Veterans for Common Sense

PARIS, Ill. – It was a day for high school bands and red, white and blue balloons, for cheers and tears and a sea of jubilant family and friends in every imaginable form of patriotic attire.

“The 1544th” finally had come home.

For 14 months while stationed in Iraq, the battered Illinois National Guard 1544th Transportation Company had endured more than 100 mortar attacks and had driven more than 580,000 hostile miles transporting supplies and ammunition.

During that time, the unit of about 160 members had suffered more deaths and injuries than any other National Guard company in the nation, military officials said.

Five soldiers – Sgt. Ivory L. Phillips, Sgt. Jeremy L. Ridlen, Sgt. Shawna Morrison, Spc. Charles Lam and Spc. Jessica L. Cawvey – did not return, killed either by mortar attacks or roadside bombs. They accounted for half of all Illinois Army National Guard fatalities in Iraq.

About 70 others were injured; about 20 of those were hurt seriously enough to be sent home.

But this was not the day to dwell on that. The citizen-soldiers of this tightknit community were back, and some 5,000 people lined the streets Tuesday to greet them.

“We’ve prayed hard for this day,” said Annette Brown, who stood in the middle of Main Street straining to get a glimpse of her arriving fiance, Willridge Simms.

And the troops were grateful for those prayers and the greeting.

“This is just awesome,” Sgt. Tyler Heleine said. “You can see that we’ve got the best support in the country.”

But while the 1544th’s battles in Iraq are done, the war is still not over for them and this community. Over the next few weeks and even months, in scores of individual homes here and in neighboring towns, returning veterans and their families will be quietly struggling try to deal with the hidden scars of the war.

According to the military, one of every six service members will return from Iraq with a mental disorder, and some experts believe the number could be even higher. Twenty-three percent of Iraq veterans treated at Veterans Affairs facilities have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

“It’s a big thing,” said Sgt. Major John Bauer, who is with the Illinois National Guard 651st Troop Command. “We’re trying hard to address it. It’s not just about dealing with the soldier. The family has to be brought into it as well.”

Murder, suicide and depression

The military began seeing the psychological impact shortly after the war began. In 2002, three soldiers who returned from the war in Afghanistan to their base in Fort Bragg, N.C., murdered their wives.

In July 2003, five soldiers in Iraq committed suicide, prompting the Army to send a team of mental health experts to Iraq.

The military’s primary concerns are depression problems and post-traumatic stress disorder, a debilitating change in the brain’s chemistry that includes flashbacks, sleep disorders, panic attacks, acute anxiety, emotional numbness and violent outbursts.

Lisset Greene of Spring Hill, Fla., believes it was post-traumatic stress disorder that took her husband from her. Greene said when her husband, Sgt. Curtis Greene, returned from Iraq in 2003, he was a changed man.

“Before he left, he loved the Army,” said Greene, 31. “After he came back, he hated it.”

Greene had nightmares, his wife said. He would awake covered in sweat. He was irritable and short-tempered.

The Curtis Greene she knew before Iraq was mild-mannered. This one was violent. “There were times that I felt unsafe in the house with him,” she said.

Twice the police had to be called to the couple’s home. Once, he was taken away in handcuffs.

He was seeing a psychiatrist, but Lisset said it didn’t seem to help. On Dec. 6, soldiers found Greene hanging in his barracks. He was 25.

Families must prepare

The vast majority of returning members of the 1544th will not have serious readjustment issues. But families here know they will be dealing with some form of re-entry stress. Paris firefighter Steve Wirth, whose 20-year-old daughter, Staci, returned Tuesday with the 1544th, said he began to prepare even before her arrival.

“We’ve discussed it, family-wise,” Wirth said while standing inside the fire station. “There’s going to be changes all the way around. We’re going to give her her space.”

Wirth said he knows the college student he kissed goodbye 14 months ago as she headed off to training and eventually to Iraq is not going to be the one he gets back.

“She’s going to be more mature, I know that, and going to have seen some things that we can’t imagine,” he said.

Tammy Johns, who runs a computer company with her husband, Max, said she is worried about how the war may have affected their daughter, Shelly, 20, a college student.

“I worry about her having nightmares,” Tammy Johns said. “I worry about road rage. I worry about the fact that we have guns in the house. Should we take the ammunition out of the house?”

Coming to grips

The returning soldiers are just as concerned about the effect of the war on their psyches as are their families, some said.

“That’s all I think about lately,” said Sgt. Heather Furry of the 1544th, who is also the mother of an 8-year-old daughter, Macy.

“I’ve got to get back in the routine of being the mom, going back to work, having a house to take care of, the bills. I know it’s all not going to go smoothly, but that’s part of being a parent.”

Furry, a dental assistant, said she knows that what she’s seen has had an impact on her. Furry endured a mortar attack in September that killed Shawna Morrison of Paris and Charles Lamb of nearby Martinsville, Ill., and wounded 13 other soldiers.

In a letter to her mother, Furry, 27, wrote of her efforts to come to grips with the horror of the attack and her futile attempt to save Morrison.

“We’ve been through a lot,” said Furry, who is leaving the National Guard after 11 years of service.

And because she has been through so much, she said, she is going to seek counseling, whether she thinks she needs it or not.

Is military help enough?

To help returning veterans, the military says it is mounting its most extensive effort ever to deal with potential re-entry problems. For instance, returning soldiers and Marines undergo mandatory face-to-face screenings with doctors and psychologists. Readjustment counseling for soldiers and their families has been set up at 206 Vet Centers around the nation. Counseling hot lines are available.

But some people, such as Charles Sheehan-Miles, executive director of the Washington-based Veterans for Common and a veteran of the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War, are concerned that the military is not doing enough.

They note that the New England Journal of Medicine reported last year that 16 percent of veterans of the war in Iraq suffer from depression or post-traumatic stress disorder, but fewer than 40 of them had actually sought help.

Sheehan-Miles said he has been surveying counseling services at various bases and has found them uneven.

“What I’m afraid of is that in one instance you might find a base that is fully aware of the problem and at another base they’re not,” said Sheehan-Miles, who said he had difficulty sleeping, nightmares and considered suicide after his service in Iraq and Kuwait.

One major problem is that many soldiers are reluctant to seek counseling or report strange behavior for fear that it might hurt their career.

Sheehan-Miles said that while the military says it encourages soldiers to seek counseling, it’s handling of one case has sent mixed signals.

While in Iraq, Sgt. George Andreas Pogany had a panic attack and sought medical help. In response, the military court-martialed him for cowardice. The case was thrown out, however, after it was determined that the attacks were probably caused by an antimalaria drug issued to some in combat.

In Paris and other communities across the nation, the military has been counseling families on how to help returning family members readjust.

Don’t ask questions

Patty Kennedy, Heather Furry’s mother, has been attending the meetings here in which the military has brought in psychologists and psychiatrists who offer tips on how to deal with returning veterans.

“They’ve told us to not ask them questions about the war,” she said. “If they want to talk about it, let them talk, but we shouldn’t bring it up. There were other things, like don’t tell her what you want. Ask her what she wants you to do for her.”

But even with pre-counseling, many families here won’t be ready, said Tara Hopkins, whose husband, Erik Hopkins, returned home in September, his body riddled with shrapnel from the mortar attack that claimed Morrison and Lamb.

