NUMBNUTS NATION #1
Gee, we love our
military. It has more respect than any
other institution in the U.S. and takes so much money from the budget that
there isn’t enough left over to pay for free college education for all and
national health insurance – programs than any civilized nation would have.
But not everyone has a
romance with a big agency in the U.S. Department of Warfare. In 1966, a B-52 bomber on a Cold War nuclear
patrol exploded over Spain, releasing four hydrogen bombs. Fifty years later,
Air Force veterans involved with the cleanup are sick and want recognition.
“Radiation near the
bombs was so high it sent the military’s monitoring equipment off the scales.
Troops spent months shoveling toxic dust, wearing little more protection than
cotton fatigues.
“In the decades since,
the Air force has purposefully kept radiation test results out the men’s
medical files and won’t retest them, even when calls came from the Air force’s
own studies. Many men are suffering with
the crippling effects of plutonium poisoning.
Of 40 veterans who helped with the cleanup who the New York Ties
identified, 21 had cancer. Nine died
from it.
.
“Many of the Americans
who cleaned up after the bombs are trying to get full health care coverage and
disability compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs. But the department relies on Air Force records, and
since the Air Force records say no one was harmed in Palomares, the agency
rejects claims again and again.
“The Air Force also
denies any harm was done to 500 other veterans who cleaned up a nearly
identical crash in Thule, Greenland, in 1968. Those veterans tried to sue the Defense Department in 1995, but the case was
dismissed because federal law shields the military from negligence claims by
troops. All of the named plaintiffs have since died of cancer.”
Source: New York Times, By DAVE PHILIPPS JUNE 19, 2016
You’ll pardon me if I puke when I hear
politicians and TV folk speak about “how we love our vets.”
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