Why do we allow this to happen to our troops?
This is what we need to be aware of if we are truly intent on supporting the troops.
If this concerns you then please contact your congressional representative and demand this Feres Doctrine be overturned.
Military Families Battle Feres Doctrine
By Dale Frost Stillman
Imagine your son is taken to a hospital where he is first treated for the wrong injury, then misdiagnosed and ultimately declared brain dead before you can even reach his side. Now imagine being told that you cannot hold accountable those responsible for your son's death because a 55-year-old law, called the Feres Doctrine, protects them. That is the situation facing the family of Marine recruit Justin Haase who died in December 2001 at the age of 18 after contracting a severe case of bacterial meningitis at a Marine boot camp on Parris Island, South Carolina. Military doctors treated Haase with penicillin despite an allergy to the medication.Compounded errorsBecause of his allergy to penicillin, Haase was supposed to receive a substitute drug for the dose of antibiotics that is routinely given to new recruits to prevent infections. He did not. According to newspaper accounts, as his time at boot camp continued, Haase suffered from severe headaches and vomiting. A military medic did not take his temperature and did not contact a doctor. Instead, the medic instructed Haase to sit in a van where he cried in pain. He was then ordered to stay in bed, but when he awoke Haase was incoherent. His drill instructor sent him back to bed and called a senior drill instructor, who then called 911 but incorrectly reported that Justin had "taken a spill on the obstacle course." Haase was finally taken to a naval hospital where he was initially treated for a head injury. The doctor suspected a bacterial infection because of Justin's temperature, but did not take appropriate tests or begin antibiotic treatment right away. It would be two hours before Haase would receive the correct test that determined he was suffering from bacterial meningitis, which is when he was given penicillin. He suffered severe brain trauma and was pronounced brain dead before his family arrived.Because Haase was in Marine boot camp, his family is unable to sue for the negligence that caused his death.
The Feres Doctrine prevents military service members and their families from suing the military, even for non-combat related deaths. LeRoy Wulfmeier, the attorney for the Haase family, told People magazine "If he was civilian and he went into a non-military hospital, he would have one hell of a lawsuit."Origin of the Feres DoctrineThe Feres Doctrine is named after Lt. Rudolph Feres, who died in a barracks fire in 1947. Feres' widow attempted to sue the Army, claiming negligence because it allowed her husband to be quartered in an unsafe barracks. The barracks had a defective heating plant and authorities failed to maintain an adequate fire watch, she claimed. The doctrine also encompasses two other cases from that time period. One involved an Army serviceman who sued for damages after an 18-x-30 inch towel had to be removed from his abdomen. The towel, which was stamped "Medical Department of the U.S. Army," was left behind after an abdominal surgery that was performed at an Army hospital eight months previously. The other case also involved medical malpractice where the patient, an active duty officer in the Army, died at the hands of what the lawsuit alleged was "an unskilled Army surgeon." With the Feres Doctrine, the U.S. Supreme Court declared in 1950 that active duty servicemen and their estates could not recover money against the U.S. government. As a result, all three of the pending cases were dismissed.
The Feres Doctrine is an exception to the Federal Tort Claims Act of 1946, which states that the United States is liable for personal injuries and medical malpractice "in the same manner as a private individual under like circumstances." According to the Feres Doctrine, the Federal Tort Claims Act "did not apply to servicemen," because the government is not liable for injuries to servicemen where the injuries "arise out of or are in the course of activity incident to their service in the Armed Forces." Challenge to FeresWith the protection of total immunity, the Feres Doctrine has been surrounded by controversy since its inception. The primary objection is that as a result of Feres a member of the armed services loses many rights that non-military citizens enjoy, such as the right to seek redress of grievances or compensation, which is guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. Because of the Feres Doctrine, service members who have been injured while on the job are not eligible to sue their superiors for negligence or malpractice.
