Research - Rehabilitation - Re-Employment

Sgt. Shaft 11/12/2001

Shaft Shot
With concerns about anthrax blanketing the media, I got a feeling, as Yogi Berra would say, “Déjà vu all over again.” After researching past columns and the many letters to the Sarge, these letters, which ran July 18, 1992, raise the unsolved mysteries of our Gulf War veterans.

Dear Sgt. Shaft:
My son, Chuck, served as a Marine lance corporal in the Gulf. He was critically wounded during the second day of the ground war. Shrapnel from an Iraqi mortar round penetrated deep into is neck. The shrapnel struck his spine and completely paralyzed him, though he later regained feeling. Because of the danger of nerve damage, the shrapnel was left in his neck during medical evacuation. Chuck is home with us now. The Marine Corps awarded him 10 percent disability and discharged him – discarded would seem a more appropriate description.

Sgt. Shaft, since my son’s discharge, he has been to the emergency room twice and to our family doctor for severe back pain. He has shortness of breath, constant sinus flow, his hair is falling out, and his gums are bleeding and separated from his teeth, causing them to loosen. But throughout all this he has kept looking for “that good job.” Right now he is doing odd jobs at a local car dealership, for minimum wage. During his interviews, everyone told him how much they appreciated what he had done, but they just didn’t have anything for him – with his injured neck and all. During a recent conversation, my son told me he had wished he had died in the desert; there was no place for him back home. Everyone is proud of him, but no one wants to help.

Before my son was wounded, but while he was still in the war zone, he and his unit were given various inoculations. These young Marines trusted the chain of command to lookout for them. What they received was untested, unsafe inoculations of anthrax and botulism serum and God knows what else. Those Marines also ingested massive amounts of sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and other residual elements emitted from the oil well fires. Sheep, camels, and humans were dead and dying on a large scale in my son’s area of operations. When Chuck went to sick call and complained of pain, he was told he was all right and to get back to his unit as he was fit for full duty. Chuck is entitled to $60 a month for his 10 percent disability rating. However, since he got a check for $6,600 when he was discharged, he apparently can’t get any benefits for who knows how long. The [Department of Veterans Affairs] is now starting to express interest in his case and, hopefully, they will straighten out some of this mess. I have already contacted Sen. Jesse Helms and Rep Charles Taylor, who have expressed interest in my son’s plight. I personally consider this a military situation with military personnel responsible for my son’s condition; they should be held accountable for their decisions and actions prior to and after the ground war.

I would like particular emphasis placed on two decisions: 1) requiring that our personnel be vaccinated with unproven vaccines, and 2) exposing our ground troops to toxic gases from the fires when animals were already dead or dying. We do not need another Agent Orange situation. There is an article in the Uniform Code of Military Justice about unnecessarily endangering personnel under one’s command. Sarge, your help in ensuring proper care, compensation and job training for my son and others in similar circumstances is needed. 

Concerned for my son
Waynesville, N.C.

Dear Concerned Father:
Read on:

Dear Sgt. Shaft:
I am writing on behalf of myself and others because we have exhausted all other means to resolve our problem. As Marines, we have noticed a large number of service members with lung disorders from the Kuwait theater of operations. I have received a medical discharge with 10 percent disability. This does not see fair for an ailment that will affect me for the rest of my life and my ability to provide for my family. My major concern is for armed forces members who are getting out and not reporting their conditions because of the extremely long time it takes to obtain medical discharge. Another concern that should get attention is the exposure to dead and dying animals. During our unit’s first three days in country, we saw no living birds, animals, or bugs. It is possible that we were exposed to the same things that killed these creatures? Is it possible that something other than smoke caused the death of birds, camels, and farm animals? It has been my observation that the majority of Marines who have complained of pains and heaviness in the chest have been sent away from sick call with the response that their problem is merely heartburn. These are the symptoms the majority of us have: pronounced coughing, large volumes of mucus, heaviness in the center of the chest, sharp pains in the lower rib cage, sores in the mouth and throat, shortness of breath during any physical activity, and, in more severe cases such as mine, bleeding from the nose.

I feel these service members deserve more than a discharge for a job well done. They need medical attention and training to be assets, not burdens, to their country. 

TLC for Veterans of Desert Storm/Shield
Camp Pendleton, CA

Knowing now that our scientific and medical experts know zilch about the transmission and adverse effects of anthrax on the human species, it is now time to re-evaluate our Persian Gulf veterans.

Send letters to Sgt. Shaft, c/o John Fales, P.O. Box 65900, Washington, D.C. 20035-5900; fax to 301-622-3330; call 202-462-4430 or email sgtshaft@bavf.org.

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