the antidote effects of two other drugs used to protect against
nerve agent poisoning.
-
- RATS SHOW NO OUTWARD SIGNS
-
- Abou-Donia said researchers mimicked conditions found
during the Gulf War by exposing rats to a scaled-down dosage of the same
three chemicals. "Interestingly, the chemically treated rats don't
look or behave any differently than normal rats, just as the soldiers don't
show any outward signs of disease," he said. "But under a microscope,
you can see clear and well-defined damage to a variety of testicular structures."
In a study published last year, Abou-Donia and fellow researchers found
that rats exposed to the same trio of chemicals and stress suffered significant
damage to the areas of the brain that control muscle strength and movement,
balance and coordination, and memory and emotions. Abou-Donia noted that
veterans had complained of problems in those very same functions for more
than a decade.
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- Posted to the NGWRC Web 1/10/2003 10:01:50 AM
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