I JUST FINISHED reading "Gulf Lore Syndrome," and I could hardly wait to get to the keyboard to give you a big thumbs up! I have been proclaiming your exact words for years now. And I have been watching with increasing anger as the distortions have mounted in the press and have been fervently propagated by very visible members of Congress. I am a medical doctor who served proudly with my regular army artillery unit (I was on active duty--not a reservist), the 42nd Field Artillery Brigade, in the Gulf War. We were a VII Corps asset, meaning that we were assigned to and fired missions with several different divisions all across the battlefield during the war from the first days after the onset of the air war, including the 1st Cavalry, 1st Infantry, and 3rd Armored divisions. I was in the theater of operations from December 1990 through May 1991. I bet I personally covered 75 percent of the battlefield. In addition to preparing daily for the possibility of chemical or biological warfare, I took photographs. I have well over 2,500 photographs taken with my Nikon F3 during those months in the Gulf.
Since that time I have left active duty. I am currently in the third year of an Emergency Medicine Residency Training program at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. As part of this training I take care of patients at the V.A. hospital just behind the main University Medical Center. The classic case of GWS that I relate to my colleagues is that of a young former soldier (reservist) who told of a syndrome that consisted of a terrible rash, malaise, and low-grade fever, which recurred every few months and left him feeling washed out for a long time. I knew when I saw this young man with his malady and his mother at his side in the room that I would never be able to convince them that he had herpes and not some mysterious illness. Perhaps he had contracted it in the Gulf. I did treat genital pediculosis in our small headquarters battery without informing my commander. I also recovered boxes of untaken pyridostigmine bromide tablets after the war. Despite the warnings of possible nerve gas exposure, it seems that most of our soldiers just didn't like taking those little pills every eight hours for the short while we were supposed to take them. They made you pee.
I strongly believe that instead of doing our vets a favor, we are doing them a great disservice by allowing the propagation of these lies. I am a vet. I put my life out there on the front line with my fellow artillery redlegs (not at some hospital in the rear). I feel exceptionally strongly about this issue.
David W. Lawhorn, M.D.
Major, MC, USAR
Nashville, TN
KUDOS TO YOU. I am a Vietnam-era veteran and I want to congratulate you on your recent story "Gulf Lore Syndrome." I thought the story was brilliant. It was also an exercise in courage. Standing up to the national media and also to the delusional veterans--primarily victimized by the media--must be difficult. You may not win a Pulitzer Prize--in fact, you probably won't, because your story is politically incorrect. But your work is very admirable to this writer. Thank you.
Christine Adamec
Major, USAFR (Ret.)
I WANTED to compliment you on your article analyzing the Gulf War Syndrome. Piece by piece, you take apart this problem and show it for what it is: media hysteria and psychosomatic illness. Your reasoned analysis is a breath of fresh air in a world that appears to have lost its ability to reason. Your placement of glowing vomit up front in your article was key. I would think anyone could understand this point. As a former chemistry professor turned lawyer, I found the lymphatic cancer point equally compelling, but to the ignorant, this will, I am afraid, appear to be hairsplitting. To see your skewering of 60 Minutes, I would have paid 10 times the cost of the magazine. More power to you. I await with interest Fumento's next piece.
Christopher J. Flann
Billings, MT
I JUST READ your article about Gulf War Syndrome, and I'd like to thank you for your fine effort. An additional point may have helped to explain this particular craze. The public debate leading up to the Gulf War fed anticipation of far more casualties than there were. There followed a strange display--often approaching guilt--at the lopsidedness of the victory and the low Allied casualty rate. I'm no psychologist, but it seems that if a whole nation braces itself for grievous injury and that injury fails to materialize, an imaginary injury could serve the need for drama and morality just as well. Perhaps this also helps explain why the pessimistic environmental predictions following the oil fires received such undue attention.
Mike Sierra
Cambridge, MA
I HAVE FOLLOWED Fumento's work for some time, including his excellent book Science Under Siege. I just finished his article "Gulf Lore Syndrome." As a practicing plastic surgeon having just gone through silicone hysteria (I call it "media induced stress disorder"), I am struck by the similarities with GWS. In fact you could substitute the word silicone for GWS in your article and it would read remarkably accurately. The main difference is the lack of a contribution from the plaintiffs' attorneys whose greed drove the implant crisis. I presume this is because the "bad guys" in GWS are government agencies and the Iraqis, who are harder to extort from. I plan to give copies of your article to other doctors who don't seem to see the fundamental assault on medicine, science, and reason that these episodes represent.
THANK YOU very much for putting this nonsense into perspective. I am a Gulf War vet. I served as a Surgical Company commander, 1st Medical Battalion. My company deployed to Desert Shield in September 1990 and returned in March. There were over 200 men in the medical facility staff and we lived in the "field" the entire time. It was hard living: poor food, always dirty, too many flies, and too much uncertainty. I am very proud to say that the company performed its mission with determination and stamina. We saved many lives with our medical care because we were where they needed us, up front.
Those months in the desert were stressful, and every week I saw the effects of this stress on my men and myself. It was a great relief to return home to my family. Even being in the medical field, I never anticipated that post-traumatic stress disorder would affect me. It did. When the media started writing and broadcasting stories about Gulf War Syndrome, I was flooded with questions from my men. I tried to kill the myths and rumors as fast as I could, but they grew exponentially.
Editor's Note: We invite comments and request that they be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of Reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment for any reason at any time.
nfl jerseys|11.16.10 @ 2:36AM|#
hdrjuy