ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, December 12, 1996            TAG: 9612120035
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A-4  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON

VA `DIDN'T LISTEN TO VETERANS'

Veterans Affairs officials said Wednesday they are giving added weight to studies of possible chemical agent exposure among Gulf War vets. Lawmakers complained that this shift in priorities comes years too late.

Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., in the second day of hearings on possible links between chemicals and Gulf War illnesses, said VA treatment of sick vets has been hampered by the Pentagon insistence, until recently, that there was no evidence of chemical exposure during the 1991 war.

``The VA has basically bought into that denial,'' said Shays, chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight subcommittee on human resources. ``You didn't listen to the veterans. Nobody was listening to the veterans.''

Possible ties between chemical agents and the ailments afflicting thousands of veterans have become a focus since the Pentagon acknowledged in June that chemical weapons were present at Iraq's Kamisiyah weapon depot blown up by U.S. troops in March 1991, possibly exposing up to 20,000 Americans.

Dr. Susan Matcher, the Veterans Affairs Department chief public health and environmental hazards officer, told the hearing that the VA has always remained open to the possibility that U.S. troops were exposed to a wide variety of hazardous agents, including chemical weapons.

She said that while VA treatment of vets would not have changed had they known of Kamisiyah earlier, ``it definitely would have made a difference in our research program.'' She said research into the effects of low-level exposure had previously been given a low priority.

``According to the VA, I am tired and have a mental problem,'' said Julia Dyckman, a naval reservist who served as a nurse in the Gulf. ``You have to have a recognition that this is real,'' she said of Gulf War illnesses. ``Do we all have to die first before you believe us that we are suffering?''

- Associated Press

LENGTH: Short :   46 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  AP. Julia Dyckman, a Naval Reservist who served as a 
          nurse in the Persian Gulf War, testifies Wednesday on Capitol Hill 
          before a House Government Reform and Oversight subcommittee on Gulf 
          War illnesses as Robert Larrisey, a fellow Gulf War veteran, waits 
          to testify.