Chemical Warfare and Drug experiment Volunteers from Cold War

Below is the list of expectation that the men expect that Congress and the Veterans Administration will agree to in light of recent developments world wide, the recent settlement of the British Porton Downs veterans  the British version of Edgewood Arsenal. The Canadians settled their case with the veterans of Gagetown in 2006 also Gagetown was the Canadian version of Edgewood Arsenal.

These governments used fewer soldiers, and as far as we can tell, did not have their  spy agencies involved the way the C.I.A. was in the Edgewood experiments nor funded the way DR Gottlieb funded the Edgewood "mind control experiments" which leads the "Edgewood Veterans Expectations" to be higher than the British or Canadian settlements, also both countries have "universal health care" and they are their families are cared for, unlike our veterans who have to be service connected for their medical problems to be cared for, it seems as for the past 50 plus years the Edgewood veterans did not nor could NOT make claims for medical care or compensation. I will explain below.

The 7120 men of the Edgewood experiments that lasted from 1955 thru 1975, all signed national Security Act agreements, which as it was explained to us, that if we violated them we would go to Leavenworth Prison for at least 25 years, no maybe's, "do not pass go do not collect 200" just plan on going away, your life as you knew it would be over.

It was explained in detail when we "volunteered" for the assignment that we could not tell our wives, parents, friends, chain of command, treating doctors, etc. Even in a notification letter in September 2006 from the Department of Veteran Affairs (DVA)there was a paragraph included from the Department of Defense  reminding us of the National Security Agreements we had signed from 30-50 plus years ago, and they they were allowing us now only to speak to physicians treating us for medical problems, yet we could not discuss the dosages need for weapons or any other classified data. As for myself, I didn't KNOW any classified data, nor do I think any of the other "volunteers did either"  Given the fact that this program had been investigated by the Church Committee in 1975/1976 by Senator Frank Church of Idaho, the Nelson Rockefeller Commission of 1975, the Veterans at Risk report by the National Academies of Science in 1993 and the Rockefeller Commission of 1994. There was also the 1991 CBS Sixty Minutes episode about the experiments that was done while I was deployed to Desert Storm.

The real kicker as far as the National Security Agreement  arguments went out the window as far as I am concerned when Doctor James Ketchum, the last living scientist of the Edgewood experiments released this self published book in February 2007 Chemical Warfare: Secrets Almost Forgotten he even lays out chemical equations in the book, now that's about as classified as it gets.

There is nothing I or any of the other "test vets" could expose at this point that could violate the National Security Acts, just other than embarassment to Donald Rumsfeld, or Dick Cheney since they were involved with these human experiments while part of President Gerald Fords White House in 1974 and 1975, before the program was stopped, and both were involved in creating a "cover story" for the CIA for the Frank Olson family in regards to the death of Frank Olson who worked for DR Sidney Gottleib at Fort Detrick and was involved in LSD experiments and mind control and was killed in such a way as to make it appear to be a suicide in November 1953, yet, the Ford White House helped the CIA some up with a plausible explanation for the Olson family to be given by CIA Director Helmsley just before Congress gave the family a large check to apologize for the loss of Frank Olson, (can we say pay off).

At this point we veterans have been trying to tell our side of the story and here are the "expectations" the Edgewood Test Veterans would like to see.

We Expect: Justice in the form of an apology from the C.I.A.,
          DOD and the U.S. Army, from the Commmander in
          Chief, the President of the United States, for
          acts committed against us, none of which can be
          deemed honest errors in judgement. President
          Clinton apologized to others, but not the
          Edgewood Veterans specifically.

