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Victims Win, Lose One: Radiation & Veterans

By VVAW

Veterans and their families, victims of radiation poisoning, scored a win and a loss in recent court decisions. Vets were exposed to dangerous levels of radiation either by being sent into Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or in various nuclear tests both in this country and in the Pacific; in some cases troops were set up close to ground zero to test their reactions; in all cases, little or no precautions were taken to insure the safety of American GI's. The result has been a series of health problems, especially cancer, among the veterans and sometimes severe birth defects among the children of these vets.

The victory was in a federal court in Philadelphia where the judge denied a government motion to dismiss a suit brought by the family of Howard E. Hinkie, a radiation victim; according to the suite one son is physically and mentally handicapped and another died before his second birthday as a result of their father's exposure to radiation during atomic tests in Nevada in 1955. By allowing the suit to continue the judge, in effect, said that the law which grants the government immunity from suits by service-people or veterans does not apply to the families.

In a second case the Third Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the claims of a veteran who sued officers and the Atomic Energy Commission for violating his human rights by making him into a guinea pig and exposing him to nuclear blasts. The court, with two justices dissenting, said allowing his claim would be detrimental to military discipline and further that the VA provides adequate care for veterans. All that decision proves is that the justices have never tried to get medical care from the VA.

Vets and their families who are suffering from Agent Orange poisoning are closely watching all the steps taken by our brothers who were exposed to radiation; every precedent set in their struggle is one which will use in the future.