Chip's Blog

As some of you may remember, my most consistent incarnation in real life has been in the mental health profession.  In my practice, I get a few different types of people who are referred out of groups in the community.  I get a bunch of alcoholics, because I am a recovering one.  I get a few veterans too.

Recently, I got an emergency call from the Clinic Director asking me if I could find time to see a gentleman who was presenting in what seemed to be an emergency situation.  The Director was concerned because 1.  He said he was a veteran and 2.  He was saying he had been poisoned by Saddam Hussien.  He said, "Chip, this one's right up your alley."  (For the record, the Clinic Director had, in one of HIS previous incarnations, a career in the Air Force.)

I "made time" and saw him the next day.  It was not the easiest interview I'd ever done.  This man did not give informatin freely and evaded a number of my questions.  Everyone else had said he was psychotic (delusion of being poisoned by Saddam) and may have suffered for PTSD if his service claims were even close to valid.  Everyone was skeptical of what he told them about his "TS clearance"  (Top Secret). As the interview went on, it became clearer and clearer to me that he was, in fact, giving valid information.  The more I probed the more details slipped out that would validate his claims, not as boastful statements, but as simple truisms from a man who was one of the "Quiet Professionals" who so valiantly serve us.  It was also clear that the evasions he was doing with me were simply the professional residue of having to keep secrets.  He was proud of the fact that he still did keep those secrets. As he grew to trust me as a person who understood, he gave more information (yet politely steering the conversation away from sensitive areas) and spoke with pride for his service, and gratitude that he could still fly around the country free to visit his former comrades in arms.  But his career had ended in Stuttgart in a way he was deeply saddened about.

The more he spoke, the less "psychotic" his words sounded.  He did not speak of any traumatic events that had unduly upset him.  He did suffer from significant medical issues, including deep pain in his leg, hip and elbow he attributed to the huge number of parachute jumps he'd made during his career (not uncommon to have guys like him with service like his have leg problems from "jumps".  The elbow WAS a bit of an anomaly...)  He reported huge memory lapses that troubled him deeply.  He'd become depressed and despondent because he was decaying physically and mentally.  That had been the grist of his issues that surfaced in Stuttgart.

I conferred with another friend who had experience with Gulf War vets.  This just didn't add up for me.  Something was amiss.  Every hair was standing up on the back of my neck, and I couldn't find a comb....

I heard these words: Gulf War Syndrome.  My friend spoke of concerns that it may even have been caused by the innoculations given to soldiers prior to deployment. Many theories exist, including oil well fires, nerve agents and biological weapons used by Saddam.  The causes are unclear, but the symptms are pervasive.  I'm going to give you a hyperlink to go to Wikipedia on this one.  It actually contains valid empirical data from studies done:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War_syndrome

Here's a quickie:

Excess prevalence of general symptoms:[7]

Symptom   U.S.   UK   Australia   Denmark   Fatigue 23% 23% 10% 16% Headache 17% 18% 7% 13% Memory problems 32% 28% 12% 23% Muscle/joint pain 18% 17% 5% <2% Diarrhea 16% 9% 13% Dyspepsia/indigestion 12% 5% 9% Neurological problems 16% 8% 12% Terminal tumors 33% 9%

 

Here's another fact:  the rate of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) amoungst Gulf War Veterans is significanly less than any previous war running between 2 and 6 %.

Here are the possible causes:

1.  Depleted Uranium  We used depleted uranium to harden our artillery shells to enhance their armor peircing qualities.

2.  Side Effects of the Early Anthrax Vaccine  The earliest anthrax vaccine we used was experimental and may have caused/contributed to GWI

3.  Chemical and/or Biological Weapons  Numerous soldiers, including the one I'm talking about have reported having t protect themselves with maks and suits when  the "litmus paper" turned color....

Why have I gone to such lengths to write this?  From one glaring experience?  Because the last thing we need to do to our heroes is to ignore their suffering like we did not so many years ago to Vietnam vets who suffered from cancers caused by our use of the defoliant "Agent Orange".

We, as a nation, are better than that.