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NEW LEGISLATION WOULD HELP "TEST VETS" OF PROJECT
112 -- "We have some veterans that are long dead
because
of the exposure they received, and that's just
plain wrong."
This legislation is a good start...but, it should
include veterans in all of the test programs, such as the Edgewood Arsenal
vets.
For more about Project 112, use the VA watchdog
search engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/sessearch.php?q=project+112&op=ph
Story here...
http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_9129157
Story below:
-------------------------
Bill would help vets exposed to toxic tests
Thadeus Greenson
The Times-Standard
Ferndale's Jack Alderson still bears the wounds of his service in the
United States Navy decades ago.
They aren't the overt scars of shrapnel and gunshot wounds. They are
covert, like his service, and come in the form of malignant melanoma,
prostate cancer and high blood pressure.
For decades Alderson has believed his ailments were the direct result of
the classified military operation Project Shipboard Hazard and Defense
(SHAD), in which chemical and biological agents such as VX nerve gas,
Sarin Nerve Gas and E. Coli were tested with the help of Alderson and his
crew. The problem was, until several years ago the Department of Defense
never admitted the tests took place.
”When you're hitting your head against the brick wall known as the
Department of Defense, it takes patience,” Alderson said Thursday, the
same day North Coast Congressman Mike Thompson introduced legislation to
help Alderson and thousands of others like him.
Thompson and Congressman Denny Rehberg, R-Mont.,
introduced a bill that would provide health care to veterans subjected,
many unknowingly, to biological and chemical weapons tests conducted in
the 1960s and 1970s.
The bill would require the Department of Veterans Affairs to assume that
the toxins used in the weapons tests of Project 112, which included
Project SHAD, caused injury to veterans, making them eligible for medical
benefits and compensation for their conditions.
”I worked with the Department of Defense, and for years they denied that
this was happening. Finally we were able to learn that this was in fact
happening, and that a lot of military personnel had been exposed to VX
nerve gas, Sarin nerve gas and E. Coli -- some of the worst chemicals
known to mankind,” Thompson said Thursday in a teleconference with
reporters.
”Out of frustration and a desire to help our veterans,” Thompson
continued, “we are introducing legislation today that would establish a
presumption of service connection, which means these military personnel
would have to be identified and, once identified, they would have access
to the health care they need.”
As a part of Project SHAD, Alderson said at least he knew he was a part of
the “hot tests.” He said he and his crew were trained to set up test
sights and clean them up after the tests, collecting samples of air and
animals exposed. Others weren't as fortunate, he said.
Alderson said the government also conducted simulant tests, where they
sprayed unknowing military vessels and even U.S. cities with live
pathogens, in some cases causing immune system failures and even death.
During the teleconference, Rehberg said part of the problem is no one
knows just how many people were affected.
”It seemed like the Department of Defense had dropped the ball and hadn't
even tried to identify those who had fallen ill,” Rehberg said.
Thompson agreed.
”Part of the problem is we don't know,” he said. “The best numbers we have
right now are somewhere in the neighborhood of 6,000. Vietnam Veterans of
America thinks it's much higher than that.”
Thompson said the health benefits in the bill won't be symptom-based, but
would rather be open to anyone who served in Project 112 for any variety
of ailments.
So, under the bill which carries a presumption of service connection,
Alderson would get health care benefits for his conditions, which he said
a doctor at a Veteran's Affairs hospital in San Francisco said were due to
Alderson's having smoked at the time of his service.
But Alderson is quick to point out that he has been luckier than many, as
he estimates 60 percent of his fellow servicemen who participated in the
“hot testing” are now dead.
To Thompson, that means this legislation is long overdue.
”We have some veterans that are long dead because of the exposure they
received, and that's just plain wrong,” he said.
Thompson and Rehberg also said during the teleconference that there is too
much blame in this issue to simply place at the feet of one
administration.
”It's not just this administration, it's the one before and the one before
that,” Rehberg said.
”It's been 40 years of administrations,” Thompson interjected.
After its introduction Thursday, the bill will head to a veterans
committee before coming to back to the House floor for a vote before
heading to the Senate, where a similar bill stalled in 2006.
Thompson said he was “cautiously optimistic” this bill will fare better.
After a decade of working with him on the issue, Alderson said he is
confident Thompson will do his part to make sure the bill becomes law.
”I have nothing but the highest praise for the job he's done -- he's stuck
with us through a lot of stuff,” Alderson said. “I have a lot of faith in
Mike.”
Thadeus Greenson can be reached at 441-0509 or
tgreenson@times-standard.com
-------------------------
posted by Larry
Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
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