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More Guinea Pigs

By Ray Parrish

Ray Parrish,
Chicago Chapter

Persian Gulf War veterans are experiencing a variety of medical problems that the US military says are "stress induced." Given the nature and severity of these ailments, the government's assertion is ridiculous. These veterans were exposed to the never-before-encountered hyper polluted atmosphere produced by the burning oil fields and never-before-used experimental drugs that were supposed to provide protection from chemical and biological weapons. Medical science has little or no experience in either of these areas.

Symptoms include fatigue, headache, weight loss, hair loss and discoloration, memory loss, skin rashes and growths, a "pins-and needles" sensation or a loss of sensation in various areas, confusion, nervousness, muscular weakness and spasm, respiratory problems, deterioration of other organs, impotence, infertility, miscarriage, and birth defects.

The military, as always, claims that it made efforts to protect the troops. Respirators, protective clothes and masks were issued to some troops. Given the climate, the strenuous duties required, and impatient work-detail leaders, it should come as no surprise that these were rarely used.

Several experimental anti-chemical and anti-biological warfare drugs were use in the Persian Gulf. Some were given in pill form and some were injected. Different drugs were given to various units. Records were supposed to have been maintained, but field conditions resulted in more than a few paperwork errors.

The use of these drugs is seldom mentioned in the popular media, and it's not because there is any doubt that they were used. A GI filed a lawsuit against the Army because he didn't want to take these drugs. The court decided that the enlistment contract was all the permission that the military needed to force uniformed personnel to become experimental animals.

Congress has urged the VA to begin a "registry" of Persian Gulf vets in order to track the occurrence and progress of these problems. While this sound good, it means that the VA will have a monopoly on the information needed to resolve this issue. Based upon the VA's past behavior of concealing information concerning the medical problems faced by GIs exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam, it will be many years and deaths before the whole truth comes out, if ever.

Persian Gulf vets need to get organized; they then need to collect and evaluate their medical documents in a search for patterns. Congress must get the military to release all information on the experimental drugs used in the Persian Gulf. These data have to be systematically analyzed to demonstrate cause and effect. Combined with all of this is the contamination that we get simply by breathing and eating..and let's not forget the unique hazards faced by all GIs: food with unknown contents, armor and artillery shells made from "depleted" (but still radioactive) uranium, equipment treated with hazardous fungi-herbicides..and the list goes on.

The real issue, as ever, is money. If the issues raised by Atomic bomb and Agent Orange vets were addressed, then millions of civilians affected by radioactive or toxic contaminants would be due compensation. The large oil, power and defense contractors, and perhaps even the federal government, would have to pay. The true cost of our society's reliance upon nuclear power, chemicals and military intervention would become obvious to the consumers and taxpayers who would be forced to pay.

The veterans of the Persian Gulf war join these other vets as society's "canaries" : those small birds into coal mines where their deaths warned the miners of the presence of dangerous methane gas. As a result of these earlier "canaries," we now know that we are endangered by radio-active waste and dioxin permeating the food chain. Now we may learn that pollution and genetic engineering will hammer two more nails into our collective coffin.

As an individual and as a veteran, there is something that you can do. Based upon your experiences, send ANY information that you think might be relevant in educating the public to Ray Parrish at CMCM, 59 E. Van Buren, # 1400, Chicago, IL 60605.