“They don’t understand the nightmares they have at night,” Hopkins said. “It’s very overwhelming. It’s been an emotional roller coaster.”

Hopkins said the counseling that she and her husband have received through the Army has been vital to re-establishing their relationship.

She explained that it’s not just the returning soldier that has to readjust, but the other family members as well. She explained how she had to “get back into the wife role” once her husband returned.

“I was so used to doing things without him that he was complaining that I would leave him out of the plans I’d made for me and the kids,” she said.

On Tuesday, however, few were thinking of those problems. Illinois Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn, Sen. Dick Durbin and other dignitaries had turned out to honor the men and women of the 1544th.

“It’s been a long wait,” said Quinn, who previously attended the funerals of all five guardsmen from the unit. “We’re happy to finally have them home.”

Reporter Ron Harris
E-mail: rharris@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-340-8214

Killers on and off the battlefield?

BY FRANK MAINCrime Reporter fmain@suntimes.com

Pierre Cole seemed high on killing. Cole, a soldier in Iraq, called his dad from overseas to boast about gunning down enemies in a firefight in 2003.

“He was on cloud nine,” said his father, Willie Cole. “‘Hey, I got a couple of them,’ ” he said. ” ‘I let loose.'”

Willie Cole — a former military police officer who served in Panama when the United States deposed President Manuel Noriega in 1989 — was shocked.

“It disturbed me, his reaction to the loss of life,” said Willie Cole, a caterer in the south suburbs. “I said, ‘Regardless of what you’re over there for, the other guy is fighting for something, too. You have to respect that.'”

But Pierre Cole tuned out his dad.

“He commented to me, ‘F— it. I’m glad it’s him, not me.'”

Now Pierre Cole, 22, is back from Iraq and facing a murder charge in Cook County Criminal Court for allegedly killing a West Side store owner, In Taik Jung, during a botched robbery Oct. 14.

Pierre Cole was on leave from Iraq. His father and others wonder if Cole’s military experience played a role in the slaying.

Seven other soldiers from the same base — Fort Riley, Kan. — also have been charged with murder, for other killings, since August.

Five of those soldiers have been accused of killing civilians in Iraq, although the murder charge against one of them was dropped. Two more soldiers are charged with killing members of their unit near their base in Kansas. It’s a rare cluster of murder cases for any one Army base.

Statistics obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that 18 murder cases were tried under military law for the entire Army in 2003, 30 in 2002 and 18 in 2001. Of the current Fort Riley cases, every one but Cole’s is being handled in military courts.

It’s impossible to know if these defendants would have been charged in violent crimes had they never joined the military.

But Gary Solis, a former Marine prosecutor who teaches the law of war at West Point, suggested a study by the Army’s inspector general on potential links among the murder cases.

“It is troubling to have these egregious murders in Iraq and now to have them in the States, too,” Solis said. “Maybe they would look at leadership, garrison routine, enlistment records and pre-enlistment records to see whether they had juvenile records before they entered the Army.”

Immigrants became merchants

In Taik Jung, 50, came to the United States in 1980 from a small town in Korea.

He and Kimberly Jung married the next year. Like many immigrants to Chicago, the Jungs became merchants, working to make a better life for their son and daughter, who are now in their 20s and attend the University of Illinois at Chicago.

The Jungs ran a jewelry store before opening Best Fit clothing in the 4000 block of West Madison about eight years ago.

“We were open 10 to 6:30, seven days a week,” said Kimberly Jung. “My husband never had time for himself.”

They knew the West Garfield Park neighborhood could be dangerous, but they relied on their Christian faith to keep them safe.

The couple trusted their employee, Latorria Fields, 38, because of her religious upbringing and family background.

“She taught a youth group at her church,” Kimberly Jung recalled.

But Fields allegedly wound up playing a part in In Taik Jung’s death.

Pierre Cole and his uncle, Lee McGee, a veteran of the first Gulf War, decided to rob the store and Fields agreed to help, prosecutors said.

Fields told them how much money came into the store and promised to remove a video surveillance tape in exchange for part of the loot, police said.

On the day of the murder, McGee and Cole shopped and made small talk with Jung for about an hour before McGee pulled out a handgun and shot the storekeeper, prosecutors said.

Then Cole also allegedly pulled out a pistol and shot Jung.

They rifled through his pockets looking for a wallet but did not find one, authorities said. They couldn’t open the cash register and left virtually empty-handed before fleeing to Kansas, where they were arrested Dec. 2, police said.

Fields, meanwhile, had failed to remove the surveillance tape, which police seized. The tape showed Jung ringing up clothing purchases for the men, police said.

“We had a terrible business for two years,” Kimberly Jung said. “The economy is very bad. Now I have closed the store, but I still have my responsibility to raise my kids. I don’t know why this happened. I have to put my house on the market next month. I have no insurance. I am having a very hard time financially.”

Shared war stories with uncle

Cole grew up in a stable home with a grandfather at 47th and Laramie near Midway Airport. His other grandfather, Willie Cole’s father, is a bishop at True Vine Pentecostal Church in Aliceville, Ala.

“We’ve always been out for an honest day’s work,” said his father, the executive chef at C&C Catering in Harvey.

Pierre Cole attended Flower High School in Chicago, then moved in with his father in Dolton and transferred to Thornton High. He dropped out to work for the Job Corps in culinary arts.

“Pierre wasn’t excelling in school,” his father said. “He was drinking with friends and not fitting in. The Job Corps was good for him.”

When he was 18, Cole chose to enter the military like his father and uncle. He was assigned to the Headquarters and Headquarters Company , 1st Battalion, 34th Armor Regiment of the 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division based at Fort Riley.

The 34th Armor has suffered major losses in Iraq, and Cole saw some of his comrades killed in action, his father said.

“He saw his lieutenant get killed,” he said. “One time they mortared guys playing softball near his unit. One soldier’s head was blown off, and his body was sent back without a head.”

When his son came home on leave in September, he hooked up with McGee, his 37-year-old uncle who served in a tank unit in the 1991 Gulf War, Willie Cole said.

“They had a lot of stories to share,” he said.

Willie Cole said he traveled to Fort Riley to see Pierre after he returned home from Iraq and was shocked at the lack of discipline at the base.

“Here was my son, drinking for a couple days straight, starting in the morning at Fort Riley. Groups of people came back and all they wanted to do was party. There should have been alcohol awareness counseling, and they should have been dealing with coming back from combat. There was none of that.”

Later, Willie Cole was in Louisiana when he learned that police were looking for his son and Lee McGee.

“It’s not serious,” Willie Cole remembers his son telling him in October.

Willie Cole said he was dumbfounded when he learned what his son was accused of doing in Chicago.

“Out of character doesn’t describe it,” he said. “He was going to sign up for four more years, with a bonus. All that is gone.”

Pierre Cole’s mother, Eunice McGee, also can’t believe her son is in jail facing the possibility of Death Row.

“I believe he snapped,” she said. “It hurts me that my brother [McGee] got him into this situation. When [President] Bush sends soldiers home from Iraq, he ought to get them counseling. To me, this was not my son at all.”

