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Louisiana VVAW Members Get First DU-Testing Bill Passed into Law

By Ward Reilly

I truthfully didn't know much about depleted uranium (DU) other than the common knowledge that DU was used in armor-piercing ammo and some heavy "bunker-buster" bombs. I had been in contact with a Gulf War vet named Dennis Kyne while doing antiwar work, and when I met Dennis in person at the School of the Americas Watch demonstrations at Ft. Benning in the fall of 2003, all that changed.

VVAW members Bob Smith (in top hat) and Ward Reilly at the Jazz Funeral for Democracy in New Orleans, 1/20/05

Dennis had been exposed to DU during Operation Desert Storm, when he served as a combat medic, and he had written a book about it. I invited him to speak at the Jazz Funeral For Democracy demonstration scheduled in New Orleans for Inauguration Day, January 20, 2005. There he met my fellow VVAW member Bob Smith, a three-combat-tour Green Beret in Vietnam, who had retired from the Louisiana National Guard as a command sergeant-major.

Bob had worked by my side for more than three years doing antiwar work, and he immediately took a deep interest in what DU was doing to our troops and the environment. He decided to do something about it, and he enlisted my help.

Bob set up a meeting with Jalila Jefferson, his New Orleans representative in the Louisiana House. What happened next I still cannot believe. She listened, as did Rep. Juan LaFonta, the New Orleans freshman, and they invited Bob and me to testify in front of the Louisiana House Committee on Military Affairs. On April 28, 2005, without batting an eye, the committee voted unanimously to send it to the full House, who voted on it two weeks later.

Then we were invited to testify again, this time in front of a similar Senate committee. I told them that I was on the draft board, and that if I was forced to send kids overseas, I wanted to be able to look them in the eye and tell them that I would take care of them when they came back.

The Senate committee voted, again unanimously, to send the bill, now officially Act 69, to the full Senate for a vote. Again the vote was unanimous, and by this time Bob and I were in shock.

Was Louisiana about to become the first state in the union to mandate testing for any and all troops coming home from the Middle East?

On June 16, only two months after our initial contact with our two New Orleans representatives, Louisiana became the first state in the nation to pass a bill to give to all military veterans returning from Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom the right to be tested for depleted uranium contamination. The bill received unanimous bipartisan support, and Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco signed it into law on June 16.

I still can't believe it! To top it all off, we did not get a single no vote from either party in both the House and the Senate. It was a true bipartisan political victory, and real support for our troops.

All credit goes to Bob Smith, Dennis Kyne, and Leuren Moret, all DU experts.