AMVETS Department of California: Program Reporting

PROGRAMS: RECA

RADIATION EXPOSURE COMPENSATION ACT
IN 1988 CONGRESS PASSED RECA TO RECTIFY A 40 YEAR OLD INJUSTICE BUT MADE NO EFFORT TO NOTIFY THE WIDOWS AND ORPHANS

-This WEB Page updated 10-15-07

It is our dream that we can prevent the Veterans of the Afghanistan, Kosovo, Kuwait and Iraq Campaigns from being given the same shabby treatment given to the Veterans of our Atomic Weapons Test Programs and Vietnam Veterans that were exposed to Agent Orange!

THIS IS A VETERAN CRITICAL ISSUE – IT IS NON POLITICAL

Congressman Bob Filner, a true Veteran’s friend, introduced HR3794 and HR3795 on October 10, 2007 to provide proper medical research into cures for the horrendous diseases being caused by our use of Depleted Uranium in the Gulf Wars. Plus, finally, 4 decades late, take care of the over 100,000 Widows of the Atomic Veterans killed by A-Bomb induced cancers.

WE MUST STOP OUR DOD AND VA FROM CREATING ANOTHER GENERATION OF WIDOWS AND ORPHANS!

These two bills must be passed and even though Congressman Filner is now Chairman of the committee managing the bills:

HE MUST HAVE A LARGE NUMBER OF CONGRESSIONAL CO-SPONSORS FOR THEM TO PASS AND BECOME LAW.

The Veterans, and their wives, of the Afghanistan, Kosovo, Kuwait and Iraq Campaigns are strongly encouraged to join the AMVETS Organization and help gain passage of Congressman Filner’s legislation. Of the 3 major Veteran's Service Organizations, we are the only one striving to insure that Legislation is Passed by Congress to prevent a recurrence of this injustice.

These Veterans must be given life long medical care to offset the debilitating cancers that can occur in later life, as well as other diseases yet unknown, caused by exposure to the debilitating health hazards and cancers created by our use of Depleted Uranium (DU) ammunitions in these Campaigns.
- - Note: - - See the British WEB site at www.llrc.org and click on the “Uranium/WDU” link for cage rattling, eye opening information.

You’ll never see this in our Media or Press!

THERE WERE OVER 415,000 PEOPLE (208,000 Military and 207,000 Civilian) INVOLVED IN OUR ATMOSPHERIC ATOMIC BOMB TEST PROGRAMS.

(Another 220,000 were exposed at Hiroshima and Nagasaki)

MOST OF THEM (58%) DIED FROM CANCER BEFORE REACHING AGE 45 THE VA DENIED ALL BUT A PITIFUL HANDFUL MEDICAL CARE!

Were you or any of your family, friends or associates ever exposed at these
Atomic Blasts?

Did any of you develop cancer? If so, this is a "MUST READ"!!

IT COULD BE WORTH $75,000 TO YOU!!

Documented proof exists of deliberate cover up by Top Government Officials, Top Brass and the DVA, their falsification of records, outright lies about Ship's histories and directed denial of medical care by the DVA for service connected cancers caused by radiation exposure and plutonium ingestion. Most of the Vets involved in the Atomic Bomb tests died a pitifully slow and painful death before they were 45. They came home, were discharged, got a decent job, bought a used car, married, had a few kids and bought a home. Then they developed the cancers. In those days, most men didn't have medical insurance coverage. The costs ran them broke and they died for lack of proper care. Worst of all, they died knowing they had left their families destitute.

Our government has lied to us since the very beginning of the reporting on radiation effects of Atomic Bombs. – Immediately after the end of the war in the Pacific, they placed a group of eminent scientists and lab personnel aboard a ship with tons of equipment and dispatched them to Hiroshima and Nagasaki to do studies and file reports on the extent of damage, level of radiation and expected casualties from the Atomic Bombs that blew these two cities off the face of this earth. This report was to be used as a basis of radiation levels received by both the Japanese citizens of these cities and most importantly, our own POWs and troops who served in the occupation and/or were transported through these cities. –

These scientists, their Lab crews and all of their equipment were still aboard ship, 1500 miles away from Japan when they read the report and results of their studies in Stars And Stripes!!! These “results” are still used today by the DTRA as the basis for determination by the VA of veteran’s radiation exposure level to deny the vast majority of medical disability claims for cancer and other illnesses resulting from their exposure to Atomic radiation and fallout. - - - The PC word for these reports is “Flawed modeling”! - - -

This cover-up, deceit and denial has been so incredibly successful that fewer than 1 out of 1,000 of the 428,000 exposed Veterans have been able to successfully file claims and receive compensation for their cancers.

THAT CAN’T BE CHANGED!!! BUT – THE WIDOWS AND FEW REMAINING VETS CAN BE COMPENSATED. -

In 1997, the secret warehouse of the specially created “Atomic Medical Records Division” was discovered. These secret medical files proved that the DOD and DVA knew full well what the hazards and long term health consequences were from exposure to radiation and plutonium ingestion. - -(See Shaw Pittman law suit filed in Washington D. C. Federal Court October 29, 2002.)
Congressman Bob Filner wrote two bills in November of 2005,

HR4183 & HR4184, that would have changed this.

HR4183 charged and funded the Department of Justice with going to these records, obtaining our old service numbers, converting them to Social Security numbers and going directly to the Widows, few surviving Veterans and paying them!!

HR4184 expanded this program to cover and demand immediate medical coverage, for Gulf Wars Veterans of today. Further it ordered independent civilian medical research into cures for diseases caused by their exposure to the aftermath of using Depleted Uranium (DU).

