A Giraffe has been sighted
in IL |
| A committed warrior and patriot with 35 years of military service, Army Reservist Doug Rokke was assigned by the Army to design a program that would show military personnel how to use depleted uranium (DU) weapons effectively, while minimizing risks to the troops themselves. Rokke embraced the assignment enthusiastically, sure that DU weapons were vital to the Army’s success in the field; he’d never seen anything as powerful and effective. In the first Gulf War, Iraqi tanks were stopped dead by DU weapons fired on them by US troops positioned far beyond the tanks’ range—Rokke was sure the weapons greatly lowered the combat risks to US forces. His enthusiasm soon turned to deep alarm. As he tested residues on those Iraqi tanks—wearing only a breathing mask—Rokke found that they were covered in uranium-oxide soot that was contaminating the surrounding environment. He designed a protocol, now US Army Regulation 700-48, that would minimize but not eliminate the hazards to people and the surroundings—if it were meticulously observed. He left his teaching post at the University of Illinois to head the Army lab where his DU research was based. But when he began expressing his concern that the dangers of DU weapons could not be controlled, and saying that they should not be used in the future, he was fired. A long campaign was launched to dismiss his findings and denigrate his character. His 40-hour training was turned into a 20-minute briefing he describes as being full of distortions—and completely ignored by troops in the field. There is no implementation of Army Reg 700-48 and its requirements for immediate medical care and for environmental remediation. |
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