Other Columns by Thomas D. Segel
Thomas D. Segel Bio

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The stories abound, but elected officials take no meaningful action. Documentation is presented, but military leaders and Department of Defense executives just shuffle the paperwork for a few days and fail to resolve the complaints by taking no action. The scenario is repeated time and time again for veterans of our armed forces. Having served their country honorably and in many cases heroically, they are returned to civilian life without recognition, awards or promised benefits. In many cases they are even denied much needed medical care.

We are already seeing, failed promises and disregard for the veterans of our 'War Against Terrorism'. In particular, members of the various reserve units and National Guard have returned home only to encounter extreme difficulty gaining promised veteran assistance. Of course, this isn't something new in the ongoing plight of veterans. Historically they have returned home from battling our nations enemies, only to be forced into a continued fight against the bureaucracy of an unsupportive VA. Some would say it is a veteran's agency in league with the military establishment to deny justice to these former service members.

Thousands upon thousands of military volunteers who participated in the atomic testing program between 1945 and 1963 were exposed to serious radiation resulting in illnesses and death. There were so many exposed that the exact number of radiation caused illnesses are impossible to tabulate.

Veterans have testified that they were rarely told of the dangers they would face. They were not given protective clothing and in most cases were not even provided with film badges that were designed to register radiation. When questioned about these veteran concerns or complaints the Department of Defense usually responded by statements to the effect that atomic tests were highly classified and could not be commented upon.

Because of the secret classification of such tests, veterans were not even identified as being participants. Service records indicating participation often only stated the individual was sent on some unnamed temporary duty. In other cases the records were left blank, or reported as "lost" by the various branches of the armed forces. The end result of this was a denial of medical treatment by the VA, because the veteran could not "document" participation in any atomic test program.

Similar "stonewalling" by the military establishment has taken place when documentation was requested by veterans who participated in human medical research tests from 1955 until 1975. During those years almost 7,000 Army, Air Force and Marine personnel were subjected to medical experimentation "vital to the National Defense." Led by Director of Research, Colonel Albert Dreisbach, US Army Medical Corps and Civilian Clinical Chief Dr. Van Sim the testing was conducted by the Army Chemical Warfare Center at Edgewood, Maryland. Members of Army Intelligence also staffed the test program. Volunteers were never told what they were being subjected to, but were given multiple inspirations of toxic agents and psychochemicals. These military volunteers were repeatedly tested using a variety of substances in what was called the "K" Agent Program. One of those substances has been identified as LSD. That, along with many of the agents used on our own personnel has still not been identified due to their secret classification. However, the majority has been banned for use in military operations.

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