By MOLLY GORDY
Daily News Staff Writer
Gulf War veterans who may have been exposed to deadly toxins are facing Veterans
Day with deep feelings of
dread and betrayal.
Veterans say they've sensed for years-- in symptoms like Jeffrey
Rawls' shriveling brain, the lumps under Bill
Carpenter's skin and the blood in Hector Miranda's lungs -- that they are genetic
time bombs.
But after five years of complaints by veterans, only recently did the U.S. government
acknowledge there may
be a toxic link to the 1991 war.
"I hope.the American public will understand now that we're not making this
up, that we deserve to know what
happened to us, that we have a right to help," says Rawls, 29.
The former tank commander from Utica, N.Y., is suffering central nervous system
damage so severe that his
brain is disintegrating. He can't walk or eat unassisted. He faints, vomits
blood, suffers progressive memory loss
and speaks with the slow, slurred speech of stroke victim.
"It took me until last March to get the veterans administration to grant
me war-related disability status," he says. "I
was supposed to be dead two years ago."
The troops say they were forced to take experimental drugs with unknown side
effects and were exposed to depleted uranium, a possible source of radiation.
The Pentagon admitted last month the bombing of an Iraqi munitions factory
may have exposed 20,000 troops to
nerve gas.
Thousands of patients complained to Department of Veterans Affairs doctors of
rashes, chronic fatigue, gastrointestinal
problems, cysts, respiratory distress, miscarriages and nerve damage, and were
told their problem was stress.
"Three years ago, my wife and me attended a conference in D.C. with people
much sicker than me," says Hector
Miranda, a former Army supply sergeant from Huntington, L.I., who has been coughing
up blood for six years,
"and for three days, military experts stood up and told us it was all in
our minds."
Nilsa Sanchez of the Bronx served with the Army's 82d Airborne division and
returned with a troublesome rash.
"They told her it was nothing, but they kept calling her back to Fort Dix
for physicals. If it was nothing, why did
they keep asking her back?" says her husband, Robert, 35, who was shot
while serving in the Gulf War.
Nilsa Sanchez, now 31, suffered a second-trimester miscarriage four years ago,
then gave birth to Steven,
now 3. He was born with severe respiratory problems. "Of course,"
Robert Sanchez says, "the government says
there's no connection."
The issue weighs heavily on William Carpenter, 31, a married vet from Massapequa,
L.I., who fears fathering
deformed children. Carpenter says he has eight or nine lumps under the skin
of his chest and back.
"The VA doctors told me it's nothing, not to worry -- but of course I do,"
says the former Army explosives disposal
sergeant. "I believe I was exposed to radiation. The full effects don't
show up for years."
William Gleason, a former master gunnery sergeant from Syracuse, fought in Vietnam
and the Gulf during 26 years
as a Marine. He hired a doctor to survey the members of Marine Bravo tank company
who fought in northern Kuwait, including him and Rawls. "Of 76 people,
70 have serious symptoms," he says; "and nine of us are dying."
Jackie Olsen of Patchogue, L.I., who had two sons serve in the Gulf, has collected
dozens of such accounts on her
World Wide Web page, "Desert Storm Mom."
"The burden of proof is on the vets. They've been totally dumped,"
she says. "I can assure you it's going to affect
the willingness of future young people to fight for our country.
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