Veteran Glad Congress Acknowledges Illness
Congressional Report: Gulf War Syndrome Real

POSTED: 6:21 pm HST November 17, 2008
UPDATED: 9:42 pm HST November 17, 2008

HONOLULU -- Thousands of veterans of the first Gulf War have been haunted by mysterious pain and other symptoms.

On Monday, they said they heard welcome news.

Experts agree the Gulf War Syndrome is real, not just in their heads.

One veteran said he hopes the congressional report will bring relief both physical and financial.

In March of 1991, after 10 months in the Persian Gulf, Marines returned to Kaneohe and among them was a guy waving the flag from the top hatch of the plane.

"I like to call it the happiest-day-of-my-life picture," Gulf War veteran Derrick Brown said.

The corporal had come home unharmed -- or so he thought, until he picked up mysterious symptoms like many of this other buddies.

"Joint pain, severe sweating, I have severe sleep apnea. My testosterone level is low," Brown said.

Now a condo manager, Brown said the symptoms can make life hard to bare. He's got a thick notebook of communication with the Veterans Administration which denied that his problems were war-related or even real.

"I can't prove my pain to them. I can't make them feel my pain," Brown said.

But Monday, a congressional scientific panel concluded Gulf War Syndrome is a real illness, most likely caused by anti-nerve gas medication, overused pesticides and possibly air pollutions from burning oil wells.

"It was, you know, it was putrid, you know?" Brown said.

Brown hopes the report will lead to research, treatment and after 17 years, disability benefits.

"It made me feel good because to me that says that at some level they are going to have to go back and review a lot of decisions that they made," Brown said.

Thinking of the latest batch of veterans, Brown said he hopes the VA has learned a lesson -- to listen.

Ellie