what is it? Just wondering

Gulf War Syndrome or Gulf War Illness is a myriad of health afflictions caused by service in the Persian Gulf before, during, or after Desert Storm. The mystery malady has spread to the civilian population as well as service members who remained stateside throughout the two conflicts: Iran-Iraq War and Persian Gulf War.

I like to think of GWI as an umbrella with six sub-categories beneath it. I'll save the category that seems to pose a stumbling block for the public most often until last, in hopes that you can see what other factors are involved in Gulf War Syndrome.

Many, many veterans were unable to deploy because they received military vaccines that made them deathly ill. The vaccines include many that are not available to the general public, including Hepatitis B, Polio, Anthrax, Botulinum Toxoid, and in some instances, an immune system booster known as Squalene.

Many times, these vaccines damaged these soldiers' and sailors' immune system . . . permanently. The result is that these soldiers and sailors are developing Infectious Diseases, such as Epstein-Barr and cytomegalovirus. Some develop ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease. Others develop Lupus or Multiple Schlerosis. Almost all either have thyroid problems or suffer debilitating chronic fatigue and aching muscles and joints -- all the time.

Almost all suffer from mysterious fevers and night sweats, overall weakness and diminished muscle mass and weight loss. Almost all suffer from depression caused by the sickness itself.

Many also have parasites that they pass on to their spouses and children. Parasites may be waterborne and acquired in the U.S. through public drinking water supplies. Other parasites were acquired through insect bites in the Middle East.

For those who received their full rounds of vaccines, many became ill in the Middle East because their immune systems were already compromised by too many vaccines, tainted vaccines, outdated vaccines, experimental (approved by George Bush Sr. on Oct. 16, 1990) vaccines. Then they were transported to a land that had been blasted with both biological and chemical weapons for 8 years. Chemical weapons dissipate with rain and weather. Biological weapons can survive for decades, depending on how they were developed in laboratories in the U.S., Russia, Iraq, Iran, Korea, and other countries.

Most of the biological weapons are breathed in through the lungs. There the pathogens, or diseases, have a warm, moist environment to infect the blood stream. At that point they become communicable by air and through body fluids, including sweat. Many of the soldiers did not have adequate hygiene facilities throughout their tour of duty. Many sleeping bags returned to the U.S. with urine, blood, feces, and lots of dust.

Protective masks were covered with dust, their filters infested with all sorts of biological and chemical weapons. Those of us who remained stateside were fitted with dirty masks, without any protection whatsover, upon their return from the Gulf. Then we cleaned the masks and weapons, because we were preparing to re-deploy to the Gulf.

In the meantime, all these biological weapons (viruses, bacteria, fungi, and microbes) were being spread through the air to family members, civilian workers on infantry posts, to co-workers who welcomed their Reserve and Guardsmen back home from the Gulf.

New wives started having problems with their reproductive organs, including burning from their husband's semen. Their babies were being born with defects, or not being born at all because their brains and spinal cords grew outside their bodies.

As husbands died from massive infections, wives grew sicker. They went to their doctors who pooh-poohed them, offering antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication instead of the antibiotics, anti-parasitics, anti-fungals, and anti-virals they so desperately need to beat all these foreign illnesses and diseases borne of biological weapons.

Then there are chemical weapons exposure, oil fires smoke, Depleted Uranium from mortar fire, and long-term side effects from PB pills many service members took in an effort to avoid deadly nerve agent.

In short, Gulf War Illness is many things to many people. But, for sure, it is a nationwide epidemic that is silently killing thousands of people who never even knew they were exposed to it.

Hope that helps you understand a bit better.