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Depleted
Contact:
1.
Journal entries from activist Lietta Ruger’s BLOG.
2.
Language of the Washington DU Testing Bill.
3. Returning soldiers may face tests for exposure to depleted
uranium
Please notify us of any current activities taking place so we can update
this page.
Thank you. Working together, we can defeat this scourge.
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Journal
Entries from Lietta Ruger’s
BLOG:
Quietly, some dedicated veterans in WA went to work on
getting together a proposal for legislation funding for exposure of WA Natl Guard troops to depleted uranium in Iraq/Afghanistan.
It surprisingly moved to a Bill (SB 6732 and HB 3107), to Hearings in a short
space of time (Dec 05 - Feb 06) Links to both bills state House and Senate =
Access WA SB 6732.
I was invited into the process to give testimony at State
Senate hearings on the legislation. I deferred to give the oral presenters more
time to make the case for the scientific data and there were to be 4 presenters
with about 4-5 minutes each. I did, however, send in written testimony which
was entered into the record.
As the legislative session was coming to a close, it looked
like the bill was considered dead due to time constraints. I'm not too knowledgeable
on legislative process and couldn't believe there wasn't some sort of 11th hour save, so I placed a call to my State Senator Mark Doumit'sSr. Legislative Assistant, Vicki
Winters. She explained that while it appears the bill might be dead, it
is not too late to ressurect it by encouraging calls
from citizens to their legislative representatives. She thanked me for the call
and again was strongly encouraging in how important the individual phone call
is and mine was important. (At the time I thought she was just giving the
polite formal response to my call - I was wrong, she meant it and it did make a
difference).
I sent out email to the group working on this legislation
that I had learned it was not yet dead, but still in play, and to please send
out email to their networking for people to call their legislative reps and ask
them to endorse this bill. Not to elevate my own efforts as we had the
advantage of having a lobbyist working with our group. He had told us the bill
was dead, not going to happen this session. I phoned him to get better sense of
the process and to make a plea for some sort of
Long story short; see below; the bill was funded. Not quite
in the original proposal, but it was funded and this is a beginning to a most
important, ongoing issue for our troops and their families. We were fortunate
to have a lobbyist working diligently with us on this and I can see the value
it lent to the process; a most Special Thank You to Roger Kluck,
lobbyist for the Friends Committee on Washington Public Policy.
I want to give a Shout Out of
Special thanks to WA Senator Mark Doumit (District
19) and his Sr Legislative Assistant, Vickie Winters
for your responsive help. It's given me encouragement in this time of a most
discouraging political climate that from time to time the political process
works!
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Budgeted
for $150,000 for a Military Department to study the scope and adequacy of
training on exposure to depleted uranium received by
(8)(a) $150,000 of
the general fund--state appropriation for fiscal
year
2007 is provided solely for the military department to:
(i) Initiate a health registry for veterans and military
personnel
returning
from
uranium
or other hazardous materials may be found;
(ii) develop a plan for outreach to and follow-up of military
personnel;
(iii) prepare a report for service members concerning potential
exposure to depleted
uranium
and other toxic chemical substances and the precautions
recommended
under combat and noncombat conditions while in a
combat
zone;
(iv) submit a report by
and
military affairs committee on the scope and adequacy of training
received
by members of the
whether
their service as eligible members is likely to entail, or to
have
entailed, exposure to depleted uranium, including an assessment of
the
feasibility and cost of adding predeployment training
concerning
potential
exposure to depleted uranium and other toxic chemical
substances;
and
(v) study the health effects of hazardous materials
exposure
including, but not limited to, depleted uranium, as they
relate
to military service and submit a report and recommendations to
the
joint veterans and military affairs committee.
Posted by Lietta Ruger at
Labels: depleted uranium
Returning soldiers may face tests for exposure to depleted
uranium
Returning soldiers may face tests for exposure to depleted
uranium
Activists cite high cancer rates; bill faces finance
committees
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Returning
Soldiers may face tests for exposure to depleted uranium.
BY BRAD SHANNON,
THE OLYMPIAN
South Sound military veterans have urged state lawmakers to
authorize tests of returning Washington National Guard soldiers for exposure to
depleted uranium used in some armor-piercing munitions in
Depleted uranium was used for munitions in the Gulf War and
to better armor some Abrams tanks. Gases given off by the firing of the
ammunition have been said to create a mist or fog of radioactive material that
can be inhaled and absorbed into the body, where bone, lymph, liver and other
tissues store it.
Briefings to legislators describe the depleted uranium used
in the munitions as coming from the leftover material when radioactive isotopes
are removed from uranium for use in nuclear fuel.
Activists cite higher cancer rates in
“Depleted uranium — we’re very fearful it’s going to be the
Agent Orange of this generation,” said Jerry Muchmore,
a Democratic Party activist from
Further study
Col. Ron Weaver of the state Military Department said the
Department of Defense screens soldiers for exposure and tests many who are
suspected of exposures. He also said his agency has no objections to the
further study of returning veterans to gauge their exposure to toxic materials,
because, he he said, the health and safety of about
4,000 Washington National Guard troops rotated through
The states of
In the meantime, Weaver said, the agency’s staff surgeon has
been ordered to monitor test results already being done.
