Bill Seeks Medical Treatment For Veterans Exposed In Testing

November 11, 2005
By THOMAS D. WILLIAMS, Courant Staff Writer
 
Two U.S. congressmen who say thousands of military veterans are still unaware that they were part of dangerous chemical and biological weapons tests between 1954 and 1973 are sponsoring a bill that would require proper medical care for those exposed.

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., and Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., called this week for a commission to investigate military tests of such agents as VX and sarin nerve gases and E. coli bacteria on unknowing American military personnel. Despite several years of Pentagon efforts to uncover the scope of the tests and report them, a substantial population of veterans is still in the dark, said a 2004 U.S. General Accountability Office report.

"This is about openness, honesty and forthrightness in government. Above all, it's about doing the right thing and uncovering the truth," said Rehberg. "Truth is what these brave veterans have asked for and truth is what they deserve."

Thompson and Rehberg are introducing the Veterans' Right to Know Act, a measure to establish an independent commission to investigate chemical and biological weapons tests on land and in the oceans on American military men and women.

Vietnam Veterans of America, alleging that potentially thousands of unknowing military veterans from 1963 and 1964 were exposed to a U.S. secret weapons testing program, brought suit three years ago against former Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara and former employees of the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. Because of government immunity from such actions, the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., dismissed the complaint in February, but it is now being appealed.

The class action on behalf of the veterans alleges that military and federal health officials for decades have concealed or ignored veterans' health records. The records show that the veterans' serious illnesses were likely caused by their exposure to chemical, biological, possibly radioactive and other hazardous agents, the lawsuit says.

Thirteen months before the lawsuit, Jack Alderson, a former Navy officer whose men were involved in experiments while at sea and who had been lobbying federal officials for seven years to get them government sponsored medical benefits, went public with what he knew about the secret operations.

"Some of the guys tried to go to the Pentagon or the American Legion and said, `I did biological warfare testing.' They basically threw them out, told them they were crazy," said Alderson, many of whose former crew members complain of chronic respiratory problems. "They told them, `We didn't do things like that."'

Alderson eventually complained to Thompson, who since 2001 has been trying to declassify test data and obtain health and death settlement benefits for the sick veterans and their families. The Pentagon has acknowledged that some of the tests involved spraying live biological weapons over U.S. ships, including Alderson's tugs.

The Defense Department reviewed its records, and by December 2002 determined that 134 tests had been planned between 1962 and 1973 worldwide, and of the 134, Defense said 46 were conducted and 62 canceled.

Some tests involved exposure to "simulants," relatively harmless microbes and chemical markers used as stand-ins for a potentially deadly biological agent that resonates so powerfully today - anthrax. In all, more than a dozen ships were used, in both the Pacific and Atlantic, in the '60s and '70s. Involvement was brief for some ships and crews. For others, it was a full-time assignment lasting years. Still other chemical and biological tests occurred on land in connection with U.S. military operations worldwide, according to federal documents.