DESERT STORM: The War After the War

by Denise Nichols, Staff Writer 

On Memorial Day Weekend I posted a story about a nursing home of veterans and I was struck by the article by that one line about the youngest veteran being in their early 40s and a gulf war veteran. 

I wonder how many of our veterans of the Gulf War Operation Desert Storm have had to be placed in Nursing Homes with ALS, Cancers, and other neuro auto immune disorders.  I would like to enlist other veterans to check out Nursing Homes in your area and find if we have more like him/her.  They need to be reconnected to their own and not forgotten!  I also know that we have a number of Desert Storm veterans in our prison system because unbelievably I have gotten letters from them!

I wonder if our veterans are truly getting the help and care they need!  I hear from veterans that have applied for the Aid and Attendance from VA so that their children do not have the bathe their parents who are gulf war veterans of Operation Desert Storm.  These children some in their teens deserve to know their parent a Desert Storm Veteran have the care that is needed.  Yes I have one of those cases now and I want the VA to highlight these needs and meet them NOW not later.  The veteran I speak of has applied and been turned down and has reapplied to no success.  Her husband didn’t know of the grant that he could have gotten to make the house more accessible and did it on his own with no help from the VA.

My own nephrew was also like me affected by the gulf war illness.  He was initially turned down on his claim but I convinced him to not give up.  He is now rated.  Again he needed help to find a job that he could do, he found a talent but didn’t know about Vocational Rehabilitation.  His Vietnam Veteran Dad paid for the course.  I am concerned about outreach from the VA.  They are not truly getting out there and hearing the Desert Storm Veterans and helping.  Often we hear from the veterans, their spouse, or their adult parents on how they did not know or they tried and were denied.

This is simply unexcuseable!  So fellow veterans no matter what war or conflict we need to all pull together and identify the holes publicly and request the VA to get out there and do the outreach in a very public way.  We have new leadership and we look forward to Dynamic Changes!  Tammy Duckworth has been a leader for the OIF/OEF veteran but she needs to be reminded it is not just about the OIF/OEF veteran.  After 911 all our veterans again were reminded of their youngest going to war and for many it was like what the Vietnam Veterans experienced when we went off in 1990-91.  The Desert Storm Veterans being patriotic went quiet and turned their attention to being sure the new veterans would get the care they needed faster and they backed off the FIGHT they had themselves.  WEll Gulf War illness, ALS, Cancers, Strokes, and Early Cardiac deaths are real and the death count of our Desert Storm Veterans continues it is time now to renew our push to get answers, diagnostic testing that is appropriate, and physical care that is not just Psychiatric that is not going to address the true physical damage done by exposures to multiple toxic agents.

Well someone visit that Desert Storm veteran in the Nursing Home and let us know his needs?

https://www.veteranstoday.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=6929