Ron Schaedel, at home in Maili with son Jame, is a retired Marine worried about the health effects of his gulf war service.
Photo by Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin

The Hawaii-born enlisted Marine wondered what damage his body would suffer from the murky oil-fire clouds and the smoke from explosions.

Since the 1991 war, Schaedel, 50, has suffered bouts of lethargy and depression and lost a significant amount of hair.

"It's really scary. I don't know what I was exposed to. It's a fear that lingers," said Schaedel, retired in Maili Kai after 28 years in the service.

The Department of Defense has put out a call to 20,000 veterans who it believes were exposed to nerve gas and other chemical weapons in Iraq.

The Pentagon also has admitted that an estimated 250,000 troops were not told they were given experimental vaccinations against chemical weapons. The injections are now under scrutiny for possible links to veterans' illnesses.

The military is searching for connections between veterans' symptoms and their gulf war duty. So far it says none have been found.

But Schaedel is a skeptic after two Vietnam buddies died from cancer caused by the Agent Orange defoliant the U.S. government used in that war.

He was so worried during the gulf war that he sent his wife documents every time he was given an unidentified drug "in case I came back foaming at the mouth. We were the testing ground. ... The military has an obligation to tell what medicines we are getting."

More than 900 gulf war veterans have been evaluated for symptoms at Hawaii's Tripler Army Medical Center, and the center estimated 200 more will come with the Pentagon's latest call for testing. Officials are encouraging all concerned veterans here to contact them.

Dr. Glen Tomkins, an Army major, heads Tripler's Comprehensive Clinical Evaluation Program, which is aimed at helping people who served in the gulf war.

An estimated 20,000 Desert Storm veterans say they have symptoms related to the war. Tomkins said common medical problems include fatigue, joint pains, diarrhea, memory loss and sleep problems.

"We haven't identified a gulf war syndrome," said Tomkins, who didn't serve in the gulf war but who has examined more than 400 veterans. "We want a close study. If there are problems, they could develop decades later. Agent Orange (research) is still going on 20 years later."

For five years the Pentagon steadfastly denied that U.S. troops were exposed to chemical weapons during the gulf war.

Now defense officials admit that 15,000 troops - other experts estimate as many as 100,000 - may have been exposed to deadly chemicals such as nerve gas.

Schaedel was evaluated at the Department of Veterans Affairs here and placed on a registry. The Disabled American Veterans organization has submitted his name for re-evaluation.

"I didn't want to go in because I felt there were veterans who needed it more than me," Schaedel said. But his wife, Ray, convinced him that he had earned the right to be evaluated and treated, and now he encourages other veterans to do the same.

Tomkins said veterans cannot be treated at veterans hospitals unless their symptoms are combat-related. "It's a lousy system and will always lead to conflict," Tomkins said. "When new problems come up, there's never evidence, at least in the beginning."

Tomkins predicted that "the government will end up acknowledging responsibility in the end."

Ray Schaedel worries that her husband of 26 years may have passed medical problems on to their three sons.

"Some of our leaders in the military and government may have good intentions in safeguarding our troops ... but some of their choices that were made reflect poor judgment," Ray Schaedel said. "As a result many families will suffer great losses. If there is any medical repercussions, for this our government must be held accountable."