THE MICRO FINE NANO PARTICULATE MATTER FROM EXPENDED DU MUNITIONS ARE AS MUCH OR MORE OF A LONG TERM HEALTH HAZARD THAN RADIATION FROM ATOMIC BOMBS.

The bills died in Congressman Duncan Hunter’s committee but Congressman Filner is now the Chairman of the committee and upgraded and reintroduced these bills for us on October 10, 2007.

They are now HR3794 and HR3795.

THESE VETS and WIDOWS DESPERATELY NEED OUR HELP – NOW!!!

I’m asking you,,, no,,, I’M BEGGING YOU to ask your Congressman to help!!

Congressman Filner recently gained passage for his legislation that is of great benefit to the WWII Merchant Marines. It went on the floor with 224 Co-Sponsors, benefited by the efforts of the little known Merchant Marine’s Association in gaining these Co-Sponsors!! – IF THAT LITTLE ASSOCIATION CAN DO SO MUCH, THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO EXCUSE FOR AMVETS TO DO LESS.

Go to their local offices and vigorously encourage them to come on board and help our service men and women avoid the same shabby treatment given to our Atomic Veterans and Vietnam Veterans. They must be encouraged to cosponsor these bills. Without a large number of cosponsors, they simply will never gain enough votes on the floor of the house to pass.

OUR DESERT STORM AND ALL GULF WARS VETERANS ARE A MEDICAL TIME BOMB.

OUR GOVERNMENT IS TELLING THE SAME KIND OF LIES THEY TOLD THE VICTIMS OF THE ATOMIC BOMB TESTING. They’re even using some of the same companies that were used to generate phony reports about radiation Atomic Veterans received. Reports were fabricated from false or non existent data! My own crew aboard the USS Davison, a Destroyer used in Operation Sandstone, were told we received more radiation from a dental X-Ray than we received from the Atomic Bombs we used at Sandstone to blow three islands to smithereens!

-- - - Rhetorical Question. - - - Should I sue my dentist for the cancers I developed?? - -
- Just a note. - I would have been dead long, long ago if I hadn’t been able to afford excellent care for my cancers.

In 1990, Congress passed a revision to the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) of 1988 as a very belated attempt to rectify the injustice and anguish caused by the VA’s refusal to give the Atomic Veterans the medical coverage they deserved. -- The DVA was given administration of the law and it became the best kept secrets in the nation. – Little or no effort has ever been expended by the government to locate and inform the veterans, widows or orphans of their rights under this law.

These men died serving their country. Most of their widows are on minimum Social Security and are hungry by the end of the month.

RECA is a $75,000.00 award available for all survivors OR THEIR HEIRS to compensate for the VA's refusal to give medical coverage to the Veterans of our Nuke Test programs. This coverage begins with the first A-Bomb at White Sands, NM, in 1945 through the end of the atmospheric tests in Nevada and the Marshall Islands in 1962.

We owe it to these victims to do everything in our power to find their widows and orphans and notify them of their rights and eligibility for this program. Most grew up poor and on welfare. They deserve this inadequate, late acknowledgment of their husbands and father's worth and sacrifice for our nation.

To obtain a claim form, call the U. S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Civil Division Washington D. C. at - 1-800-729-7327 –

Ask for the "Radiation Exposure Compensation Program, Onsite Participant Claim form"

This process covers you under U.S.C. 38 CFR, Section 3.309

Or Download Claims Form at: http://www.usdoj.gov/civil/torts/const/reca/download.htm

Do Not file with the VA, now called the Department of Veteran’s Affairs, (DVA). In spite of this law, they are still delaying by going through the DTRA and routinely denying the veteran’s claim, either for so called ‘inadequate exposure’ or because of continuing denial of access to his own records, the veteran’s failure to provide adequate records.

CANCERS CURRENTLY COVERED AND PRESUMED SERVICE CONNECTED UNDER THE RECA LAW

Leukemia, but not chronic lymphocytic leukemia
Multiple myeloma *
Lymphomas other than Hodgkin’s disease
Lung Cancer
Primary cancer of the Thyroid *
Primary cancer of the female breast *
Primary cancer of the esophagus *
Primary cancer of the liver *
Primary cancer of the Urinary Bladder*
Primary cancer of the colon *
Primary cancer of the stomach *
Primary cancer of the pharynx *
Primary cancer of the small intestine *
Primary cancer of the pancreas *
Primary cancer of the male breast *
Primary cancer of the bile ducts *
Primary cancer of the gall bladder *
Primary cancer of the salivary gland *
Primary cancer of the brain *
Primary cancer of the ovary *

*Must have developed 5+ years after exposure.

Earl J. Lee
AMVETS RECA Program Founder, Past Chairman
An Operation Sandstone/Cancer Survivor
Ph. 619-444-5384 Cell 619-219-1757
E-Mail: reca.lee@sbcglobal.net

The following are links to various documents associated with RECA;

A TIME FOR TRUTH ON DU

AMVETS Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) Resolution

Another Generation of Widows and Orphans

BELATED URANIUM TESTING DEMAND BY Hillary Clinton

The 'Castle Bravo' test

SCIENCE OR SCIENCE FICTION?

DEFENSE THREAT REDUCTION AGENCY

DEPLETED URANIUM IN BUNKER BOMBS

DEPLETED URANIUM KILLS 109 ITALIAN SOLDIERS

Depleted Uranium May Pose Risk to Children

Did The Government Let Its Veterans Die?