Under current law, the families of honorable servicemen like Justin Haase have no recourse against what some consider the incompetence of superiors. Freehold attorney Michael Detzky, a former chair of the New Jersey State Bar Association's Military Law and Veteran's Affairs Committee, believes physicians practicing in military hospitals should be held to the same standards as private citizens, but he noted that the courts are reluctant to get involved in military decisions, that would include overturning the Feres Doctrine. "Soldiers should not feel as if they are second-class citizens," Detzky maintains. "Many restrictions are placed on soldiers that the private citizen does not have to endure. If they use foul language in the military, they are subject to court-martial and they can't just quit if they feel like it. Yet they don't have the same recourse as private citizens if they are wronged," said Detzky, who has served in the U.S. Naval Reserves for 22 years and is a captain.
The Feres Doctrine was last challenged and reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987 in United States v. Johnson. That case involved Lt. Commander Horton Johnson, a helicopter pilot for the U.S. Coast Guard, who was killed during a rescue mission. Because of poor weather conditions, Lt. Johnson requested radar assistance from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FAA assumed radar control over the helicopter, and shortly after, it crashed into a mountain. His widow sued the U.S. government on the grounds that the FAA, a civilian agency of the federal government, was negligent and caused the death of Lt. Johnson and his flight crew.
The U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed the Feres Doctrine with a 5-4 vote in the Johnson case."Because Johnson was acting pursuant to standard operating procedures of the Coast Guard, the potential that this suit could implicate military discipline is substantial," U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell wrote in his majority opinion. "The circumstances of this case thus fall within the heart of the Feres Doctrine as it consistently has been articulated." In his dissenting opinion, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote, "Had Lt. Commander Johnson been piloting a commercial helicopter when he crashed into the side of a mountain, his widow and children could have sued and recovered for their loss. But because Johnson devoted his life to serving in his country's Armed Forces, the Court today limits his family to a fraction of the recovery they might otherwise have received." Justice Scalia went on to say, "Feres was wrongly decided and heartily deserves the widespread, almost universal criticism it has received.
" Other challenges/other familiesThere continue to be challenges to the Feres Doctrine today. In August 2002, Pfc. Jeremy Purcell was killed when a Marine sergeant shot him with live ammunition during a routine training exercise at Camp Pendleton, California. The sergeant received a one-year sentence in jail for negligent homicide and also received a bad-conduct discharge from the Marines. An investigation of the incident revealed problems with the way ammunition was handled during training exercises. Purcell's parents are intent on holding the military accountable for their son's death. Jon Purcell, Jeremy's father and a 20-year Navy veteran who will represent himself, charges gross negligence and seeks a reversal of the Feres Doctrine. Purcell, according to an article in Marine Corps Times, believes "the finding of negligence removes the Marine Corps' protection under Feres."Most recently, in February 2005, another Marine recruit at Parris Island, Jason Tharp, drowned during the combat water survival training phase of boot camp. The day before he died, footage of Tharp's drill instructor physically abusing him was shot by a local NBC affiliate. The footage was shown on the Today Show 10 days after his death. The drill instructor was suspended as a result of the incident along with four other Marines who had knowledge of the incident but did not report it. Pending further investigation by the Navy, John Tharp, Jason's father, is considering filing a wrongful death suit against the Marines.
Fighting for reformCongressman Barney Frank of Massachusetts introduced legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2001 that would amend the Feres Doctrine to allow military families to seek redress for medical malpractice, making military doctors accountable for their actions when not in wartime. Frank has introduced this legislation many times and the bill has always died in the U.S. Senate.In October 2002, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania chaired hearings on the Feres Doctrine before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. While many people who spoke at the hearings made impassioned pleas for abolishing or modifying the Feres Doctrine, Rear Admiral Chris Weaver defended it. In his testimony, Admiral Weaver said that the Feres Doctrine is important for maintaining good order and discipline in the military."Allowing service members to bring suits in federal court against their chain of command will interfere with mission accomplishment and adversely affect our operational readiness," Admiral Weaver said. "The military has long been recognized as a 'specialized community' requiring demands and responsibilities far different from its civilian counterpart. The impact of litigation on this specialized community would undermine trust not only among individual service members, but also their superiors and officers throughout the chain of command," he added. James Smith, a Metuchen attorney and member of the NJSBA Military Law and Veterans' Affairs Committee, also believes that the Feres Doctrine should remain as is, noting that service people are provided with a generous disability pension similar to workers' compensation if they are injured. Will the pending cases have an impact on overturning the Feres Doctrine? Detzky said it is hard to predict what the U.S. Supreme Court will do, but so far they have declined to revisit the Feres Doctrine.
