VA chief to (Sen.) Jay (Rockefeller): Doctors to monitor W.Va. Guardsmen's health

[sabra]

Source: wvgazette

U.S. Senate hears of dangers that 1092nd Engineers were subjected to

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Members of the West Virginia National Guard who were exposed to a highly toxic chemical in Iraq in 2003 will receive special medical monitoring, the secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs pledged Thursday.

Sec. Eric Shinseki's assurance came in a letter to U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller in response to the West Virginia Democrat's concerns about the long-term health ramifications for soldiers who were exposed to the carcinogenic chemical sodium dichromate.

Members of the 1092nd Engineer Battalion, as well as National Guard units from Indiana and Oregon, helped guard the Qarmat Ali water plant near Basra in 2003. Civilian contractors employed by KBR Inc., a former Halliburton subsidiary, were repairing the facility, which helped provide the pressure needed to extract oil from the ground.

Bags of the toxic chemical were ripped open at the plant, and the desert wind scattered orange dust all over the facility, Russell Powell, a Moundsville resident who served as the 1092nd's medic, told members of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs on Thursday at a hearing on various exposures to military personnel.

Read more: http://wvgazette.com/News/200910080954

[Rozlee]

1. I lived in W. V. for 5 years with my 3rd husband (I 've had a few)

and I hope the Gazette is still as liberal as it always was. In such a backwoods, conservative state, it was a beacon of rationalism, constantly reviled and attacked. But, I pity the plight of these soldiers. As a 100% service-connected disabled Gulf War vet, I can only say that they will have a long row to plow if it was anything like mine was. I was an Army Reservist in Texas, working as a civil service RN at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antone when I was activated for the First Bush War. I still have good friends there now who tell me about awful health problems that our soldiers are having that are unrelated to their war injuries. In the first Gulf War, we dropped over 300 tons of depleted uranium on Iraq. In this one, we dropped over 1,500 tons. Google "birth defects and leukemia in iraqi children depleted uranium". It will take you to various sites from late 1990s to 2000. If 300 tons of DU did that to Iraqis, what will 1,500 tons of it do to them and our soldiers? My friends at BAMC are seeing amputee soldiers with incidental findings of bone calcium destruction, cancers, Parkinsons-like tremors, neurological deficits, visual field disturbances and bleeding gums, hair loss, skin problems, etc. So, what can we expect from a company that deliberately exposed kids to toxic chemicals? Good ol' KBR. Electrocuting our kids in showers, giving them tainted food and water, raping female contractors, and poisoning the troops. And still getting their contracts renewed. Obama, you can be a real knuckle-head.