Through his attorney, Pierre Cole refused to answer questions, except to say he is aware of the charges against the other Fort Riley soldiers but does not know the men.

The ‘Straight and Stalwart’

Six other Fort Riley soldiers charged with murder are members of the 41st Infantry Regiment, whose slogan is “Straight and Stalwart.”

In Iraq, Staff Sgts. Johnny Horne Jr. and Cardenas J. Alban were accused of a “mercy killing,” shooting a 16-year-old who was severely burned and wounded in the abdomen after the soldiers attacked a dump truck outside Baghdad on Aug. 18, 2004. The soldiers fired on the truck after hearing a report that it was depositing bombs on the road.

Horne and Alban have pleaded guilty. Horne was sentenced to three years in prison, and Alban got a one-year term.

Is there a larger story?

In the same incident, Sgt. Michael P. Williams was charged with murder for allegedly ordering his soldiers to “light him up” when another unarmed Iraqi ran from the dump truck. Charges against a platoon leader were dropped.

Ten days later, Williams allegedly killed an Iraqi after removing his handcuffs. Another soldier had put an AK-47 on a table after finding the assault weapon in a search of a home. Williams claimed he shot the Iraqi because he saw the man go for the weapon and “felt threatened,” prosecutors said.

Spec. Brent W. May allegedly led another unarmed Iraqi into the same house and asked Williams, “Can I shoot him?” May shot the man in the head and bragged about the killing afterward, prosecutors said.

The murder charges are pending against Williams and May.

Two other soldiers in the 41st, Sgts. Aaron R. Stanley and Eric Colvin, were in Kansas when they became murderers, authorities said.

“I thought from the first day I took this case that there was a larger story,” said Capt. Trevor Oliver, an Army attorney who represents Stanley. “Is there a psychological problem that runs through all of these soldiers? Drug problems?”

Stanley and Colvin had stayed behind when their unit returned to Iraq in July.

The war veterans were living in a farmhouse that Stanley rented in rural Clay County about 30 miles from the base. Stanley already was in trouble. He was facing charges in civilian court for allegedly manufacturing methamphetamine, an illegal drug.

On Sept. 13, he and Colvin allegedly killed two fellow soldiers, Staff Sgt. Matthew Werner and Spec. Christopher D. Hymer, at the farmhouse. Hymer was shot seven times and Werner six times, a coroner testified earlier this month at a military hearing. Both of the slain men had traces of Valium and methamphetamine in their blood, the coroner said.

Stanley called 911 and said he shot two people trying to break into his house, but he and Colvin were charged with murder in military court.

Stanley also was charged with being absent without leave and violating an order restricting him to the limits of Fort Riley at the time of the shooting.

Oliver disputed whether his client was really AWOL. Originally, Stanley was supposed to be restricted to the base while the civilian drug case was pending against him, Oliver said.

“Then the unit said he could go off base with an NCO [a non- commissioned officer] escort,” Oliver said. “Stanley was a sergeant, E-5, and his friends were E-5s. So he essentially could go off base with his friends.”

Oliver said he plans to pursue a self-defense strategy.

A medical exam found Stanley is mentally fit to stand trial and does not suffer from full-blown post-traumatic stress disorder from his combat experience, Oliver said. Still, his client was diagnosed with “PTSD-like stress” that may become part of his defense, he said.

Oliver would not discuss specifics of the case but said the military should look for any common threads running through the series of killings.

“To have six or more under court martial for one unit is strange,” he said of the 41st Infantry. “To have them all charged with murder is extremely strange.”

Hymer’s mother, Cathy Hymer, said her son was a football and basketball player in his hometown of Liberal, Mo., in the southwest corner of the state. He drove a Bradley armored vehicle and escorted a four-star general in Kuwait, she said.

He seemed to enjoy the soldier’s life, his mother said.

On April 27, 2003, Hymer was in the Middle East and wrote to his mother, “We left the airport a few days ago and moved into Saddam’s palace resort. There are many man-made lakes and canals. We have been fishing, swimming and boating. . . . Living the good life. I don’t know too many people who can say that in a war zone.”

Cathy Hymer did not know the men accused of killing her son. She is angry the Army did not keep better track of Stanley, keeping him on base after he was charged in the civilian drug case.

“This was cold-blooded murder,” she said. “I want answers for why this happened. The Army is not communicating with us at all.”

‘Exceptionally well-trained’

Fort Riley would not comment on the string of murders except for a statement that Maj. Gen. Dennis Hardy, the base commander, had released Oct. 1 before Cole was charged in Chicago.

“I remain confident that all our soldiers are exceptionally well-trained,” Hardy said. “They know the difference between right and wrong, between acceptable and unacceptable actions. We should not allow these incidents to overshadow the tremendous efforts of our soldiers in Iraq.”

Solis, the West Point instructor and a former military prosecutor, said the Fort Riley cases — especially the overseas ones — could signal the need for better leadership in the field.

Army leaders in Iraq, for example, could be dehumanizing the enemy, which can lead to soldiers feeling they are above the law and to commit “bad acts.”

“In Japan, we called the enemy ‘Nips,'” Solis said. “In Vietnam they were ‘Charlie’ or ‘Gooner’ or ‘Slope,’ and in Iraq they’re ‘rag heads.’ But that is not universally true. Commanders can instruct their troops not to use those names. I know some commanders in Iraq are insisting the enemy be called ‘ACMs’ or anti-coalition militia.”

As a former prosecutor, however, Solis said he is always wary of the argument that combat stress leads to criminal acts.

“The military is a reflection of civilian society,” he said. “We have good guys and bad guys. It’s possible these [Fort Riley] soldiers would have been bad guys in spite of the war.”

Pierre Cole’s father was not so sure about that.

“The moral of the story is that if we take American soldiers and turn them into fighting machines,” he said, “we need to take them back and desensitize them, and turn them back into the people they were before they left home. We have guerrilla fighters walking around our streets now.”

Military notifiers must tell the family when a loved one dies

Associated Press – ST. PAUL, Minnesota – Army Lieutenant Colonel Ken Leners brings the news every family fears most.

Leners is a “casualty notification officer” with the Army’s 88th Regional Readiness Command based at Fort Snelling. When a soldier dies, whether in combat, an accident, or suicide, Leners is among the people assigned to tell the victim’s relatives.

The job of a notifier is considered among the most difficult in the military, and Leners still has vivid memories of his first time. In 19 years in the Army, he has done five. Check these out cmsmd.

“It gets harder and harder and harder as it goes on,” Leners said.

When notifiers visited Judy Langhorst, she knew with one look out the window why they were there. Must visit at touroftoowoomba to know more details.

“As soon as we saw what kind of vehicle was pulling up the driveway, we knew,” she recalled of the day last April when two Marines and a Navy chaplain came to her home in Moose Lake to tell her that her son, Pfc. Moises Langhorst, 19, had been killed in Iraq.

“I thought it was a thankless job and they did the best they could,” she said. “We had a lot of questions. Who wouldn’t?”

Since late 2001, when American soldiers began fighting in Afghanistan, through today in Iraq, the scene has been repeated 13 times in Minnesota and more than 1,600 times across the country.

“Each one is totally different,” said Marine 1st Sgt. Theodus Williams, a notifier during his time with Marine Wing Support Squadron 471, also based at Fort Snelling. “You have some parents who will take it very hard, some parents who are relaxed with it because they don’t want to believe it, and some parents who are angry,” he said.