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In 1950 the U.S. Supreme Court stopped claims against the federal government for injuries arising from or incident to military service; Feres Doctrine.[1] Over the same period of time is a study from 1944 documented by the 1994 U.S. Senate Report.[6] This is the 50 years of conducted on "hundreds of thousands" Department Of Defense (DOD) "experiments that were designed to harm"! Its NOTES (No.'s 72, 168 & 169) cite, "The Nazi Doctors and the Nuremberg Code, Human Rights in Human Experimentation". Not addressed is their own Report's proven dereliction of duty! Which is by the many conducted in direct disobedience of the DOD Secretary's 1953 order; "The Nazi Doctors" pages 343-345.[2] These DOD human experiments demonstrate Research and Development (R&D) protocol by both military and civilian agencies. First, all prior R&D is reviewed. The resulting Scope of Work defines what each research program is to accomplish. The where, how, when and who is involved is spelled out. Each "designed to harm" project's cause and effects are closely followed and recorded. Developed is the specific needed treatment and protection from "to harm".
This crucial human "experiments...designed to harm" revealing evidence is not part of a subject's medical history. Therefore, unavailable for a past, present and future victim's diagnosis and treatment by Health Maintenance Organization Physicians', the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Physicians' or for use during any VA and Judicial Branch processes! The 12 July 1973 National Personnel Records Center fire destroyed "designed to harm" military service records. Congress's 1974 Privacy Act censored the names of all witnesses from surviving and future records. The 1987 U.S. SUPREME COURT in the 1953 disobedience STANLEY Case makes very clear that UNLESS CONGRESS CHANGES IT, BY REASON OF MILITARY SERVICE AFTERWARDS VETERAN'S LOST ARE PRIOR TO CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS.[4] "The court may not review the schedule of ratings for disabilities or the policies underlying the schedule." The Chief Judge's statement during 17 & 18 Oct. 1994.[5] His severely restricted 12/18/88 established `no teeth' Veterans Court is congress's oversight and accountability response to STANLEY.
THEREBY, THE VICTIM NEVER THE WISER BECOMES! AN AFTER SERVICE AND "NATIONAL SECURITY MISSIONS" MISSED MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS. CREATED ARE INCREASED SERIOUS AND CHRONIC INJURIES!
Under the "NATIONAL SECURITY MISSIONS" of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) [7] continued in 2007 is the advancement of the SHAD R&D lessons learned? One of the starting in 1962 DOD Project 112 chemical and biological experiments. [2] BARDA also lacks the MILITARY Shipboard Hazard and Defense (SHAD) oversight and accountability for their CIVILIAN biological contamination. BARDA too, as most conducted on "hundreds of thousands", will be under the cover of our nation's wars. In 2007 is the H. R. 4259 "To establish the Veterans' Right to Know Commission." [8] A proposal to study the DOD's SHAD lack of oversight and "Right to Know" "designed to harm". accountability?
The 1994 Senate Report documents many more"experiments that were designed to harm".[6] Most were also in direct disobedience of the DOD Sec.'s 1953 order. Noted was that rights be restored. This still has not been done!! All for the greater good, end justifies the means! The excuse for an
in 2007 from 1944 ongoing 63 years of "hundreds of thousands" [6] JUSTICE AND TREATMENT DENIED! By the 2007 BARDA "national security missions" to-date continued.[7] Requested is your support by contacting your members in the U.S. Congress. Please have them return to Veterans' their Constitutional Rights with oversight and accountability for all! Thank you.
REFERENCES:
[1] Feres v. United States, 340 U.S. 135, 146 (1950)
[2] DOD Secretary's 26 February 1953 NO non-consensual, human experiments Memo pages 343-345. George J. Annas and Michael A. Grodin, "The Nazi Doctors and the Nuremberg Code; Human Rights in Human Experimentation" (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992). In REFERENCE 6 as NOTES 72, 168 & 169.
