Tag: veterans

1990: Soldiers used as guinea pigs break their silence

December, 1990: FDA issued a waiver from informed consent to permit the Department of Defense to use unapproved, experimental drugs and vaccines – e.g. anthrax vaccine on soldiers. This violated the foremost “absolutely essential” mandatory ethical principle defined by the Nuremberg Code which was promulgated by U.S. judges under the authority of the U.S. Army.

In 1991, CBS “60 Minutes” with Mike Wallace broke the silence about US servicemen having been exposed to mustard gas experiments during World War II. The report was written by Charles Thompson II who won an Emmy for it.

In 1991, the Veterans Administration requested a committee of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to assess the causal relationship between these diseases and exposure to the toxic agents. The committee heard testimony “smoldering with betrayal” by a sad procession of veterans in their 60s and 70s who testified of the pain they had endured since the Navy lured them into secret mustard gas experiments during World War II. They described physical ailments such as skin cancer, loss of sight and hearing, shortness of breath and digestive illnesses which they believe are linked to the long-secret experiments.

The IOM found that by the end of 1945, more than 60,000 American service personnel had been used as human subjects in chemical experiments that exposed them to highly toxic mustard gas and Lewisite, an arsenic-containing agent. The IOM determined that although they were called “volunteers” they had been coerced and were not informed about the risks. More than 4,000 men had been used in trials using high concentrations of mustard gas and Lewisite. The men had been threatened not to disclose their involvement in the experiments; and they kept silent for 55 years.

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Rep. Ruben Gallego pushes for VA to strip benefits from service members and veterans who stormed the Capitol

Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, a Marine Corps veteran, last week called on Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough to withdraw benefits from active-duty service members, veterans, or military retirees who participated in the deadly Capitol riot on January 6.

“The behavior of these individuals is not representative of the large population of American veterans, the vast majority of whom served honorably and are appalled by the thought of insurrection in the country they served,” he wrote in a letter. “Yet, many of the veterans and servicemembers who attacked their own Government actively and enthusiastically enjoy special benefits given to them by their fellow citizens.”

Such benefits include access to disability compensation, healthcare options, and vocational opportunities.

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AOC compares herself to war veterans after her Capitol riot exaggerations backfire

After Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Capitol Hill riot exaggerations backfired, the young lawmaker has now likened herself to war veterans who have experienced trauma on the front lines.

The controversial Democrat at first intimated that she was facing a pro-Trump mob in the halls outside her office when rioters stormed the Capitol building. However, it was revealed that Ocasio-Cortez wasn’t present at the time of the attack on Congress, and that her office is in another building entirely.

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Years after they fought in Afghanistan, US troops watch as their children deploy to the same war

 Nineteen years ago on Wednesday, a generation of Americans deployed to Afghanistan to root out the terrorists behind the 9/11 attacks, believing that by fighting in the country more than 7,400 miles away, they would spare their children the need to do so too.

But as the U.S. war in Afghanistan begins its 20th year, some of those same service members have watched as their sons and daughters have deployed to continue the fight.

“When we started this, people asked why I was going, and my response was, ‘So my sons don’t have to fight this war,’” said Master Sgt. Trevor deBoer, who has deployed to Afghanistan three times with the 20th Special Forces Group since 2002.

Nearly two decades later, deBoer’s son, Spc. Payton Sluss, also served in Afghanistan — including at Forward Operating Base Fenty, north of the city of Jalalabad, where deBoer had served.

“My feet were walking the same land you were,” Sluss said to his father in a joint phone interview with Stars and Stripes.

The war, and Afghanistan itself, were very different when Sluss arrived in 2018. The U.S. had shifted its focus from eliminating 9/11 masterminds al-Qaida, who had been given safe haven by the ruling Taliban, to rebuilding the country and training Afghan forces. At the same time, the Taliban regained strength and launched an insurgency against the American-led coalition.

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