Ross Bynum of Associated Press on U.S. to Screen Troops Returning From Iraq:
Col. Paula K. Underwood, an Army doctor, had just returned to her post in Germany from the 1991 Gulf War (news – web sites) when she saw a patient whose condition baffled other doctors.
The patient was a soldier, also just back from the war, who complained of memory loss. He could no longer find his way from home to work. He had trouble remembering how to make his morning coffee.
He was the first of 72 patients with unexplained illnesses Underwood would see before leaving Germany in 1993. Some complained of aches and pains. Others said they got sick more often than normal.
"There were a variety of concerns they had, none of which fit into a neat category," said Underwood, now chief of the medical staff at Fort Stewart's Winn Army Community Hospital. "These were the days before anybody talked about the so-called Gulf War Syndrome (news – web sites)."
Twelve years later, Underwood and her staff are preparing to screen 16,500 soldiers of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division returning from Iraq (news – web sites) for any symptoms that might point to a new wave of illnesses.
Testing the returning troops is definitely a marked improvement over last time. We were never tested coming back from the Gulf in 1991. DoD just put it's collective head up it's ass and moved on. Perhaps it never dawned on then Secretary of Defense Cheney or Bush I that perhaps all that exposure to burning oil wells, experimental drugs or depleted uranium might have some kind of detrimental health impact on those of us who were there.
That aside, the present Administration is in direct violation of Public Law 105-85 mandating that service members be adequately screened prior to deployment and immediately after deployment to include the taking of blood samples for before and after comparison. The Administration boldly ignored the law regarding pre-deployment screenings, even though it was amply reminded to do the screenings by multiple organizations, including the National Gulf War Resource Center. Heads should roll, but we live in upside-down-land now where men who go AWOL for 18 months become CIC. So forget about it. It ain't happening.
Link courtesy of Chris Swift via Yahoo! Groups – All Gulf Vets.