[3] "Project 112 (Including Project SHAD) Home"; www1.va.gov/ shad/ Starting in 1962 chemical and biological experiments.
[4] U.S. SUPREME COURT, JUNE 25, 1987, U.S. V. STANLEY, 107 S. CT. 3054 (VOLUME 483 U.S., SECTION 669, PAGES 699 TO 710). In REFERENCE 6 cited in NOTE 169.
[5] Chief Judge and colleague statements, Court of Veterans Appeals, Annual Judicial Conference, Fort Meyer, VA., 17 & 18 October 1994. www.goodnet. com/~heads/ nebeker.html
[6] December 8, 1994 REPORT 103-97 "Is Military Research Hazardous to Veterans' Health? Lessons Spanning Half a Century." Hearings Before the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, 103rd Congress 2nd Session. With NOTES 1 to 170.
[7] Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), Bill S. 3678 2006.
[8] H. R. 4259 "To establish the Veterans' Right to Know Commission."
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Human Experimentation
1931 Dr. Cornelius Rhoads, under the auspices of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Investigations, infects human subjects with cancer cells. He later goes on to establish the U.S. Army Biological Warfare facilities in Maryland, Utah, and Panama, and is named to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. While there, he begins a series of radiation exposure experiments on American soldiers and civilian hospital patients.
1932 The Tuskegee Syphilis Study begins. 200 black men diagnosed with syphilis are never told of their illness, are denied treatment, and instead are used as human guinea pigs in order to follow the progression and symptoms of the disease. They all subsequently die from syphilis, their families never told that they could have been treated.
1935 The Pellagra Incident. After millions of individuals die from Pellagra over a span of two decades, the U.S. Public Health Service finally acts to stem the disease. The director of the agency admits it had known for at least 20 years that Pellagra is caused by a niacin deficiency but failed to act since most of the deaths occured within poverty-striken black populations.
1940 Four hundred prisoners in Chicago are infected with Malaria in order to study the effects of new and experimental drugs to combat the disease. Nazi doctors later on trial at Nuremberg cite this American study to defend their own actions during the Holocaust.
1942 Chemical Warfare Services begins mustard gas experiments on approximately 4,000 servicemen. The experiments continue until 1945 and made use of Seventh Day Adventists who chose to become human guinea pigs rather than serve on active duty.
1943 In response to Japan's full-scale germ warfare program, the U.S. begins research on biological weapons at Fort Detrick, MD.
1944 U.S. Navy uses human subjects to test gas masks and clothing. Individuals were locked in a gas chamber and exposed to mustard gas and lewisite.
1945 Project Paperclip is initiated. The U.S. State Department, Army intelligence, and the CIA recruit Nazi scientists and offer them immunity and secret identities in exchange for work on top secret government projects in the United States.
1945 "Program F" is implemented by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). This is the most extensive U.S. study of the health effects of fluoride, which was the key chemical component in atomic bomb production. One of the most toxic chemicals known to man, fluoride, it is found, causes marked adverse effects to the central nervous system but much of the information is squelched in the name of national security because of fear that lawsuits would undermine full-scale production of atomic bombs.
1946 Patients in VA hospitals are used as guinea pigs for medical experiments. In order to allay suspicions, the order is given to change the word "experiments" to "investigations" or "observations" whenever reporting a medical study performed in one of the nation's veteran's hospitals.
1947 Colonel E.E. Kirkpatrick of the U.S. Atomic Energy Comission issues a secret document (Document 07075001, January 8, 1947) stating that the agency will begin administering intravenous doses of radioactive substances to human subjects.
1947 The CIA begins its study of LSD as a potential weapon for use by American intelligence. Human subjects (both civilian and military) are used with and without their knowledge.
1950 Department of Defense begins plans to detonate nuclear weapons in desert areas and monitor downwind residents for medical problems and mortality rates.
