Ed Barras, of Jeannette, never doubted that the cancer that killed his son, David, in 1996, was caused by exposure to depleted uranium during the Persian Gulf War.

Now the government is beginning to think the same thing.

The Veterans Administration last week announced it will no longer provide funding for studies linking the stress of combat to Gulf War Syndrome. Instead, $15 million earmarked for research will fund studies into other theories.

The Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Illness recommended the VA shift its focus to toxins, depleted uranium and pesticides. The committee said more research also needs to be done into exposure to vaccines, and depleted uranium used in munitions.

"There weren't too many of us who believed that chemicals started all this," Barras said. "Me, his brother, his sister, believed it. Everybody else was doubtful about it."

The Rev. Barry Walker, of East Palestine, Ohio, a former Army chaplain, said he feels vindicated now that a newly released government report says exposure to chemicals and a combination of medications and vaccines may cause a variety of ailments and diseases known collectively as GWS.

"They've been covering up for years and years and years," Walker said. "Some of us have been calling them liars for years and years and years."

David Barras was a tank mechanic with the 3rd Armored Division in 1991. His job was to remove demolished Iraqi tanks from the battlefield after they had been strafed by A-10 aircraft carrying ammunition with depleted uranium. His father believed the cancer came from his proximity to the destroyed tanks that he worked on.

"It's only taken the government about 10 years to come around," Ed Barras said.

The military takes depleted uranium that has been removed from nuclear weapons and fuel and places it into the shells of Gatling guns used by aircraft. These tank-killing airplanes were very effective in the Gulf War in destroying Iraqi armored units.

Before he was deployed, Walker received two inoculations to protect him against anthrax, another for botulism and other medications to protect him against various diseases. One of the anti-nerve agent medications he received was pyridostigmine bromide, which enhances the protective characteristics of atropine and pralidoxime.

The committee said that although the medications taken individually would not be toxic enough to make a soldier ill, a combination of the chemicals could.

As a chaplain, Walker traveled around from unit to unit helping other chaplains. He was with the Hempfield Township-based 14th Quartermaster Detachment in 1991 when the unit was hit by a Scud missile in the closing stages of the war.

Scud missiles, according to some government reports, were thought to have contained biological warheads.

"As senior chaplain, I was all over the place trying to fill the void," he continued. "I was four miles down the road when they blew up Kafji. There was mustard gas there. I was in the area. I was exposed."

Kafji is located in Saudi Arabia, where the military blew up munition dumps. According to Department of Defense reports, there also were other areas where servicemen and women could have been exposed to chemical agents.

The Talil Air Force base in southeast Iraq was a chemical munitions storage site that was blown up by American forces. At al-Jubayl, a Marine reconnaissance unit may have been exposed to mustard gas during fighting there, according to reports.

Another mustard gas storage site was destroyed at Khaydir. Reports said the site contained 155 mm artillery shells filled with mustard gas. Airstrikes could have caused the release of the gas into the atmosphere.

At Khamisiyah in March 1991, 77 large ammunition bunkers were destroyed along with 45 warehouses, according to reports that indicated one bunker had 2,160 rockets filled with chemical agents. A final report on the Khamisiyah effort said troops "were likely exposed to low levels of nerve agent."

Since their return, Gulf War veterans have been suffering from a variety of unexplained ailments, including chronic headaches, fatigue, stomach and respiratory problems and skin diseases. Studies also have found a higher incidence of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, among them that is twice that of veterans who were not deployed to the Middle East.

At one point, Walker thought he may have contracted amyotrophic lateral sclerosis when he got sicker after his doctors took him off an experimental drug, he said. Although he doesn't think he has it, he said his condition worsened after he was taken off the medication.

Walker said he keeps in contact with other suffering veterans. Some, he said, will not admit they are ill.

"I have two people who will not admit they are afflicted," he said. "They are afraid they will lose their jobs."

Both men work for the U.S. Army as civilians and could lose their positions if they are declared unable to work.

"They're fighting hard to stay where they are," he said.

Meanwhile, Barras said his son's physicians at the VA wouldn't say whether they believed David's cancer could have been the result of uranium exposure.

"They came close to saying it but wouldn't say it," he said.

Barras said the day before he died, his son received a government check for $28,000 after he was awarded 100 percent disability.

"He looked at the check and five hours later he fell into a coma."

Richard Gazarik can be reached at rgazarik@tribweb.com or (724) 830-6292.