Local voices
Several veterans and Dr. George Hill, a retired
Sen. Rosa Franklin, D-Tacoma, sponsored Senate Bill 6732
(which has a counterpart, House Bill 3103) because she lives in a district with
quite a few military personnel. “You saw what happened with Agent Orange. There
is a time (after exposure) before it expresses itself. I would like to see the
testing done,”
Uncertain future
The bill was passed out of the Senate Health and Long-Term
Care Committee last week on a bipartisan vote, but it now faces an uncertain
future in the finance committees. Sen. Marilyn Rasmussen, D-Eatonville,
co-sponsored the bill, and Democratic Rep. Brendan Williams of
“It was pretty compelling testimony from veterans and people
concerned about the issue. So we did pass it out of committee for further
consideration,” said Sen. Karen Keiser, D-Kent, who chairs the Senate Health
and Long-Term Care Committee. “ “I don’t know if we’ll
able to see it progress much further. This is a new issue and a new idea, and
you know how that works in short sessions especially.”
Keiser added, “It is not an issue that will go away,
however. I’m afraid we’ll be dealing with it. It sounds like there are serious
health effects for our veterans.”
Posted by Lietta Ruger at
Labels: depleted uranium, disobey orders
The 5 Rs for military families and
the troops; Retention, Recruitment, Recovery, Replenish, Repolitics
I just learned we have another family member, National
Guard, who deployed to
I'm in contact with many military families who share
similarities in their family experience to my own. One family has a son going
for a third deployment while the daughter returns from her deployment with yet
a third son in military service. In yet another family, a son is extended in
If I tried, I could not make this up. It goes from
incredible to incredulous for military families across the country. Borrowing
from the words of other military families, and borrowing from what has already
been written and published, a panoramic photo forms
and solidifies. It becomes difficult to dismantle with the tired spin arguments
for why our troops should remain in combat in
But aside from the point / counterpoint abstract arguments
that serve the ego of the point of view, what is to become of our loved ones
deployed? Has this country abandoned them and their families to suffer the
losses while the arguing continues until someone, anyone can figure out how to
get it right?
On Retention, Stop Loss, Extensions, Repeat Deployments; see
this article;'Mothers on Their Soldier Sons' and read
a full discussion on same article content with military families sharing their
experiences at 'Stories from the Front'
On Senior and Junior Officers Decline in the ranks; becoming
a serious and under reported difficulty. Here is letter from a military mother
describing the experience of her son, who is an officer. It speaks quietly yet
profoundly to how the soldiers care about each other.
From Army Infantry Mom:
Everyday our son was over in
His men were more important to him than his own welfare. It
was his job to keep his men alive, despite some of the orders he was given that
put his men in direct danger.
Because of the lack of experience in this type of war, the
senior officers have no idea what is happening on the streets. This is a
serious problem. The junior officers have very little say in what they do day
to day. They are the ones on the front line, making life or death decisions.
Seven out of eight soldiers in our sons group died not in fighting insurgents,
but as sitting/walking targets.
This is happening all over
The situation in
There does not seem to be adequate training for replacements
in the states by people who have actually been in battle. Our son had to
counter many of the things his replacements had been told to do. The junior
officers who have been in
This coupled with long deployments away from loved ones, has
made reenlistment for junior officers extremely undesirable. Our son did not
know of any junior officers that planned on staying past their enlistment
requirements. Many that he knew were extremely bitter about being stop lossed.
The responsibility of young men’s lives is too great to be
taken lightly. When they see young men dying needlessly, it is unacceptable,
yet they are powerless to do anything.
Our son does not want to see another soldier blown up
because someone in headquarters thought it would be a good idea to check IED
craters on the side of the road.
He does not want to see another soldier die or become
injured permanently because headquarters want convoys to drive around all day
as targets for VBIED's, or IED's.
He does not want to set up another checkpoint that does not
catch insurgents, but lets units become targets for VBIEDs
that drive up and blow themselves up.
Junior officers are responsible for their men. When they
cannot protect their soldiers adequately from harm, they cannot do their job,
nor do they want to.
There is no satisfaction in this war that is getting worse
by the day. Our son said that he did not think that we had any business being
in
On Recruitment Practices; full scale market and research
development tools in use now to attempt to overcome the current declining
recruitment levels, targeting the younger generation. Read that as designed to
tap your children for military service. 'An Army of (No) One: An Inside Look at
the Military's Internet Recruiting War' and 'Cyberstalking
the Recruitable Teen'
Excerpt: What the military truly values is green teens. Not
surprisingly, the Pentagon pays companies like Teenage Research Unlimited (TRU),
which claims it offers its "clients virtually unlimited methods for
researching teens," to get inside kids' heads. It was also recently
revealed that the Department of Defense (DoD),
with the aid of a private marketing firm, BeNow, has
created a database of twelve million youngsters, some only 16 years of age, as
part of a program to identify potential recruits. Armed with "names, birth
dates, addresses, Social Security numbers, individuals' e-mail addresses,
ethnicity, telephone numbers, students' grade-point averages, field of academic
study and other data," the Pentagon now has far better ways and means of
accurately targeting teens.