During the past 100 years, the military often used telegrams to deliver the news that a loved one had died. During the Vietnam War, those telegrams were sometimes delivered by taxi drivers.

Realizing that those notifications were impersonal and seemed uncaring, the Department of Defense laid out procedures that include who should tell the next of kin and how much information about the death should be revealed to the family on the first visit. You can visit Mitcccny to know more things about family meets. In an effort to be sensitive, notifiers leave out details about burial and monetary matters in that first visit.

Practices vary among the military branches, though. The Navy suggests having a chaplain deliver the news, while the Army specifically exempts chaplains. The Marines assign an officer who will notify the family, and then return to help with the funeral, filing for benefits and other work. But the Army and Air Force split those duties between different people so the next of kin will never see the notifier again.

And there are scripts, although each branch prohibits notifiers from reading them as they deliver the news.

Army and Marine scripts waste few words.

“The Secretary of the Army has asked me to express his deep regret that your (relationship) (died/was killed in action) in (country/state) on (date),” reads the Army’s suggested script. “The Secretary extends his deepest sympathy to you and your family in your tragic loss.”

Navy officers deliver the news in increments. The notifiers introduce themselves, say they are there because they have some news, say that it is not good news, and that the person’s loved one was seriously injured or wounded and has died as a result.

Sometimes it doesn’t go well.

Cheryl Fey, an Eden Prairie mother whose son, Marine Cpl. Tyler Fey, died in Iraq in April, said she’s still disturbed by what happened in her case.

“I was quite appalled at the way this was handled in that there was no clergy person with them,” she said. “They’re not really prepared. The whole concept is, they need someone there to communicate with family members. They needed a chaplain. I would’ve been content with a Jewish Rabbi. They can bring all the military froufrou into my home, but that’s not really going to help. You need a clergy person because you’re just devastated.”

She said the Marines who came to her home “were very professional and military. They sat there upright and very staunch. In their viewpoint, they were very professional. They were following the book.”

“We’re Roman Catholic and we asked the first sergeant if Tyler had been anointed, and he didn’t know what we were talking about,” she said, referring to the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. “That’s unacceptable from our point of view.”

For 12 Years VA Failed to Contact WWII Veterans Exposed to Chemical Wafare Agents

U.S. seeks out vets in chemical tests

BY DAVID ZEMAN
DETROIT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

February 18, 2005

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced Thursday that it will begin mailing letters within two weeks to thousands of veterans and military workers exposed to toxic chemicals during World War II and will invite them to seek disability benefits.

VETERANS’ STORY Read the Free Press special report, “Duty, honor, betrayal: How U.S. turned its back on poisoned WWII vets” online at www.freep.com/specials   In addition, VA officials said, the agency will set up a hotline for veterans or their survivors to call if they were exposed to dangerous levels of mustard gas, lewisite or other chemicals.

The VA announcement follows a Free Press series in November that revealed how the agency had not delivered on a 1993 promise to Congress to contact World War II veterans involved in secret chemical testing, warn them of known health risks and invite them to file claims.

The newspaper’s investigation found that the VA did not send a single letter, or place a single phone call, to the veterans — an untold number of whom died or were sickened by various cancers, lung, eye or respiratory illnesses linked to the chemicals. The agency relied instead on public-service ads that most veterans never saw.

“I think it’s a positive thing, and I don’t think it would have happened if it had not been for your work, quite frankly,” U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Ohio, said Thursday in reaction to the VA’s plans.

Strickland, a member of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, urged the VA to act quickly in a letter last week to new VA Secretary Jim Nicholson. When Nicholson appeared before his committee Wednesday, Strickland pleaded with him to “reach out to find these individuals and to provide them with the assistance that I believe this country wants and should provide to them.”

It remains unclear how many veterans exposed to chemicals are still alive or can be located six decades after the war ended.

Renee Szybala, director of the VA’s compensation and pension service, said Thursday that the agency is culling a U.S. Department of Defense database of about 4,500 veterans who took part in secret chemical tests beginning in 1942. The database also includes the names of 1,800 civilian and contract workers exposed to toxins in the manufacturing or transportation of chemical weapons, a list the VA said it will pass on to the U.S. Department of Labor to handle any benefit claims.

The Defense Department database was first provided to the VA in 1997 and then apparently disappeared, for reasons that nobody at the VA has been able to explain. Szybala, who was not working on the project then, conceded Thursday, “We lost a lot of records.”

In the next week or so, Szybala said, defense records will be matched with those in databases at the VA, the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Social Security Administration to obtain updated addresses. For those names that can’t be matched, Szybala said, the VA will pursue leads through private credit-reporting agencies.

Szybala said letters will be mailed as names are matched, and that the VA hoped to process the list by spring. Benefits will range from roughly $400 to $2,200 a month, depending on the degree of disability.

The Free Press series chronicled the travails of the 1st Chemical Casual Company, an Army unit of 100 men who were among more than 4,000 soldiers or sailors deliberately injured in secret gas chamber and field tests designed to help scientists study ways to protect troops from chemical attacks. More than 60,000 troops also were exposed to lower-level testing of chemical agents. The recruits were misled about the health risks and threatened with court-martial if they disclosed the tests to anyone. Many carried the secret to their graves.

Florence Wolfson of Farmington said the VA’s actions might convince her to file a claim on behalf of her husband, Sidney, a veteran who died Nov. 29 after decades of illness.

“I’ve got the papers; maybe I should get on with it,” she said. “If anything happens, OK.”

The Free Press will publish information about the hotline and other details when they become available later this month.

Contact DAVID ZEMAN at 313-222-6593 or zeman@freepress.com

Honor Betrayed: Chemical Veterans from World War II

(2/18/2005) UPDATE- The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is now giving specifics about what it will do for World War II veterans used in secret chemical warfare tests.

10 Investigates reported this week that thousands of WWII vets suffered injuries, physical and psychological, from the chemical warfare tests. Most have never been provided medical benefits.

Renee Szybala, director of the VA’s compensation and pension service says up to 60,00 veterans could now get benefits because of their chemical exposure during WWII. Szybala said the first letters will go out by the end of the month and notify  4,500 veterans, the first group identified by the U.S. Department of Defense as being eligible for the chemical exposure benefits. “This is a rolling out reach,” said Szybala. “We will be sending letters to everybody.”

The letters will go to veterans who had full body contact with mustard gas, lewisite and other chemical agents or veterans who had partial body contact with the chemicals. Szybala said a third letter will be sent to surviving spouses of veterans who have died and were exposed to the chemicals during their WWII service years. The basic compensation rates go from $400 to $2,200 a month, depending on the percentage of disability.

Vice Admiral Daniel L. Cooper (Ret.), Under Secretary for Benefits in the Department of Veterans Affairs also said a toll-free phone number will be set up so that veterans or veterans’ families can learn more about applying for the benefits. “We’re giving them a 1-800 number to call,” said Cooper. “We’re having them go into the hospitals and get checked. I think we’re thoroughly marching down a plan and that’s essentially where it is.”

