Published: October 08, 2009 10:00 pm      

Rockefeller pleased by VA’s promise in Guard treatment

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shineski promised Thursday to take more strides in treating members of a West Virginia National Guard unit exposed to a toxic chemical six years ago in Iraq, already the basis of a lawsuit filed by a state legislative leader.

Soldiers serving with the 1092nd Battalion, based in the Northern Panhandle, complained of various physical side effects after they were exposed to sodium dichromate at a water treatment plant at Basra.

“This update from Secretary Shineski is promising, and I will follow the VA’s steps closely to help ensure our service members get the support and care they have more than earned,” Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said at a Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing.

“We must care for these veterans and countless others. This has been a cornerstone of who I am as a person and a legislator throughout my career, and I will never stop the fight for our men and women who serve.”

Rockefeller championed the cause of veterans stricken with chemical exposure while fighting in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm in the administration of President George H.W. Bush.

One of the soldiers affected by the latest episode of chemical exposure in a combat zone, Russell Powell, a former Guardsman, testified at the committee hearing.

“The fact that his West Virginia National Guard unit was deployed to Basra to provide security for contractors at the Qarmat Ali water treatment plant is part of the tough job our troops face,” Rockefeller said.

“The fact that they were not warned, or protected from, exposure to sodium dichromate — a dangerous chemical — is an enormously serious problem.”

After filing a lawsuit Monday in a state court of behalf of 30 members of the Guard unit, Senate Judiciary Chairman Jeffrey Kessler, D-Marshall, said there was no doubt in his mind the soldiers were exposed to the chemical, or that the defendant firm, Kellogg, Brown and Root, based in Delaware, was aware about but failed to tell anyone.

Kessler said the incident proves the need for medical monitoring, given the fact the soldiers will need to be examined from time to time for disorders caused by the exposure.

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com