Excerpt: What we do know, however, is that JAMRS is
currently focusing on the following areas of interest in an attempt to bolster
the all-volunteer military:
*Hispanic Barriers to Enlistment: a project to
"identify the factors contributing to under-representation of Hispanic
youth among military accessions" and "inform future strategies for
increasing Hispanic representation among the branches of the Military."
*College Drop Outs/Stop Outs Study: a project "aimed to
gain a better understanding of what drives college students to… ‘drop out' and
determine how the Services can capitalize on this group of individuals (ages
18-24)."
*Mothers' Attitude Study: "This study gauges the target
audience's (270 mothers of 10th- and 11th-grade youth) attitudes toward the
Military and enlistment."
Excerpt: Additionally, eyebrows ought to be raised over a
Pentagon that is looking at ways to influence the mothers of teens to send
their sons and daughters off to war and at a military eager to study what it
takes to get kids to "drop out" of school and how the military might
then scoop them up.
On Wounded Soldiers, Veterans; facing the hurdles thrown up
within the military systems that prohibit medical care they need to recover.
See this newspaper article 'The Battle after the
Excerpt: The day before his 22nd birthday, a bomb hanging
from a tree along a road near Fallujah exploded above
Rory Dunn’s Humvee.
Dunn’s forehead was crushed from ear to ear, leaving his
brain exposed. His right eye was destroyed by shrapnel; the left eye nearly so.
His hearing was severely damaged.
Within minutes of the May 2004 explosion, he was strapped on
a stretcher and flown by helicopter to a hospital in
Yet, even as Dunn fought to overcome his traumatic brain
injury and other wounds, his mother, Cynthia Lefever,
fought the Army to ensure her son continued to receive critical care from Army
specialists. Lefever said the Army tried to pressure
her son into accepting a discharge before he was ready – pressure other
severely wounded soldiers say they’ve experienced, too.
Lefever and other critics say the
Army’s medical system, particularly
Excerpt: Fernandez, the retired 1st lieutenant, was injured
in a friendly fire incident in
A graduate of
Excerpt: Former Staff Sgt. Jessica Clements of
“I could feel it,” said Clements of the piece of skull
stored in her belly for four months before it was removed and reattached.
As she lay in a bed at Walter Reed, Clements said, she
received repeated telephone calls from an Army official telling her she needed
to start the discharge process
More on Wounded Soldiers; A snippet of Interview
with Jack Robinson, legislative director of the Paralyzed Veterans of America
of Dallas, Texas.
Question; What is the process
involved when someone is badly injured in
Jack Robinson: They get processed. Then from
Read more; Who Supports the Troops,
Part 1 and Part 2, Stories in
On Depleted Uranium Troop Exposure:
My own opinion having researched depleted uranium and
soldiers potentially exposed is that it would be wiser to err on the side of
caution and heed the expert opinions. Experts say, while again arguments
continue in a controversial swirl of is it or isn’t it actively radioactive,
that immediate and long-term health consequences compromising genetic makeup
will have far-reaching impact onto generations being born and yet unborn. See Traprock for much more detail on depleted uranium.
On Political Scene; politically just now the buzz over Karl
Rove deliberately leaking identity of undercover CIA operative to media has
uppermost attention on many fronts. Is it treason? Is it administrative
complicity in giving aid to the ‘enemy’? Is it criminal? Is it an offense to be
prosecuted? Will there be a spin that will enable Karl Rove to waltz around the
issue and avoid personal responsibility and accountability? Will this
Administration bite the bullet on this and step up to the plate to acknowledge
the deception foisted on the American public about reasons for initiating war
in
Whatever it is or is not; one thing is clear to me. It is
related to why this country is in Iraq in the first place and at the very least
it ought to have every citizen questioning why did we sent combat troops into
Iraq and why are they still there and what are the objectives and goals in
Iraq? It ought to be abundantly clear by now that the Bush Administration
misled
Military families bear the brunt of the political tango
being conducted by this President and his administration. It is not an abstract
issue for the families with deployed loved ones. It is not an abstract issue
for the new young being aggressively and sometimes deceptively recruited into
military rank and file. It is not an abstract issue for parents who have
pre-teen and teen age youngsters being courted with military recruitment ads on
television, and on internet in active campaigns to program their thinking
towards offering up themselves in sacrifice at the altar of the
It is not an abstract issue for the families of the
returning veterans terribly mutilated, torn of the body by IEDs
or torn of the mind by traumatic brain injury or torn of the soul by trauma of
carnage, killing and destruction. And it most certainly is not an abstract
issue for families of the fallen, ask Cindy Sheehan
how abstract it is for her family.
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Document Page for IDUST, www.idust.net/States/WA-Initiative.htm
Last Revised:
Copyright 2006 by Dan Bishop, All Rights Reserved
Address email to: info@idust.net