Ohio Congressman Ted Strickland, (D) Lisbon, says the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is finally keeping its promise to help the World War II veterans who were exposed to chemicals by the U.S. military. “It appears that they are taking this seriously and that they are beginning to take the steps necessary to communicate with these individuals who were used as experimental animals, basically,” said Rep. Strickland.

(2/14/2005) World War II (WWII) has been called ”the unfought chemical war.” Both sides produced millions of tons of chemical weapons and made massive preparations for their use, yet the weapons were never used. These preparations included secret research programs in the United States to develop better weapons and better methods of protecting against these weapons. By the time the war ended, 10 Investigates learned over 60,000 U.S. servicemen had been used as human subjects in this chemical defense research program. At least 4,000 of these subjects had participated in tests conducted with high concentrations of mustard agents or Lewisite in gas chambers or in field exercises over contaminated ground areas.

They volunteered to defend America. Instead, in a 10 Investigates review of declassified documents, thousands of World War II veterans became subjects for secret chemical warfare tests. It was one of the U.S. military’s darkest secrets and many Ohio soldiers were among those tested at an Army base in Maryland.

A vacant building at the U.S. Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground is where some of the tests were conducted. It’s a faded reminder of what happened in the fall of 1943 on this portion of the Maryland facility known then as Edgewood Arsenal. “They said they had some experiments,” said 84-year-old Bill Biggs of Athens, Ohio. He was a private in the Army and one of the volunteers who didn’t know the true risks of the experiments until after they had been conducted. Biggs and 99 other members of the 1st Chemical Casual Company thought they were doing their patriotic duty. “We didn’t know exactly what we were getting into,” said Biggs.

That fall, the military herded several soldiers into sealed gas chambers at Edgewood Arsenal to test the effects of chemical warfare. Biggs said some of the chemical warfare experiments went too far. “But they should of stopped short of hurting somebody,” said Biggs. Biggs says he and some of the other volunteers were lucky. They were tested with a classified nerve gas that was meant to blur the enemy’s eyesight. It reduced Biggs pupils to pin-points. “And left them that way. Mine for 10 days,” said Biggs.

Other soldiers were tested with mustard agents (sulfur and nitrogen mustard) and Lewisite (an arsenic-containing agent) to see if the experimental clothes or skin lotions they wore could repel the chemical weapons. Mustard gas burns eyes and skin. It can cause permanent lung damage even cancer. “Those guys really had it tough,” said Biggs who grew concerned as the military kept raising the mustard gas concentrations to the point where they caused severe injuries to many of the volunteers. “When they found that out, it was too late for the guys that were in there last, or next to last,” said Biggs.

In Mansfield, James Earnshaw’s family didn’t know about the tests. Sworn to secrecy, Earnshaw couldn’t tell his family why he received a medal whose true purpose was even cut out of his letter of commendation. Released early from the Army, Earnshaw was denied medical benefits for a nervous breakdown he suffered shortly after the experiments. Earnshaw’s wife Mary Jo read to us the Army’s medical report on her husband. “ ‘Anxiety type manifested by sleeplessness, nervousness and mild depression.’  It was just too much for him,” said Mrs Earnshaw.

Sixty two years later, 10 Investigates learned the secret contents that had been clipped from of Earnshaw’s commendation letter. It commended Earnshaw and other members of the 1st Chemical Casual Company for subjecting themselves to “pain, discomfort and possible permanent injury” from exposure to “chemical agents.” Even so, the government denied Earnshaw’s request years later for medical benefits.

Jim Earnshaw died in 1997 from heart disease never knowing the military had finally admitted to the chemical warfare tests in 1991. Shortly afterwards, the VA promised to track down the victims, to get the word out. It didn’t happen. There were no letters, no phone calls from the VA. The VA only ran limited public service adsdescribing the benefits in veterans magazines that most veterans didn’t read. The medical benefits were finally there, but Earnshaw never knew about them. “I am sure that if he had known about it he would have probably asked,” says Earnshaw’s son Jim Earnshaw, Jr.

Dan Brock, Harvard University Medical Ethics Professor called the secrecy surrounding the tests a classic Catch-22, especially for the veterans who later suffered health consequences. “You’re sworn to secrecy and then when you come back that secrecy is used against you in order to keep you from being able to get compensation and simple benefits,” said Brock.

To further underscore the importance of

contacting the affected veterans the Institute of Medicine in 1993 was asked by the VA to conduct its own study on the WWII Chemical experiments and concluded; “The human subjects had experienced a wide range of exposures to mustard agents or Lewisite, from mild (a drop of agent on the arm in “patch” tests) to quite severe (repeated gas chamber trials, sometimes without protective clothing). All of the men in the chamber and field tests, and some of the men in the patch tests, were told at the time that they should never reveal the nature of the experiments. Almost to a man, they kept this secret for the next 40 or more years…. The lack of follow-up of these subjects particularly dismayed the committee for a number of reasons. For example, the end point of the chamber and field tests was tissue injury, but it was already known by 1933 that certain long-term health problems resulted from sulfur mustard exposure. Further, it was documented that numerous subjects suffered severe injuries that required up to a month of treatment. Finally, the exposure levels were sufficiently high that even the most efficient gas mask would have leaked enough mustard agent or Lewisite to cause inhalation and eye injuries.”

The Institute of Medicine study also noted the psychological effects associated with the chemical tests experienced by Earnshaw and other members of the 1st Chemical Casual Company. “Psychological disorders mood disorders anxiety disorders (including post-traumatic stress disorder) other traumatic stress disorder responses.”

In Washington, we asked the Department of Veteran’s Affairs what happened. Renee Szybala is director of the VA’s compensation and benefits service. “I’m fairly new to the VA,” said Szybala. “And I’m not well versed on what went on there. We’re more looking to the future.” Szybala explained that the VA was creating a new data base of potentially thousands of surviving WWII veterans who were exposed to chemicals or their surviving spouses. Once that task is done, Szybala says the VA will begin immediately contacting people by letter. That’s something Ohiocongressman Ted Strickland says should have happened long ago. “They promised several years ago to do something about this problem,” said Rep. Strickland. “They have done little or nothing to this point.”

The VA says this time it will notify the Veterans or their surviving spouses who are eligible for the benefits. “I’m hoping that it’s thousands that we’ll be able to reach. I’m hoping that it is,” said Szybala. Strickland, a member of the Veteran’s Affairs Committee, says until convinced otherwise, he’s doubtful. “To hear them say now that they’re going to correct this and do the right thing I just simply don’t think they’re telling the truth.” Last week, Rep. Strickland sent a letter to the Secretary of Veteran’s Affairsasking him to ” take action and give these veterans the benefits they rightfully deserve.” Szybala says this time it will happen. “I’m content with that. I mean we’ll convince him (Rep. Strickland) because this is going to happen.”

If it happens, Bill Biggs says he’d be convinced the country he volunteered to serve 60 years ago is finally willing to admit it made a mistake. “If you pay these veterans for damages they received for doing this test then you’re admitting that you over did it.” The Department of Veterans Affairs promised to have more details about its efforts to contactWWII veterans exposed to chemicals later this month.

The Detroit Free Press and U.S. Army historian Jeffrey Smart at Aberdeen Proving Ground contributed to this report.

For information about benefits, contact the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs toll free at 800-827-1000. The VA Web site is www.va.gov.

