Not really surprising

[pecunium]

If this is true, I am not shocked:

James Gentry served his country honorably as a battalion commander in Iraq. Now, he is dying of a rare form of lung cancer. And he's not the only one. A troubling number of troops in Gentry's Indiana National Guard unit have bloody noses, tumors and rashes. And tragically, one soldier has already died.

New reports suggest these injuries may be the result of exposure to toxins at a KBR-run power plant in Southern Iraq. In 2003, James and his men were responsible for guarding that plant, and protecting KBR's employees. The soldiers were stationed there for months before being informed that the site was contaminated with a chemical known as hexavalent chromium.

...But this is not just some sad story about accidental chemical exposure. This is a question of responsibility. CBS News has uncovered evidence that KBR may have known about the contamination at the power plant months before it took any action to inform the troops stationed there.

This is sort of personal to me. Not that I think I was exposed to hexavalent chromium, but because when I got back I was able to answer, "often" to a question I would never have thought I could say, "even once" to.

In the health survey they ask if one was exposed to a host of things, one of them was, "Burning excrement," and I was. In Dogwood you could always tell when the wind from the latrine details had shifted. Last year I finally realised the vector for the infection which caused my Reiter's to manifest was smoke from the burn pits; probably by way of settling on my food.

So lets hope Evan Bayh's regisitry of the exposed is built.

Comments

[momwolf.livejournal.com]

When I was little, Brown and Root was an honorable upstanding company. The management that was would help string up the management that is.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Unless you were little a long time ago, I'm sorry to say it's been SOP for them. KBR was running this same scam in Vietnam. The folks back in Houston may not have known about it, but it was sure happening out in the field.

[momwolf.livejournal.com]

Yes, I was little a very, very long time ago.

[lawgeekgurl.livejournal.com]

there was an article today in the Oregonian about all the Oregon soldiers who were exposed also. Wasn't this the same chemical that was the subject of the suit Erin Brockovitch worked on?

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Yes. Thank the Maker I am wasn't exposed to that (or if so it was passing brief).

My brother's son

[dragonet2.livejournal.com]

was born after his second trip to Viet Nam. His daughter (first child) is pretty normal despite being an Xian bugf-k of the 'quiverfull' ilk. Son has had cognitive difficulties that are real subtle, but basically he's about 10 years behind most kids his age, and I wonder if that was a side effect.

First time he went over he was a missile specialist, second time was as a Huey pilot. I know lots about the first trip because he wrote copious letters--my only regret is that those letters were in a trunk in the basement of my first house and they drowned... along with about 300 rejection letters for various stories.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

This country's treatment of its military is a travesty.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Also I would like to see a raft of prosecutions of KBR, who seem to have operated with a reckless disregard for soldier life (see also: electrocutions in showers).

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I don't think we need to electrocute them in showers, a simple firing party is fine with me.

Don't get me started about them. Really. The things they did (and didn't) do while I was in theater are enough to make me willing to dissolve the whole mess, sell the assets off and divide it into "shares" (as with prize money).

How to divide the shares is a little harder, but baseline is one share to everyone who served; with extras added as harms go up.

No. Love. Lost.