ladyt24

I recently learned through the news about the problems with water in Iraq. I am not sure if others of you have heard about this already, but I am pretty upset that nothing has been done thus far to address it. I was personnally deployed to one of the bases that was potentially effected with unsafe water and experience diarreah and skin absess that the military doctors advised me that I should not be concered about. Many of my friends and I complained about the water because it was discolored and smelled funny while I was deployed, and we were told the water was up to standards it was nothing to worrry about and it was never documented in any of our military medical records.

Below is a link to the actual DOD IG report that explains the investigation that was done. As far as I know the military & DOD have not taken any steps to notify people like myself or my friends about this. So I decided to pass this along to as many people that I could think of who were deployed with me. I hope that if you know of others who may have been affected by this that you will do the same and pass it along.

After doing further research I have discovered that both Senator Kerry and Webb have sent letters to Defense Secretary Gates regarding this issue and in January of 2008 the President signed in to law the Webb-McCaskill Commission on War Contracting Accountability. My understanding is that this commission is similar to one that was set up by President Truman that investigated contracts after WWII. I am not certain if this Commission is what brought about these findings, but I think it may have something to do with it.

I know that this is a lot of information. However, I think that it is important for all of us to be aware of this. I have come to realize that if we do not ask the leaders that we have chosen to represent us in Congress to address this issue it will be overlooked and ignored. A simple call or letter should be enough to get the ball rolling. The more of us that do it the better. I do not want us to end up like Vietnam Era veterans who did not find out about potential health risks that were posed to them because of the conflict that they participated in until years later. It is up to us to take care of ourselves.

I hope that I have not upset or angered any of you with this posting, but I feel that it is very important for us to actively demand that as military members and veterans we be taken care of. Please do your part and act sooner rather than later on this.

DOD IG audit of Potable and Non-potable Water in Iraq: [url]http://www.dodig.osd.mil/Audit/reports/fy08/08-060.pdf[/url]

Letter from Senator Kerry:
[url]http://kerry.senate.gov/cfm/record.cfm?id=294508[/url]

Webb-McCaskill Commission on War Contracting: [url]http://mccaskill.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=293606[/url]