Make your Voice Heard

Ohio Congressman Ted Strickland: 202-225-5705

U.S. House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs: 202-225-3527

U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs: 202-224-9126

Post-traumatic stress disorder needs to be taken seriously

Letters to the Editor
Published February 20, 2005

Re: “Over my dead body,” Feb. 13.

Your article about Sgt. Curtis Greene’s suicide as a result of having post-traumatic stress disorder from his experiences in Iraq was an enormous public service. It is disgraceful how little most people know about this deadly disease.

I am a veteran of the Korean War and have had PTSD for 52 years. I waited 50 years to report my condition to the [U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)]. PTSD severely diminished the quality of life for me and my family. I should have gone for help sooner, and I hope others won’t make the same mistake.

An important component of military training is to get you angry… very angry. This is true for hand-to-hand combat training and especially true for bayonet training. They know that the angrier they can get you, the better warrior you will be. While in combat, when you see your friends get killed, the anger turns to uncontrollable rage, and that’s the way the military wants you to be.

If we are lucky enough to return home, we discover the military didn’t issue us an “off” switch. We suffer where you can’t see. We are powerless to explain it, and no one seems to care.

If you are a combat veteran who has PTSD, or a family member of one, seek help at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The PTSD radio will always be playing in your head, but they know how to turn the volume down. PTSD is a disease, not a disgrace.

For the rest of you, take those stupid metallic ribbons off the back of your cars. If you want to show your support for our combat veterans of any war, the next time you see one, look him in the eye, give him a firm handshake and just say “Thank you for serving your country.” It’s the best medicine I know for someone who is living with this horrible problem.

— Frank Thoubboron, Belleair

Keep focusing on war’s impact

Re: “Over my dead body.”

I am writing to say that I appreciate Mary Spicuzza’s recent front-page story about the service and loss of Sgt. Curtis Greene. I believe this type of story speaks to the potential impact of war and the service of the American men and women who are making such large sacrifices.

Please keep informing civilians of the gains and losses associated with our nation taking military action against another nation. I believe it is important to hear and see both sides of the current U.S. military action to make educated and informed decisions about what we support.

— William Royall, Tampa

Many Reserve and Guard Face Job Problems After Discharge from Active Duty

Jobs don’t always wait for Guards, reservists: Citizen soldiers find duty in Iraq can dent families’ finances When Steve Pittman Jr. finally returned to California from Iraq late in December, he was thinking about getting back to two things. One was his girlfriend. The other was his truck. Not necessarily in that order.

One thing that didn’t worry him was his job at a lube shop, where he worked until he was activated by his California National Guard unit. But once he was in Oxnard (Ventura County), employment suddenly moved to the top of the list.

“They had already replaced me,” he said. Pittman said his boss explained politely that business had boomed in Pittman’s absence, and while the shop might have an opening in a few weeks, he was keeping Pittman’s replacement on the job.

“That was understandable,” Pittman said. But it still left him without a job as his bank balance — fat from combat pay and months on a base with little to buy — rapidly thinned out.

Pittman’s experience is being repeated across the nation as members of the National Guard and Reserve — mobilized in numbers and for a duration not seen in 60 years, return from tours of duty in Iraq to the civilian workforce.

Older, further along in their careers and often with larger families than their active-duty peers, members of the National Guard and Reserve, experts say, have been especially affected by the demands of lengthy — and in some cases repeated — deployments to Iraq.

And while Pittman experienced an extreme scenario, thousands of soldiers are returning home and finding a range of difficulties — from paperwork hassles to losing their homes and businesses — as they try to fit back into civilian life. And officials are scrambling to solve that problem before tens of thousands more troops come home.

“This just hasn’t happened since World War II, and in World War II, the whole country was mobilized in effect, so this didn’t happen,” said retired Maj. Gen. Paul Monroe Jr., former adjutant general of the California National Guard. “It is something that no one is prepared to deal with in an effective way.”

More than 412,000 Guard and reservists have been called up nationwide since Sept. 11, 2001, and 185,432 remain on active duty. And officials in the military, government and volunteer organizations whose job it is to assist returning troops say that when difficulties occur, the system works pretty well.

While the size of the problem is new, the issues around it are not — Monroe’s own son, a National Guard captain, lost his job while mobilized for Operation Noble Eagle, the call-up of reservists for domestic duty after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Helping his son brought Monroe into close contact with Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, a volunteer organization working to alleviate hardships that military service can cause for employers and employees alike.

An ombudsmen for the support organization contacted Monroe’s son’s employer with a gentle reminder that federal law — the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act — requires that, with few exceptions, military service members are entitled to their civilian jobs after deployment, along with the seniority, status and pay they would have had if they had stayed at home.

With surprising speed, Monroe’s son was back at work, and today the general, who left the Guard Adjutant General’s office last year, is California vice chairman of Employer Support.

Most cases brought to the organization have similarly happy endings, said John Woolley, Northern California vice chairman of the group.

Woolley’s volunteer position has turned into a more or less full-time job in the past year and a half, as complaints from service members have spiked. But more than 80 percent of the complaints are resolved with a friendly phone call and letter to the employer explaining the law, he said.

Cases that can’t be resolved might be sent to the Department of Labor for action and even to the Department of Justice, which can file a lawsuit.

The departments of Defense, Labor and Justice track such cases differently, and some have been revamping their procedures since the Iraq war began, making it tricky to know the scale of the problem. Employer Support reported that since April, it has received 6,462 queries, of which 5,739 have been successfully mediated between reservist and employer.

Department of Labor officials said they opened fewer than 1,500 cases in fiscal year 2004 — an increase over the two previous years, but still less than the number opened after the 1991 Persian Gulf War. And the Department of Justice reported it has only 16 open investigations this fiscal year.

Still, Woolley said he was worried about the vast demobilization down the road.

“When the tides go out, that’s not a problem,” he said. “But when the tide comes back in — that’s a problem.”

Woolley and others in the group are working hard to increase awareness of the law not only among employers, through a range of award programs and outreach activities, but also among service members, through pre- and post- deployment briefings.

Even then, the system can’t help some troops — including Pittman, whose California job hunt went poorly, in large part because he didn’t have the right paperwork allowing him to apply the welding skills he learned in Iraq to a job in the state.

“It’s kind of frustrating,” he said, “especially when I can out-weld about half of the damn applicants.”

The Department of Labor is looking at ways to make it easier for returning veterans to get state certifications for the kinds of work they do in the military, as well as to help returning service members translate their military experience into civilian resume material. The department has launched a nationwide campaign encouraging employers to hire veterans, and plans to issue guidelines helping employers understand and obey the law.

“We find that in most cases the problems occur because the employer did not understand what the law requires,” said Frederico Juarbe Jr., assistant secretary of labor for veterans employment and training, speaking in San Jose last week at the first West Coast meeting of the White House’s year-old National Hire Veterans Committee.

But all those services — such as the employment rights law — are useless if the members fail to use them, and officials can’t know how many returning troops don’t know the law or are too proud to try.

Pittman, for one, decided not to file a complaint and instead headed to Indiana to live with his parents.

“Call it my upbringing, but I tend not to bitch,” the 25-year-old said. “Probably the most valuable thing my dad ever gave me was a work ethic. I’ve never been without a job for long.”

