Gotta love the VA...

[shawn stonbraker 2]

Well, now they say, after doing all the tests, that the "Gulf War Syndrome" doesn't exist. Then what the hell is wrong with alot of my friends that were over there with me during Desert Storm/ Shield? Interesting. I wonder if it was the stupid Anthrax pills that they tried to make us take. I took one and it made me sick so I just figured, the hell with it, if a bullet doesn't kill me these damn pills will, so I quit taking them. I guess they expect that "Guinnia Pigs" shouldn't get sick when you make them take pills with "non-lethal" anounts of Anthrax in them. Or they shouldn't get sick when a bunker full of chemical agents get blown up during a windy day. Whatever I guess. They are also saying now that they can't prove Agent Orange causes cancer. It must just be foriegn air causing all these problems.

 

[Shelby Crane]

What? You want an organization that can't keep our personal (VA) information secure to actually admit it has a problem elsewhere?



I wonder if ex-top ranked general's VA information was stolen too.



Damn foriegn air.

 

[shawn stonbraker 2]

Ironbar, I'm sure thier info is locked up tight somewhere. Not on some laptop. I got a letter from the VA yesterday to let me know that, "yes, they got the laptop back and it appears the harddrive wasn't tampered with". Wonder what tests they ran to prove that. It also had a site I could access that would tell me how to keep my personal info safe. I don't need a site like that, I don't keep it on a harddrive in a laptop that other people can take home and get stolen.:lol:

 

[Shelby Crane]

My letter says:



"...You should have received a prior letter from me explaining that an employee took home electronic data from the VA, which he was not authorized to do. The data were downloaded to the [employees] hard drive. The employee's home was burglarized and the laptop and hard drive were stolen. I am pleased to report that both the laptop and hard drive have been recovered thanks to...."



The thief stole the laptop and ONLY the hard drive from his/her computer?



I don't feel any better. A waste of .39 cents x 200000 Vs

 

[Richard L]

I also got a letter from VA yesterday, and I am curious as to how the FBI forensics can dedtermine that the files where never accessed. The file table may show when the file was last accessed, it does not mean that the File table cannot be modified.



As for the Gulf War Syndrome not existing. What they actually said was that the symptoms were not any different than any of the other battle syndrones that were seen other combat zone in other wars. I think that means that it may exist but not unique to the Gulf War, thus does not deserve a separate designation.



I am a Vietnam vet and a few years ago there was an announcement on the news that the VA was investigating a possible link between the exposure to Agent Orange and Vietnam era vets developing Diabetes. I have been a diabetic for the past 16+ years. It appears that the Vietnam vets have a much higher instance of Diabetes than would naturally occur in the general population. VA has still not made any announcements about that.



...Rich