1950 In an experiment to determine how susceptible an American city would be to biological attack, the U.S. Navy sprays a cloud of bacteria from ships over San Franciso. Monitoring devices are situated throughout the city in order to test the extent of infection. Many residents become ill with pneumonia-like symptoms.
1951 Department of Defense begins open air tests using disease-producing bacteria and viruses. Tests last through 1969 and there is concern that people in the surrounding areas have been exposed.
1953 U.S. military releases clouds of zinc cadmium sulfide gas over Winnipeg, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Fort Wayne, the Monocacy River Valley in Maryland, and Leesburg, Virginia. Their intent is to determine how efficiently they could disperse chemical agents.
1953 Joint Army-Navy-CIA experiments are conducted in which tens of thousands of people in New York and San Francisco are exposed to the airborne germs Serratia marcescens and Bacillus glogigii.
1953 CIA initiates Project MKULTRA. This is an eleven year research program designed to produce and test drugs and biological agents that would be used for mind control and behavior modification. Six of the subprojects involved testing the agents on unwitting human beings.
1955 The CIA, in an experiment to test its ability to infect human populations with biological agents, releases a bacteria withdrawn from the Army's biological warfare arsenal over Tampa Bay, Fl.
1955 Army Chemical Corps continues LSD research, studying its potential use as a chemical incapacitating agent. More than 1,000 Americans participate in the tests, which continue until 1958.
1956 U.S. military releases mosquitoes infected with Yellow Fever over Savannah, Ga and Avon Park, Fl. Following each test, Army agents posing as public health officials test victims for effects.
1958 LSD is tested on 95 volunteers at the Army's Chemical Warfare Laboratories for its effect on intelligence.
1960 The Army Assistant Chief-of-Staff for Intelligence (ACSI) authorizes field testing of LSD in Europe and the Far East. Testing of the european population is code named Project THIRD CHANCE; testing of the Asian population is code named Project DERBY HAT.
1965 Project CIA and Department of Defense begin Project MKSEARCH, a program to develop a capability to manipulate human behavior through the use of mind-altering drugs.
1965 Prisoners at the Holmesburg State Prison in Philadelphia are subjected to dioxin, the highly toxic chemical component of Agent Orange used in Viet Nam. The men are later studied for development of cancer, which indicates that Agent Orange had been a suspected carcinogen all along.
1966 CIA initiates Project MKOFTEN, a program to test the toxicological effects of certain drugs on humans and animals.
1966 U.S. Army dispenses Bacillus subtilis variant niger throughout the New York City subway system. More than a million civilians are exposed when army scientists drop lightbulbs filled with the bacteria onto ventilation grates.
1967 CIA and Department of Defense implement Project MKNAOMI, successor to MKULTRA and designed to maintain, stockpile and test biological and chemical weapons.
1968 CIA experiments with the possibility of poisoning drinking water by injecting chemicals into the water supply of the FDA in Washington, D.C.
1969 Dr. Robert MacMahan of the Department of Defense requests from congress $10 million to develop, within 5 to 10 years, a synthetic biological agent to which no natural immunity exists.
1970 Funding for the synthetic biological agent is obtained under H.R. 15090. The project, under the supervision of the CIA, is carried out by the Special Operations Division at Fort Detrick, the army's top secret biological weapons facility. Speculation is raised that molecular biology techniques are used to produce AIDS-like retroviruses.
1970 United States intensifies its development of "ethnic weapons" (Military Review, Nov., 1970), designed to selectively target and eliminate specific ethnic groups who are susceptible due to genetic differences and variations in DNA.
1975 The virus section of Fort Detrick's Center for Biological Warfare Research is renamed the Fredrick Cancer Research Facilities and placed under the supervision of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) . It is here that a special virus cancer program is initiated by the U.S. Navy, purportedly to develop cancer-causing viruses. It is also here that retrovirologists isolate a virus to which no immunity exists. It is later named HTLV (Human T-cell Leukemia Virus).
1977 Senate hearings on Health and Scientific Research confirm that 239 populated areas had been contaminated with biological agents between 1949 and 1969. Some of the areas included San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Key West, Panama City, Minneapolis, and St. Louis.