Pay differential

Not every employment issue faced by mobilized Guard members and reservists can be addressed. One is the issue of pay differential for civilian and military jobs.

“There is definitely a problem. The problem is particularly significant for people who make a lot of money in civilian life, and then make a lot less when they go on active duty,” said retired Army Reserve Col. Alfred Diaz, past national vice president of the Reserve Officers Association. “Those people are the ones likely to lose all their savings, and maybe even their houses.”

Scott Hellesto, a 35-year-old paramedic and firefighter, was activated as a Navy corpsman, causing his pay to drop from more than $70,000 to less than $50,000. His wife ended up on the state Women, Infants and Children support program and had to move with their three children into a smaller home in Antioch.

“We had a nice rental house, and I had to put my family in a shoe-box apartment,” he said. “This place was a dive. … Our car got broken into twice, our tires got popped on our car.”

Six months after he returned, Hellesto and his wife were able to buy a new home in time for the birth of their fourth child. But while he does not regret military service — “If they call me back today, I’d go,” he said — he also says there should be a way to serve without so much sacrifice.

“When you sign up for the military, you know there’s no such thing as a rich man in the military,” he said. “(But) who’s to say that my time in the military is any less valuable than my time at the firehouse?”

The result isn’t only a strain on the individual, it’s a strain on the military when that individual gets fed up and quits, Diaz said.

“It’s affecting National Guard recruiting in particular,” he said. “Reserve recruiting is going to be affected as well, and retention is going to be affected.”

Diaz went to Washington last week to support a bill introduced by Rep. Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo, which would require federal employers to continue paying activated employees the difference between their civilian and military wages, and would offer tax credits to civilian employers who voluntarily do the same.

Small business owners

Officials haven’t quite figured out how to solve the problems of another category of returnees — the self-employed and small business owners, who make up an estimated 7 percent of Guard members and reservists, according to a 2003 Department of Defense study.

National Guard Staff Sgt. Ken Weichert, 38, of San Francisco operates START Fitness, a boot-camp-style fitness and self-defense course for civilians. For almost seven years, the former Army drill instructor’s one-weekend-a- month, two-weeks-a-year National Guard training schedule caused no problems.

But when his military intelligence battalion was activated in February 2003 with just a few days’ notice, he figured he was out of business. “I gave power of attorney over to my wife, and I said shut it down,” he said.

“They said it was going to be four months. It turned out to be 13. … Any ready reservist who’s activated that owns his own business is not protected by anything,” he said. “If their business goes under, their business goes under.”

As it turned out, Weichert’s wife, Stephanie — they married the day before he deployed — was more resourceful than he’d realized. Weichert returned to discover that she had gotten her own instructor certification, hired some of his black-belt-qualified friends and managed to keep 80 percent of his membership. Weichert feels he dodged a bullet, thanks to the support of his wife.

“There are a lot of business owners — a lot more than I thought there were. Insurance salesmen, real estate brokers,” he said. “If they’re not there, their commissions gravely suffer and they go down to pennies from hundreds.”

“Nobody knows the scale of the problem,” said William Elmore, associate administrator of the Office of Veterans Business Development at the U.S. Small Business Administration, the main source of assistance for people like Weichert. “Our estimate is somewhere in the range of 30,000 small business owners have been activated.”

Elmore said the range of programs available to returning troops like Weichert is significant and growing, with new outreach centers — including one in Sacramento — dedicated to getting those resources to returning troops.

Both Elmore and Woolley, of Employer Support, said the government could do more to directly assist small-business owners.

“They’re not gone forever. They’re gone for a year, maybe less than that, ” he said. “I think the United States of America could keep a small business going for a year.”

Veterans’ job rights

For more information on resources available to returning troops, visit the following Web sites:

Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve: www.esgr.org/

SBA’s Office of Veterans Business Development: www.sba.gov/vets/

President’s National Hire Veterans Committee: www.hirevetsfirst.gov/

U.S. Department of Labor Veterans’ Employment and Training Service: www.dol.gov/vets/

E-mail Matthew B. Stannard at mstannard@sfchronicle.com

G.I. sex predator hunt Pentagon to investigate 10 serial-attack suspects BY CORKY SIEMASZKO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Stung byreports of serial rapists in the ranks, the Pentagon said yesterday it would investigate the soldiers identified by a watchdog group.

One of the 10 suspects is a Marine serving at Camp Pendleton, Calif., whom at least three women have accused of sexual assault, sources said.

“We’re looking and trying to determine who these predators are,” said Lt. Col. Joe Richard, a Pentagon spokesman.

Anita Sanchez of the Miles Foundation, a Connecticut-based nonprofit group that assists soldiers who have been sexually assaulted, said her organization forwarded the names of the suspected servicemen to their respective services.

Each has been accused by two or more soldiers who came to the Miles Foundation for help. Six are in the Army, two are in the Marines and one each is in the Navy and Air Force.

“We report it to the services, as opposed to the Pentagon, because the services have direct authority over those individuals,” Sanchez said. “There are protocols we go through.”

Sanchez said they also have gotten reports about a private security guard who allegedly assaulted several female soldiers. She declined to identify him, or to release the names of the accused servicemen.

The Daily News, however, learned that one of them is a Marine who got immunity last year to testify at the court-martial of one of his alleged victims. The Marine denied the charge.

Under pressure from Congress, the Defense Department recently introduced sweeping policy changes for handling sexual assaults of soldiers.

Sanchez said the foundation has received 307 reports of sexual assault from soldiers – mostly female – serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait and Bahrain. And many are reluctant to report rapes to their superiors.

In an interview tomorrow on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Lt. Jennifer Dyer of the New Jersey National Guard claims the Army treated her “like a criminal” after she reported being raped and was ordered to return to the base where her alleged attacker was stationed.

Army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Pamela Hart said Dyer had the “opportunity to go to any base of her choosing” and that her accused rapist faces a court-martial.

Journalist group calls US to account over Iraq

Dominic Timms
Friday February 18, 2005

The US government was today accused of hiding behind a “culture of denial” over the deaths of at least 12 journalists who are alleged to have perished at the hands of the US military in Iraq.

Re-igniting the debate that US soldiers deliberately “targeted” journalists during the Iraqi occupation, a press freedom body called on the US to take “responsibility” for its actions in the country.

Responding to what it said was the “hounding out” of the CNN news chief, Eason Jordan, the International Federation of Journalists called on the US administration to come clean over its “mistakes” in the region.

Since US, British and other soldiers first began Operation Iraqi Freedom in March 2003, more than 70 journalists have been killed in the country.

The IFJ said that at least 12 journalists had met their deaths at the “hands of US soldiers”, including the killings of Taras Protsyuk of Reuters and Jose Couso of Spain’s Telecinco after US tanks opened fire on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad.

The US military claimed the tanks had been responding to small arms fire coming from the hotel, which housed journalists who were non-embedded with military forces, but later withdrew the claim saying: soldiers fired at “what was believed to be an enemy firing platform and observation point”.

Almost a year after journalists’ groups first demanded it, a US military investigation into the attack found that “no fault or negligence” could be attributed to US soldiers.

