Human Cost of War: Anthony Phillp. US soldier becomes hibakusha

Tag : fatigue testing machine
Last spring, my partner/wife, Sueko, and I were asked to accompanya reporter from a major news organization in Japan on a trip acrossthe US to gather material for a series of articles tentativelytitled "The Human Cost of War." She was coordinator and I wasphotographer.

We learned about soldiers becoming sick from depleted uranium froma book published in Japan, Hibakusha Ni Natta Iraq Kikanhei (Returning Iraq Soldiers become Hibakusha ). After many telephone calls Sueko was able to set up anappointment with Anthony at his house in Middletown, New York.

He continued by saying, "I didn't know what was going on and I gotin touch with one of my soldiers, Sergant Ramos, and he's the onethat was having the same similar problems I was having, theheadaches, the headaches were BAD. Ahhh, I don't believe myheadaches. And I said, 'Something doesn't seem right.' And then hemade a couple of phone calls and then that's how we ended upgetting tested for depleted uranium. And it came back positive, andthe symptoms we were having are because of depleted uranium."

When asked how well the Army took care of him and others, he said: "But when we went to the Army with our tests and said, Listen canyou test us for this, and they says there's no test available; wedon't test soldiers for that. And then we went to this newspaperand the newspaper put up everything. And then the Army said, Comeback, we'll test you, but we don't have, you can't file, we don'trecommend it, we don't acknowledge it, because it's not that, it'ssomething else." But Anthony began to find there were more and more soldiers comingback with the same problems who managed to get tested and found tobe positive for uranium 236 .

According to Anthony, "The only way you could get uranium 236 inyour body is, how could you get that, when I asked the military, acolonel, at Walter Reed, I said, How could you get uranium 236 inyour body. He said the only way you could get that is if you workedin a chemical plant, that's the only way you could get that.There's no other way you could get it. And I said, Well, I was notin a chemical plant in Iraq. But the military doesn't test you foruranium 236, it tests you for uranium 238. They don't test you foruranium 236 at all."

"The state [New York] has just passed new laws so others comingback from Iraq can get tested too. The military doesn't test youbut each state has their own laws so when their soldiers come backthey can get tested by their own state, because they feel depleteduranium is really bad; it should be banned."

"I've still got the weak legs, I've still got the migraineheadaches, I've got pills, I'm going to show you all themedications are out on a table and I sleep with a machine at nighttime to help me breathe, because I stop breathing at night time.They gave me a machine; when I stop breathing it gives me air. Andthe rashes, they give me medications for the rashes. They give mecream, two kinds of cream to put on my back. Plus I take a pill forthe rashes."