We Expect: In the interest of Justice, that the Congress
          must create a new law, within CFR38 and/or
          direct the Department of Veterans Administration
          to place Edgewood Volunteers, who are not already
          in a higher category for treatment, into mandatory
          Care category 6 along with Operation WhiteCoat
          SHAD and Operation 112 veterans. In July 2006 we
          were briefly placed in category 6, but then were
          quickly withdrawn from the designation. We require
          a care window of a mimimum ten years, as at times
          it takes the VARO's to adjudicate as is the case
          with most of the Edgewood Veterans, once they
          initiate a claim, and has been experienced by more
          than one veteran in this group.

          a.) In the interests of Justice, for servicemen
          and women, Congress must look at and fairly
          rewrite the "Feres Doctrine" that prevents
          military members or family members from suing
          on behalf of injured active duty military
          incidents, when the conduct is outrageous and
          criminal and is not based on operational
          considerations.

We Expect: To receive the medals that many of us were
          promised at our orientations, and to which we
          earned thru our actions and sacrifices. To
          validate our service and some deserve the
          Soldiers Medal for Heroism, many deserve the
          Army Commendation Medal with the V device for
          Heroism, and the rest have earned the Army
          Commendation Medal just by volunteering for the
          assignment.

In Lieu of this, the DOD and the C.I.A. should consider
decorating the Edgewood Volunteers out of medals in their own inventory and or the Congress should consider the creation a Special Congressional medal thereby putting an end to our need for service validation and government bickering over responsibility and culpability. You see, the veterans and their families need to demonstrably know what we gave was not for naught.

Army awards should be based on the stricture of the laws written by Congress, authorizing them rather than evolving criteria, regulations, and traditions beyond Congressional intent, when those laws were enacted. The HRC Army Awards Branch has denied us our due based on policies and regulations  which they believe disqualifies heroic and extraordinary service to this nation.

We Expect: That retroactively, for those already on VA
          disability, and when claims for compensation
          are adjudicated for others, to be compensated
          from the date the injury occurred, not as is
          present practice, from the date of filing of the
          claim, because of the security non-disclosure
          statements we signed back in the 50, 60s and 70s  
          wrongfully prevented us from filing earlier
          compensation claims and we believe that was
          calculatedly unjust.

We Expect: Compensation from the Central Intelligence Agency
          due to it's failure to notify us of it's legal
          obligation to assist and compensate us since 1977
          when the Agency promised Congress that they would
          notify "unwitting subjects" during the Church
          Committee Hearings.The CIA MORI DOC 1451843
          proves beyond a reasonable doubt that those of us
          in the K program were unwitting  and that they
          placed us at risk by knowingly subjecting us to
          drugs with unfavorable side effects. CIA documents
          further prove that Edgewood furnished them it's
          database containing our names and ID's.  The CIA
          promise to Congress constitutes a "Promissary
          Note" to Edgewood veterans.  Admiral Turner wrote
          to the Army Secretary stating that he "assumed"
          the Army was making the notifications thereby
          shirking from his responsibility in the feigned
          belief that the Army would pay the costs involved.
          The Agency funded the programs thus: CIA oversight
          at Edgewood should have discovered that our
          consents were made nugatory, because the
          volunteer's which were dishonest by including
          the words "I am aware of all hazards" Obvious
          it is, hazards were unknown or unknowable.
          Volunteers must be given a ten year window
          for VA claims adjudication and those claims
          that are linked to volunteer service exposures
          resulting in 50% or greater overall disabilities
          expect compensation by arbitration and those with
          less that 50% expect proportional compensation
          for harms, injuries and suffering caused.
         

We have grown old waiting for our government to do the right thing. Ours was not intended to be a duty; therefore is was supererogatory and not al all "incident to military service" thought it was similarily stressful to combat, because many of us were unwitting CIA drug experimentation subjects. The harms caused us cannot be repaired, and the loss suffered cannot be made good by a simple award of damages. A large part of the harms and injuries were done to our individuality and our dignity as human beings. Relief represents a social vindication of the human spirit thus threatened, rather than recompense for loss suffered.

Call to action:  Please send a copy of this to your Congressman and Senators and tell them it is time to correct this injustice, that these veterans and their families have been ignored for too long. That we as citizens expect the "PROMISE" to be kept.