As part of a move to establish a new journalist body in Iraq, to be known as the Iraqi National Journalists Council, the IFJ said it would hold demonstrations across the country on the anniversary of the Palestine Hotel attack.

“On that day journalists around the world will once again protest over impunity [and] secrecy over media deaths and, in particular, at the failure of the United States to take responsibility for its actions in Iraq which have led to the killing of journalists,” said the IFJ general secretary, Aidan White.

He said that the resignation of CNN’s Eason Jordan had been orchestrated by a vitriolic campaign by the US right wing.

Mr Eason was forced to quit after suggesting that that US forces had deliberately targeted journalists in Iraq, though he later clarified his comments, saying that he never meant to imply that “US forces acted with ill intent when US forces accidentally killed journalists.”

Mr White said the CNN news executive had been “hounded out by a toxic mix of hysteria, intolerance and ignorance” and said the IFJ would continue its campaign “until Washington is ready to admit its mistakes”.

Experts see military draft as inevitable

Anti-war activists fear revival of selective service

There may come a day when Uncle Sam wants Wayne Flenniken for the U.S. Army.

In many ways, he’s an ideal candidate for military service. At 15, he already has finished high school and is enrolled at Delaware Technical & Community College studying Spanish and English. There is a problem, however. Wayne doesn’t want any part of Uncle Sam’s Army – or anyone else’s, for that matter.

“I don’t believe in war and I don’t like the military in any way, shape or form,” he said. “I don’t think anyone should be forced to die prematurely.”

That’s why he went to a draft resistance training session Friday in his hometown of Newark. It’s why Wayne has begun building his case as a conscientious objector.

The United States no longer has a military draft and hasn’t since 1973, when it converted to an all-volunteer military.

But some anti-war activists say it’s only a matter of time before the Bush administration and the Republican-controlled Congress bring it back. Meanwhile, conservatives and moderates outside the administration have taken a hard look at America’s military commitments and are urging Congress to beef up the Army and Marines.

Many elected officials say there is no way the draft will be brought back any time soon.

“Our current all-volunteer force is highly effective, well-trained, well-disciplined and capable of handling our global and national security commitments,” said Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del. “[Defense] Secretary [Donald] Rumsfeld and the Joint Chiefs of Staff have continuously stated their opposition to reviving the draft and the House of Representatives overwhelmingly rejected such a proposal last year. I personally oppose it.”

Others aren’t so certain.

“I don’t see the need for a draft, but we need to prepare now in order to avoid having one forced on us in the future,” said Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del. “We can reduce the stress we are placing on our armed forces by increasing the number of ground troops in the Army and Marine Corps and bringing the size of our military in line with our expanded responsibilities in a post-9/11 world,” he said.

Looking for help

A few believe, however, that the White House should get other nations to share the burden in Iraq.

“We have 12 [combat] divisions and 10 are locked down in Iraq, either coming or going,” said Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del. “Our ability to have any flexibility with ground forces anywhere else is diminished. If we had to move into Iran, Syria, North Korea or anywhere else, we’d be in real difficulty.”

In addition, he said, “we have absolutely spent, exhausted, and in some instances misled the National Guard and the reserves. I’ve been in Baghdad and Fallujah and I’ve spoken with them. When they enlisted in the Guard, they never anticipated being sent for two tours of duty in Iraq lasting a year or 18 months. We can’t keep asking citizen soldiers to do that.”

In a highly critical memo on the use of Reservists, Lt. Gen. James Helmly said virtually the same thing late last year. Helmly, chief of the Army Reserve, said that “overuse” in Iraq and Afghanistan could result in a “broken force.”

Biden co-sponsored legislation with Republican Sen. John McCain and others that allows the Army to increase its active duty strength by 30,000 troops. The Defense Department said earlier this month that it expects to meet that goal by 2007.

Anti-war activists agree with Biden and Helmly that the military needs additional troops.

“We already have our troops stretched to the limit,” said J.E. McNeil, executive director of the Center on Conscience & War. The Guard and Reserve cannot continue to provide about 40 percent of the nation’s combat troops, Biden said.

As a result, McNeil and other anti-war activists such as Sally Milbury-Steen, executive director of the Wilmington-based peace organization Pacem in Terris, said they think a draft is on the horizon.

“I think there’s a very good chance of a military draft in the next two years. We have soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq and now they’re heating up the rhetoric on Iran. Where else will the soldiers come from?” Milbury-Steen asked.

Peace activists aren’t the only ones thinking seriously about compulsory military service. In a well-publicized letter sent to congressional leaders in late January, conservatives and moderates said flatly that “the United States military is too small for the responsibilities we are asking it to assume.”

In that letter, retired military leaders such as Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey joined with defense analysts such as Michele Flournoy and political commentators such as William Kristol in asking Congress “to take the steps necessary to increase substantially the size of the active duty Army and Marine Corps. … it is our judgment that we should aim for an increase in the active-duty Army and Marine Corps, together, of at least 25,000 troops each year over the next several years.”

They do not call for a draft but anti-war activists say they see no other certain way to boost military strength.

“The most probable way they will start is to do a selected draft of medical people, those with specialized computer skills, and those with Arabic language skills and let it spread further,” Milbury-Steen said.

‘Everything is in place’

If a new draft law is enacted, the government could start sending new recruits to military training very quickly. The reason: Former President Jimmy Carter put the framework of the current Selective Service system in place in 1980. Although Carter never activated it, as part of the framework, young men must register with the government when they turn 18.

That means, Milbury-Steen said, that new recruits could be sent to boot camp within two weeks of the draft law’s passage.

“Everything is in place, ready to go,” she said.

Charles Pena, director of Defense Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, a conservative Washington-based think tank, does not see a military draft in the future. Instead, he said, the federal government is more likely to require compulsory national service.

“We won’t have a draft like we had in the Vietnam era,” Pena said. “There are two important stumbling blocks to bringing that back. First, what do you do about women? They weren’t drafted before but are now an important part of the military. Second, what happens if someone who is drafted says that he or she is a homosexual?”

Discussion reflects support

There is no groundswell for national service legislation now, Pena said, but it is being discussed by lawmakers and at policy seminars throughout the nation’s capital.

“It’s lurking right below the surface. There are enough people willing to get behind it on Capitol Hill that it’s something that could be done. Right now no one’s pushing for it, but just as importantly, no one’s pushing against it,” he said.

Under national compulsory service, no one would be exempt, he said. People could join the military or perform some other form of community service, Pena said.

Newark resident Jane Curschmann isn’t sure there will be a draft. She went to last week’s anti-draft training because she has a 13-year-old son and wanted to be better informed about his rights. Judy Butler also attended the session. She doesn’t know if there will be a draft but is suspicious of the Bush administration’s forceful denials that there are plans to reinstitute one.

“I have a problem with credibility with this particular administration,” she said.

Wayne Flenniken’s father, Eric, a former Army Reservist, went to the draft resistance training with his son because, while he doesn’t have a problem defending the country from enemies, he has a problem sending his son to fight in Iraq.

“I used to be gung-ho when I was younger but this war in Iraq, it all boils down to oil and oil interests. You want to send my son to Iraq to defend Enron? No,” he said, “I don’t think so.”

Contact Mike Billington at 324-2761 or mbillington@delawareonline.com