The U.S. Military is in DU Denial

BY SUSU JEFFREY

“In fact, I was advised by a couple of my counselors not to do this [interview] because I’m so angry with the government—at the VA system, at the way I’m treated and other veterans are treated. It’s very impersonal. They don’t give you any time. They ask us to go fight their wars, do the dirty work and then they can’t take care of you.”

Most people don’t believe the U.S. has been poisoning its own troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, or they’ve heard about uranium “tipped” bombs—like fingernail polish painted on the outside of a shell casing. On the contrary, these are solid uranium core projectiles.

“I got a thank you (letter) from some lieutenant colonel. ‘Thank you for serving our country. We express our deepest gratitude but we believe you were one of these men who were exposed to depleted uranium either through shrapnel or inhalation of dust.’

“I’m 35, I take 17 medications, I’ve had cancer—lymphatic cancer, Hodgkin’s disease—Lennert’s lymphoma was the initial diagnosis—immune system.”
At age 35 John Marshall should be beginning to peak in his career. As a handsome man, married with three children, Marshall exudes energy. He looks strong, earthy, limps a bit on the left, has a thick build with a lean neck and chin. The military was his career. Being exposed to DU has been called a death sentence.

“Of course they [the VA] downplay everything. There’s latency periods. The bottom line is, they don’t know the long-term effects. Everybody’s going to react different. Some are going to get sick. Some might be able to last a little bit longer. I’ve been sick since I’ve been back.”

Friendly Fire
On Jan. 6, 1991, Corporal John Marshall flew to the Persian Gulf and waited for the equipment for his mechanized infantry group to arrive. “A Bradley is a tin casket” with a 25 mm cannon and “every piece of armament you can think of” but no outside shielding armor. Marshall didn’t feel safe inside a Bradley. He preferred being a ground soldier, trusting his legs more than an aluminum transport on tracks.

“I was a team leader on the ground. I had my own fire team. I
didn’t want to be a [Bradley] gunner because I didn’t want to be responsible for the men’s lives because if a gunner screws up, you got nine men dead. And I didn’t want to take that burden. And that’s where a lot of my guilt, my survivor guilt, comes from.

“I was with the 2nd Armored Division, forward, it was brigade sized, and we were attached to the 7th Corps, 1st Infantry Division. The initial reports were that in the first 24 hours of the ground war 3,000 out of 4,000 just in my brigade were supposed to die. That was scary going into Iraq. That’s what they projected. Thank God things didn’t work out that way.

“When the ground campaign kicked off [February 24, 1991] we cleared numerous bunkers. We did lots of things that I don’t really want to talk about too much. We went north into Iraq, then we did a fish-hook to cut off the supply lines and communication of the Republican Guard. They were retreating. It was a Kill and Destroy Mission, kill and destroy everything that was enemy. That’s what we did.

“We had some resistance. Most of them were not Republican Guard. Most of them were civilian Iraqis. But on the night of the 26th we hit a dug-in position and everybody in the vehicle was pretty much banged up except for two of us.”
Marshall was asked to go up in the Bradley gun turret. “I could have done it. I should have done it. I had the capability. Partially it was a small percent of fear but I’d rather fight on the ground. We dismounted; we were throwing hand grenades down the hatch—a lot of times Iraqi tanks would play possum with us.
“When we hit that [resistance] the rest of the task force continued on. We got separated from them for the entire night. We were maneuvering for the entire night alone. We were getting out [of the Bradleys], we were engaging. So anyway we managed to get through the night and on the morning of the 27th we came across a large enemy bunker complex. We figured it’s a company size, there’s 120-or-so Iraqis. There’s 18 men in two Bradleys and these guys are surrendering to us.

“So we’re taking them prisoner. The LT [lieutenant] finally gets radio contact with the commander and says we have prisoners.” They were ordered to take the prisoners to a support unit to the south and then rendezvous with the rest of the task force.

“I just checked on one of my soldiers who had a gash on his head and then the commander comes over the radio and says get the fuck out of there—there’s supposed to be a counter attack by a large element.
“I started walking and all of a sudden we started taking heavy fire. Two sabot rounds hit our Bradley within 6 feet of me. It’s a dart of depleted uranium. I’m breathing radioactive dust and the toxins from the Bradley. I got sparks flying all over me.

“That’s what I’m talking about. If I’d gotten in that turret that night maybe I could have changed the situation. Maybe we wouldn’t have been—and maybe people wouldn’t have been—but, then I got behind this bunker. There’s about 15 Iraqis inside there. And I tried to shoot them but my weapon jammed. So I cleared my weapon. M-16. It was a terrible weapon. It jammed all the time.
“And those Iraqis, they were crying, they were defecating themselves, urinating themselves. They were so shell shocked, absolutely so traumatized by the situation. So I felt a bit of empathy. Anyways, that didn’t work out. One of my soldiers is shooting at a truck, I’m pumping 203-rounds, it’s a grenade launcher, I managed to get my rifle operational. I didn’t worry about these [Iraqi] guys. They were out of the fight. They just wanted to surrender.

“Things happened. There was an Iraqi running towards me and—I capped him. I used to see—if I kept my eyes open I could see him all the time.”
Three days into the war John Marshall had shrapnel in his shoulder that might have been DU-contaminated, and dust in his lungs. Embedded reporters on American TV showed soldiers firing into the distance—rounds and rounds of blasts chasing the horizon. In February 1991 the dust storms were so fierce soldiers two feet away looked like shadows.

In February 2006 a spike in DU over Britain was made public in the Aldermaston Report. And CNN reported the U.S. lung cancer rate jumped six-fold for the first two months of the year. DU dust doesn’t stay put just as radiation hits from Chernobyl bounced around the world on air currents. It is estimated that lung cancer incubates two to five years after DU inhalation. Four and a-half years ago the Afghan bombing campaign began. Three years ago Iraq War 2 exploded. And if it’s in the air, it’s in the water.

As of March 2006, there is not a single veteran with confirmed DU health problems, according to VA testimony in the Minnesota Senate Agriculture, Veterans and Gaming Committee. Sen. Steve Murphy’s (D-Red Wing) Veterans Health Screening Bill died when Rep. Kathy Tingelstad (R-Andover) refused to hear the bill in the House .