The Old medic

If the Congress actually believed that this doctrine should not stand, it could easily pass a law that states that it does not apply. It will not even consider passing such a law. It won't pass such a law for a simple reason, the horrible liability that the US Government would face. The bottom line is that to the Congress, military personnel are expendable. They have no actual respect for us, we are cannon fodder, people too stupid to avoid military service, and frankly they believe that we deserve anything and everything that happens to us. Not one bill that would establish even the presumption that the Chemical testing done on military personnel causes service connected disability has ever received public discussion in committee, much less a vote. It never will, because the overwhelming feeling in Congress is "screw you you stupid idiots". The leadership is not behind any bill to offer redress to any of us affected. The administration is not behind any such bill. A few, a very few House and Senate members support such legislation, but any move they make will be immediately buried in a Committee, never to be seen again. The Feres Doctrine could be overturned by Congress at any time. I predict that it will not be overturned, no matter how outrageous any hidden testing might have been.

The government is NOT making any serious effort to actually locate the names of those involved, nor will it. Many of those tests remain classified, and the DOD will NOT release any information from those classified tests. In spite of testimony given before the Congress, there is a very small group of people supposedly searching for those test subjects. They supposedly have a complete list of everyone tested at Edgewood Arsenal in their Medical Volunteer program, yet it turns out that this list is very far from complete. In some cases, they have partial names of participants, with no service numbers. In some cases, they have names, but no information on what they may have been tested with. In other cases, even veterans that can prove that they were there (such as myself) simply do NOT appear on their lists at all. And, the government still refuses to acknowledge that their LSD, PCP, BX and other psychoactive drugs and chemicals had any long term effects on anyone. This i spite of the fact that every other research program in the world shows that LSD, PCP and other hallucinogenic drugs can have very long term effects.

Absolutely YES, unless you are rated at 100% for unemployability. Max Cleland is a triple amputee, who draws 100% S/C, and was the Secretary of the Veterans Administration and later became a Senator from Georgia. he continued to draw his 100% Service Connected Disability even thought he was in charge of tyhe Veterans Administration.

There is absolutely no truth to that rumor at all. Social security uses totally different criteria in determining disability. With S/S, it is an all or nothing decision. There is no partial disability, no temporary disability, etc. You are either so disabled that you can not work in any occupation that exists in reasonable number in the US economy, or you are not. VA Disability may be a factor in such a case, but it is NEVER the determining factor. Even a 100% rating does not guarantee eligibility for SSDI. For one thing, SSDI is an Insurance program. You have to have worked enough quarters, earning enough money each quarter, in order to qualify. If you are fully insured, (meaning you worked at or above the minimal earning lever for 40 quarters in a block), then you also have to have filed for disability within 5 years of the last time you worked. If you have less quaters, the time period is shorter. They do not have to follow a VA rating decision at all. They are required to give "great Weight' to a 100% disability rating, but even that is not a total guarantee of receiving benefits. You do not need, or require, an attorney at all for Social Security. I've seen hundreds and hundreds of people represent themselves, and they generally did a better job than most attorneys do.

Between 1952 and 1975, the US Army acknowledged that 7,200 GI's were involved in the medical experimentation program. These guys were exposed to all kinds of war gases, to hallucinogenic drugs, to all kinds of stuff. I am one of the "medical volunteers". I had no idea that they had tested psychoactive drugs on me, until Sept, 2009. I asked the National Personnel Records Center for a copy of my 201 (Personnel) File, and enclosed in it were 4 pages of medical records from Edgewood Arsenal. Clearly written on one of those pages were the words, "OK for psycho chems" followed by a set of initials. I contacted the web site that the Edgewood Arsenal Web Pages for medical volunteers refers you to, in order to discover what they actually tested on you. I gave them my register number from Edgewood Arsenal (which is clearly shown on those pages of medical records). To my surprise, I was informed that I do not appear on the official Army list of persons tested at Edgewood Arsenal. I was then asked to describe my experiences there, and after a couple of minutes, the man I was speaking to (A Naval Captain in rank) said, "Well, that's 100% consistent with the kinds of testing they were doing there". He then informed me that "other agencies" were also doing testing at the same time, and if I had been tested by one of them, the Army would not have kept my records. I asked, "You mean the Army supplied people to other agencies for testing, but didn't keep any records on them or what was tested on them"? He replied that this was correct. SO, IF YOU WERE AT EDGEWOOD ARSENAL AS A MEDICAL VOLUNTEER, YOU MAY NOT HAVE BEEN OFFICIALLY A U.S. ARMY MEDICAL VOLUNTEER! Even though you were assigned to an Army unit (Company B in most cases), you were under Army supervision, you were eating Army chow, you were receiving Army Pay and Army TDY pay, you were not in the U.S. Army testing program, so they may well have no record on you at all. Isn't that great? The Army has told Congress that it has a complete list of all of those volunteers, and what they were tested with, but that was not the truth. They supplied personnel to other agencies, and they kept no records at all of what was done to those ARMY personnel that they "loaned our". So, it wasn't bad enough the the U.S. Army tested LSD, PCP, BZ and God alone knows what other crap on its own personnel, but it also loaned out its personnel to other agencies and there are no known records on what those personnel were tested with. Lucky us, to have been tested by such a benevolent government. I lost my first wife, my Army career, another marriage, had a lifteime of PTSD symptoms, and radically changed as a person after being at Edgewood Arsenal. I went from being a happy-go-lucky, very outgoing guy, to being a recluse, suspicious of virtually everyone, with no friends and unable to stay in one place for any length of time. I never had a temper, after Edgewood I would explode at the drop of a pin. I have had flashbacks of that place for 42 years now, horrible nightmares, etc. And now, I will likely never know what the heck they tested on me. I do know that it caused hallucinations, but which of many different drugs they used (or which combination of drugs), I will never know. Lucky us, the Medical Volunteers of Edgewood Arsenal. We were promised medals, promotions and other good things would happen to us. Instead, all too many of us got a lifetime of misery, and we can not get any VA Disability for it; we can not sue the government for it; there is absolutely nothing that we can do to get any redress from our own government.

The Feres Doctrine won't change for the forseable future. Congress doesn't want it changed, it would cost the government billions every year. I would not hold my breath waiting for this to change.

I am new here. I was in the Army from 1959-1969, Artillery for the first three years, and a Neuro-Psychiatric Specialist after that. I spent almost 5 years at Valley Forge General Hospital, and was scheduled to Go to Walter Reed when my marriage fell apart and i had to get out to take care of my kids. In 1967, I volunteered as a "Medical Volunteer" at Edgewood Arsenal. I do not have a clue what the hell they gave me there, but it damn sure changed my personality permanently. I lost my marriage, my career in the Army, and had (and still do have) all of the symptoms of PTSD, except for excessive drug/alcohol use. I just learned in September of this year, that I was cleared for them to use "psycho chems" on me. I used my GI Bill to get my Masters in both Clinical Psychology and Rehabilitation Counseling. Between 1987 and 2005, I worked as a Vocational Expert in Social Security Disability/SSI Hearings before Administrative Law Judges. I hope I can help some of you with your Social Security issues. I'd like to hear from other Vets that were "volunteers" at Edgewood Arsenal. I'd especially like to know if anyone has successfully gotten a claim for PTSD throught the VA, based on their experiences at Edgewood? Medic