Discarding Soldiers with Cancer Like Broken Drones

U.S. Soldiers Return From Iraq With Cancer

By R. B. STUART

Post XXIV

The first Soldier I knew was my father, an Army SGT. for the Reconnaissance in WWII, Irwin V. Stuart, and he was the first man I knew to die from Cancer. The second Soldier I knew was my sister, Army CH. CPT. Fran E. Stuart, and the first woman I knew with Cancer. She was and is the inspiration behind this site, and the sister site: Operation Purple Heart. 

It may have been a decade since I began telling the stories of U. S. Soldiers stricken from Cancer Post Iraq, and I may have only had 80K views between both sites---but the E-mails keep coming. At least one Soldier a month stumbles across these sites seeking answers to his or her Cancer diagnosis---and uncovers that they are not alone.

The Operation Purple Heart  "Names Project" may have only 100 names....but one name is too many---and 100 Soldiers to notify me they have cancer too----is only a fraction of the Service men and women out there who are unaware of the site---and don't realize their rare, aggressive Cancer is Service related, from their exposure to carcinogens and or radiation on the battlefield.

No matter who the President is, no mater the party, what war it is, where the battlefield is---the Military, DoD and  Politicians continue to ignore and dishonor those brave and heroic men and women, who fight for freedom and democracy---even though they are imprisoned by their infliction, and tormented by the injustices befallen them by the Country in which they serve---when they are stricken with a Cancer diagnosis post deployment.

When a Soldier dons a uniform, not only is pride, strength and dedication an aspect of their armor, but when deployed to a battlefield they endure pain, strife, exhaustion, sleeplessness, fear, enemy retaliation, uncertainty, physical and psychological challenges. Never does exposure to carcinogens,  radiation or Cancer infiltrate their roller coaster of conflicts---until---they experience an onset of symptoms. It is then the doubts seeps in.

The disbelief gives way to research. The research uncovers lies, betrayal, deception, exploitation---that the air in which they were breathing while deployed, the sand in which they drudged through, the water in which they sloughed off a layer of their psyche with each rinse---was saturated with an invisible enemy of carcinogens and radiation. More powerful and stealth than any tank, machine gun or IED.

But the true test of will and battle doesn't truly begin until they return home. That's when a battery of Doctors and the DoD insinuate, their unfortunate rare, aggressive diagnosis is likely hereditary, and lay blame on sheer DNA bad luck. A portion of service men and women won't accept that answer and with some crafty probing, quickly uncover the culprit wasn't DNA after all----but the war machine in which they devoted and sacrificed their body, mind and spirit.

"It" is the ultimate dishonoring of a soldiers dedication---that the company they pled to obey, the country they so willingly protect, casts them aside, like disposable, broken drones. Churning out new troops of naïve believers that will forge ahead into unknown territory enveloped by a halo of patriotism, toxins and poisons. Considered a mere statistic...a casualty of war.     

© COPYRIGHT April 2017, R. B. STUART. All Rights Reserved. No Reproduction of this Blog in any form.