1978 Experimental Hepatitis B vaccine trials, conducted by the CDC, begin in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Ads for research subjects specifically ask for promiscuous homosexual men.
1981 First cases of AIDS are confirmed in homosexual men in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, triggering speculation that AIDS may have been introduced via the Hepatitis B vaccine
1985 According to the journal Science (227:173-177), HTLV and VISNA, a fatal sheep virus, are very similar, indicating a close taxonomic and evolutionary relationship.
1986 According to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (83:4007-4011), HIV and VISNA are highly similar and share all structural elements, except for a small segment which is nearly identical to HTLV. This leads to speculation that HTLV and VISNA may have been linked to produce a new retrovirus to which no natural immunity exists.
1986 A report to Congress reveals that the U.S. Government's current generation of biological agents includes: modified viruses, naturally occurring toxins, and agents that are altered through genetic engineering to change immunological character and prevent treatment by all existing vaccines.
1987 Department of Defense admits that, despite a treaty banning research and development of biological agents, it continues to operate research facilities at 127 facilities and universities around the nation.
1990 More than 1500 six-month old black and hispanic babies in Los Angeles are given an "experimental" measles vaccine that had never been licensed for use in the United States. CDC later admits that parents were never informed that the vaccine being injected to their children was experimental.
1994 With a technique called "gene tracking," Dr. Garth Nicolson at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX discovers that many returning Desert Storm veterans are infected with an altered strain of Mycoplasma incognitus, a microbe commonly used in the production of biological weapons. Incorporated into its molecular structure is 40 percent of the HIV protein coat, indicating that it had been man-made.
1994 Senator John D. Rockefeller issues a report revealing that for at least 50 years the Department of Defense has used hundreds of thousands of military personnel in human experiments and for intentional exposure to dangerous substances. Materials included mustard and nerve gas, ionizing radiation, psychochemicals, hallucinogens, and drugs used during the Gulf War .
1995 U.S. Government admits that it had offered Japanese war criminals and scientists who had performed human medical experiments salaries and immunity from prosecution in exchange for data on biological warfare research.
1995 Dr. Garth Nicolson, uncovers evidence that the biological agents used during the Gulf War had been manufactured in Houston, TX and Boca Raton, Fl and tested on prisoners in the Texas Department of Corrections.
1996 Department of Defense admits that Desert Storm soldiers were exposed to chemical agents.
1997 Eighty-eight members of Congress sign a letter demanding an investigation into bioweapons use & Gulf War Syndrome.
2006 You didn't have a clue,... did you?
(Comment this)
Researcher, Mr. John Mecca has discovered a reliable way to detect non-consensual human experimentation being done to people known as TI's. Such persons stories are easy to read by searching on the internet using such phrases as are mentioned as searches at the bottom of the website www.mdspec.com. His research has proven that electronic attacks on people is done with a combination of implanted devices and directed energy of both coherent and omni directional types. The effects of these non-consensual human experiments are to induce raw electrical current discharges into the bodies tissues along with frequency modulation of these raw bursts of electrical current, amounting to a capability to cause pain, heat stroke through heating, manipulation of the physiology and various other effects that can be read on the website.
An IEEE International Standard Test was employed during the discovery. It is estimated that some half of the population of the United States have had some kind of a device implanted covertly into their bodies for tracking, which can be utilized to initiate directed energy attacks of low level which can cause symptoms as mundane as acid reflux, and insomnia. Extreme exposures can result in brain washing, depletion of the immune system and death.
(Comment this)
I believe that I, along with several other children, were victims of experimentation by persons employed by the US military in the mid-Fifties.
You may read the entire story at: http://www.tailsntales.com/portola.html
I am looking for assistance in filing the necessary papers with the government, in hopes of obtaining medical assistance in determining the nature of the experiment.
At present I suspect either radioactive materials experimentation or gene-splicing.
Thank you and Sincerely,
John Sebastian DeGrazia (Comment this)
Jimison T. Hutchinson
www.thebrokensoldier.com (Comment this)