Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 10, 1994 TAG: 9406170100
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
``This legislation is revolutionary. We have never before provided payment for something we're not even certain exists,'' said Veterans Affairs Secretary Jesse Brown, who nonetheless wholeheartedly endorsed the plan at a congressional hearing Thursday.
Hundreds of veterans have complained of a mysterious range of maladies - called Desert Storm Syndrome - that they believe are war-related. Complaints, in their order of frequency, include: fatigue, skin rash, muscle and joint pain, headache, loss of memory, shortness of breath, and gastrointestinal and respiratory symptoms.
As the political stakes and media attention on the veterans have increased, many members of Congress have taken up the issue, holding hearings to announce their own sometimes contradictory findings about the mysterious illnesses and adding weight to suggestions of a Pentagon coverup.
Three government departments are studying the illnesses, but neither they nor civilian scientists have come up with a cause that explains the various symptoms. In April, a panel of distinguished scientists assembled by the National Institutes of Health reported that no link could be made between the conditions and the war without better data. Members suggested further study.
In London on Thursday, the British Defense Ministry rejected claims that Gulf War veterans were suffering a mysterious illness, according to a Reuters report. Surgeon General Sir Peter Beale wrote to the British Medical Journal to say investigations had found no overall increase in sickness among soldiers since the war ended.
``We have no evidence to support the claim that a medical condition exists that is peculiar to those who served in the Gulf conflict,'' he wrote.
The administration's endorsement significantly raises the chances of passage for this compensation plan or something similar. It was introduced by Rep. G.V. ``Sonny'' Montgomery, D-Miss., chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee.
Montgomery caused friction with veterans' groups when he blocked legislation in the 1980s to compensate Vietnam veterans who believed their cancers were caused by exposure to the herbicide Agent Orange. It finally passed in 1991.
Montgomery's plan calls for a temporary, three-year compensation program that could be extended by Congress if science still hasn't unraveled the mystery. Veterans would be eligible if their symptoms developed within a year of the war.
by CNB