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Dr.
Doug Rokke, Ph.D.
Major (retired) United States Army Reserve
Former Director U.S. Army Depleted Uranium Project
April 1, 2004
Depleted
Uranium Casualties: Care Denied
Although
published U.S. Army regulations and "Medical Management of Unusual
Depleted Uranium Exposures" (Headquarters, Department of the
Army, October 14,1993) require that military medical treatment facility
personnel provide a radio-bioassay within 24 hours of depleted uranium
contamination exposure and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs directives
also specify completion of a radiobioasay followed by relevant medical
care for all individuals who were exposed to uranium contamination
via inhalation, ingestion, absorption, or wound contamination while:
"a. Being
in the midst of smoke from DU fires
resulting from the burning of vehicles uploaded with
DU munitions or depots in which DU munitions are being
stored.
b. Working
within environments containing DU dust or
residues from DU fires.
c. Being within
a structure or vehicle while it is
struck by DU munitions." Medical care has been
willfully denied to the majority of DU casualties who
are supposed to receive care. Gulf War Review (Volume
12, No. 1, and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs)
states that as of September 2003, only two hundred and
sixty two (262) veterans had been tested for depleted
uranium exposures.
This is only
a fraction of the 424 Gulf War 1 depleted uranium friendly fire
and recovery team veterans who were exposed to uranium contamination
during Gulf War 1 according to a September 28, 1998 briefing provided
to President William Clinton's Presidential Special Oversight Board
under Senator Warren Rudman by Office of Special Assistant for Gulf
War Illnesses officials under the U.S. Secretary of Defense. However
the 424 number of exposed individuals is only a fraction of the
thousands of U.S. and U.S. coalition forces who were exposed and
it does not include thousands of Iraqi military personnel and none
of the thousands of civilians and non-combatants who were exposed
during combat operations, DU weapons manufacturing, or DU
weapons testing.
While a small
fraction of confirmed U.S. DU casualties have received medical care,
all other confirmed or suspected DU casualties have been and still
are being denied medical care. This required medical care must be
provided to all exposed individuals independent of whether they
are combatants or non-combatants. They must be provided immediate
medical care now! The excuses must stop! THE DENIAL OF MEDICAL CARE
MUST STOP! But even when very limited medical care has been provided
to veterans, including
myself, with U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs service-connected
disabilities they are billed for their medical care and prescriptions.
Then when they refuse to pay the illegal bill they have received
formal letters from U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs officials
threatening garnishment of their
disability check to pay for service connected medical care. This
practice must stop.
In addition,
the confirmed mismanagement and loss of individual military service
medical records and personnel records that has occurred at the U.S
Department of Defense National Records and ARPERSCOM / HSC under
the command of Colonel Debra Cook, U.S. Army, located in St. Louis
Missouri must cease. As the confirmed Gulf War 1 casualty count
that including our nation's finest sons and daughters exceeds 221,000
injured and/or ill with over 10000 dead and the confirmed Gulf War
2 casualty count exceeds 18,004 and over 600 dead as of March 30,
2004 it is time for President George W. Bush, Secretary of Veterans
Affairs Anthony Principi, and Secretary of Defense William Rumsfeld
to solve the problems of denied, delayed, and ineffective medical
care. It is time for them to stop the billing of our nation's heroes
for medical care they earned while serving our nation!
WE
MUST TAKE CARE OF OUR
NATION'S VETERANS AND NOT
CONTINUE THEIR ABANDONMENT
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