VA-GW Veteran Illness TaskForce comments

This was your chance to put in your own suggestions for improvements to Gulf War Veterans Care and Gulf War Illness! at this forum on line at http://yourgulfwarvoice.uservoice.com
I am upset that the VA did this task force report and yet has not mailed out the Gulf War Information newsletter to inform all the veterans of this task force report and a method to really get all gulf war veterans involved by a total mail out to all 700,000 deployed in 1990-91.

They did not even notify the veterans by placement of posters at VA Clinics or Hospitals or at VA regional offices. This is a sorry mechanism to show outreach by relying on a website or an announcement on the Federal Registry. How many veterans knew of this process or have access to a computer or internet?

How many VSOs notified the gulf war veterans they knew? How many special mailings were made by VSOs or announcements on their websites? Or notices at VSO posts or in post newsletters.

How many TV stations gave coverage? How many radio talk shows? How many local newspapers or even major city newspapers covered this request for input to the VA Task Force Report?

Did The VA even try by fully activating their massive Public Affairs ability? How about DOD did they do anything to get the word out?

Another failure by the VA to communicate with gulf war veterans. Another failure to truly outreach to the Gulf War Veterans of 1990-91 who have suffered for 20 years and countless gulf war veterans have died and their families have no way to input to suggestions for improvement!

Countless Veterans from the gulf war 1990-91 have auto immune disorders, ALS, MS, Cancers, undiagnosed illnesses, cardiovascular, renal, lung, bowel, reproductive disorders, endocrine, neurological problems, blood disorders, early alzthemiers symptoms, neurological cognitive disorders and are still awaiting acknowledgement from their own government.

Iraqi Scud barrack Desert Storm

I was there, and I will never forget, the job of a medic.
Bob and Connie Clark became acquainted with the Army Reserve's
14th Quartermaster Detachment in Hempfield Township when their
daughter, Spc. Beverly Clark, brought them to the unit's open
house and Christmas gatherings.

"(Beverly) loved everyone here, from the staff to their
families, so she was so excited and proud to introduce us to
them. They were like a family to her," said Connie Clark, of
Armagh, Indiana County.

Beverly Clark, 23, died on Feb. 25, 1991, with 18 other men
and women serving in the 14th Quartermaster when an Iraqi Scud
missile slammed into the barracks housing their water
purification unit in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, during the waning
days of Operation Desert Storm.

In all, 28 soldiers were killed and 99 injured from the 14th
Quartermaster and the 477th Provisional Transportation Unit in
the fiery explosion that leveled the quarters. The 14th
Quartermaster sustained the greatest number of casualties of
any coalition unit during the war.

On Sunday, a memorial service marking anniversary of
the attack was attended by roughly 40 family members, friends
and veterans at the unit's headquarters in the village of
Carbon. Over time, the bond has grown each year among
attendees who loved the unit known as "Water Dawgs."

"After the tragedy that happened, I think we all grew closer,
because we all have something in common," said Clark, bearing
a pin with her late daughter's photograph on her coat. "Coming
here on this day means a lot, because this really was a home
away from home for our daughter and the other soldiers, and
kind of like their second family."

During a vigil at the site of a memorial dedicated to the
unit, Beverly Clark's sister, Bobbi, said a short prayer in
the cold, pouring rain. Family members, including some young
children, placed flowers and teddy bears at the base of a
wicker wreath wrapped with a yellow ribbon on which was
written, "We will always remember."

"Thank you that we have this day to remember and spend
together, and for the people that couldn't be here today,
please encourage them and lift them up," said Bobbi Clark 38,
of Greensburg.

After the anniversary, officials decided to hold
full-scale memorials every five years. In other years, those
attending normally choose to remember their fallen loved ones
in silence, said Jack Gordon, chief of information and public
affairs for the Army Reserve's 99th Regional Readiness
Command, based in Moon Township, Allegheny County.

"When you think about 16 years having passed since that day,
children who were babies then are grown ... that's a lot of
years," Gordon said.
Connie Clark expressed gratitude to the 14th Quartermaster for
allowing her and the others to gather there yesterday.
"This is a hard day of the year, and being able to come
together like this helps us to get through it," Clark said.

Hempfield unit's losses remembered - Tribune-Review
By A.J. Panian
TRIBUNE REVIEW
Monday, February 26, 2007

GW Veterans Illness Task Force -rename

Gulf War Veterans Illnesses Task Force draft report .
http://yourgulfwarvoice.uservoice.com/

ACTION: Notice with request for comments.
Jeff Peters, GWVI-TF Secretary, OSVA,
Department of Veterans Affairs, 810 Vermont Avenue, NW., Washington, DC
20420, at (202) 461-4814.

SCUD desert storm wounded survive

I was there and glad to see that the Vast internet and history has not forgetten this event. What has gotten forgotten is the survivors of this event.

DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Feb. 26— In the most devastating Iraqi stroke of the Persian Gulf war, an Iraqi missile demolished a barracks housing more than 100 American troops on Monday night, killing 27 and wounding 98, the American military command in Riyadh said early today.

Greg Siegle, a freelance writer, said he saw "a gigantic explosion" 100 feet off the ground, then another as bits of glowing metal fell to the ground and set fire to the barracks, which is situated in Al Khobar, a city a few miles from Dhahran and its big air base. He said the building caught fire at once. Within an hour, it was a charred skeleton.

Many of the occupants of the barracks, a corrugated-metal warehouse that had been converted into temporary housing for British and American troops, were eating dinner or relaxing when the missile hit. Others were apparently working out or sleeping, and many survivors wandered around, in sweatsuits or gym shorts, stunned, during the rescue efforts.

This morning, under the pitiless glare of portable floodlights, excavating equipment began plowing through the blackened remains of the building. Servicemen joined in the search for the missing, using picks and shovels, as some of the survivors milled about. Many wept.

In a dormitory-turned-morgue, four pairs of boots protruded from under blankets. Sleeping bags and military uniform belts were scattered about on the charred floor.

There was little left of the building but its steel girder frame.
http://www.nytimes.com/1991/02/26/world/war-in-the-gulf-scud-attack-scud-missile-hits-a-us-barracks-killing-27.html?pagewanted=1