You thought we made it all up, how about now?

Funny how when the bullets are flying, people seem to care so very much for the safety of the troops and act as if they truly do mean it when they say they support us but long after the bullets stop flying and the term of enlistment is over, the numbers of those who claimed to care before diminishes and those who said they support us then disappear and can never be found again at least or until there is another war that they will never have to serve in or during.

People believe that stress is caused by an action but they are so very wrong.  It may be the cause of action when you are a civilian but as a member of any military stress can be caused simply by waking up every morning.  Think about this; while serving in the military you follow orders, orders that you have no idea who made them or who dreamed them up, you just follow them.  Each and every day you wear that uniform, you will feel a certain expectation that at any time some politician or some big wig could decide that you are needed in one country or another under one capacity or another and you go period.  Knowing that a war could break out as easily as it takes for those speaking in front of a camera to proclaim that America seems weak if we do not bomb somebody every other week is stress.  Hearing a bunch of people talk about going to war, knowing that, if so, it would be you on that front line is stress.

Now we are out and many are coming home but because we were busy defending this nation and those who inhabit it, we did not take the time to run to the nearest dispensary or medical facility to make sure that our ailments were properly documented because we had dreams of filing for disability once our discharge was processed.  We are looked upon as “takers”, scam artists, lazy, and worthless by the very people who had screamed so loud and proud before that they was there for us.  We told you about the contaminated water at places like Camp LeJeune and Fort McClellan but you didn’t want to hear it.  You labelled our illness as all other things except for what it truly was.  Discovering that you were being poisoned by the very people on the very bases that we lived, defended and supported, this is stress but the worst of all stress is being told that we are liars for even suggesting it.

Well how about now since we who lived it and continue to try and survive it is deemed to not know what we are talking about maybe you will listen to a group who is supposed to know.  Consider this article titled “Gulf War Syndrome Mystery Solved? Scientists Believe Exposure to Toxins Caused Veteran Illnesses” by Katrina Pascual for the Tech Times January 27, 2016.  The entire article is below;

Gulf War Syndrome a new review pointed to toxic exposures as likely culprit behind Gulf War Syndrome. The disease is not merely psychological, argued experts who looked into such exposures to pesticides, oil fire smoke, and nerve-gas agent pills.  A quarter of a century after U.S. troops fought in the first Gulf War, research shows toxic exposures led to the so-called Gulf War Syndrome, which affects up to 250,000 deployed military personnel.  This is according to a new review from Boston University environmental health professor Roberta White and her colleagues from other institutions, who reviewed existing literature on the Gulf War Illness especially those since 2008.  The findings were published in the journal Cortex, coinciding with the war’s 25th anniversary.  The 1991 Gulf War saw 700,000 U.S. troops win with an astoundingly low casualty rate, but made headlines when the American and British soldiers reported mysterious symptoms upon their return home. The two governments established disease registers that assessed over 100,000 veterans yet failed to find a pattern that will identify a specific condition.  Now, researchers pointed to exposure to pesticides and ingestion of pyridostigmine bromide (PB) – prophylactic medications for protecting against the effects of potential nerve gas – as casually linked to Gulf War Syndrome and its neurological effects in veterans. They also cited multiple studies linking the neurological issues to being exposed to nerve-gas agents’ sarin and cyclosarin, along with emissions from oil well fires.  The exposures led to damaged nervous and immune systems, including reduced white and gray matter in the brains of the veterans, according to the review.  "Further research into the mechanisms and etiology of the health problems of (Gulf War) veterans is critical to developing biomarkers of exposure and illness, and preventing similar problems for military personnel in future deployments,” the authors wrote.  The authors noted that six out of seven studies identified “significant” links between self-reported exposure to pesticides and their illness. Intake of the military-issued PB pills, too, had been consistently associated with illness in Gulf War veteran populations.  The review also saw separate conditions causing neurological disorders. Deployed troops suffered higher rates of stroke, ALS, and brain cancer compared to non-deployed ones. Other studies detected excess rates of brain cancer deaths and organ alterations among those who were most exposed to nerve agents as well as oil fire smoke.  For over two decades now, the team has been analyzing the health of affected Gulf War troops and their multiple ills, characterized by signs such as joint and muscle pain, fatigue, headaches, memory problems, skin rashes and gastrointestinal problems.  Perhaps due to its mysterious nature, Gulf War Syndrome had often been attributed to mere psychological stress. King’s College London professor Neil Greenberg said that while the symptoms are “very real,” they cannot seem to be pinned down on an exact physical problem.  "When we're stressed we have a tendency to turn psychological distress into physical symptoms," Greenberg said, also citing the fear likely caused by the five-year gap from when the veterans first complained of illness to the first study into the matter.  But the syndrome is not exactly psychological, argued experts that include White, who directed the 2008 panel Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses mandated by Congress.  The report, for instance, ruled out psychiatric issues, noting that the veterans had lower post-traumatic stress disorder rates and other psychiatric conditions than their military counterparts in other wars.  For 56-year-old Sean Rusling, a former sergeant of the Royal Army Medical Corps of the United Kingdom who served the war and experienced illnesses (including osteoporosis at age 37), the illness should be properly addressed.  "It's an insult that the Ministry of Defense doesn't recognize the condition suffered by me and so many others," he said.

What say you now or are we veterans supposed to assume that this too will be swept under the rug or deemed untrue like those experts who say climate change is a hoax?