‘No one wants to touch this:’ VA treatment delayed for Iraq vets sick from chemical weapons exposure

The Defense Department has identified 400 former service members who experienced “possible or probable” exposures to chemical weapons during the Iraq War with the Department of Veterans Affairs to conduct clinical evaluations and offer consultations and treatment, according to VA officials.

Called VET-HOME, the newly formed VA veterans exposure team for “health outcomes [from] military exposure” is expected to facilitate contact tracing, clinical exams for chemical weapons exposure and medical care for impacted veterans.

But the VA is coming under criticism from some lawmakers and impacted veterans about lengthy delays in fully implementing the clinical program to monitor the health status of the 400 veterans and develop treatment plans for them.

Istvan Gabor, a sergeant who served with the Army’s 41st Transportation Company in Iraq destroying abandoned munitions, said he has struggled to get a medical exam for possible chemical weapons exposure and benefits for Gulf War syndrome.

“I am still fighting just to get recognized by the VA and we’re kind of getting nowhere,” said Gabor, who worked at an Iraq weapons destruction site called Arlington Depot where abandoned arsenals were removed from bunkers and detonated. The Arlington Depot, which was an Iraq base called Bayji, was about 120 miles northwest of Baghdad.

The Defense Department has not disclosed the locations where the 400 veterans were exposed to chemical weapons, and the VA does not grant disability benefits for chemical weapons exposures under the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022, known as the PACT Act.

Conditions related to sarin, mustard gas and other chemical warfare agents were not included by Congress in the PACT Act, according to Terrence Hayes, the VA press secretary.

Veterans can receive disability compensation for exposure if their military record shows confirmed contact with the chemical weapons, according to the VA. Claims are decided on a case-by-case basis.

The VA said this week that it has granted 35 claims for disability benefits related to chemical weapons exposure in Iraq from 2003-2011. But Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., who is chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said the PACT Act has a framework that allows the VA to establish additional toxic-exposure presumptions.

“I urge VA to continue to use it to make sure this law is implemented the way Congress intended,” he said. “Every veteran exposed to toxins during their military service deserves access to the health care and benefits they earned and were promised.”

Some members of the Army’s 41st Transportation Company are seeking medical exams for determining exposure to chemical warfare agents in Iraq. But they said they have encountered roadblocks to obtaining evaluations with the VA and denials for disability benefits for serious health conditions from which they are suffering or believe they have passed on to their children, according to the veterans and their advocates.

The 41st Transportation Company cleared out abandoned weapons from the Arlington Depot in 2003 and 2004. The location was never identified publicly by the military as a site that contained abandoned chemical weapons. Gabor said he and fellow service members lost consciousness when they first uncovered a stash of weapons inside a bunker the size of a warehouse. They were not wearing protective gear.

“That was one of the first things that happened to us. When we went into this bunker and opened it up, everyone passed out. There was this oily liquid leaking from the rounds. We were like, ‘Whoa something is wrong here.’‘’ Members evacuated the bunker but returned that evening. Several reported headaches, confusion, shortness of breath and extreme sweating and salivating after working there, he and others said. “I was touching the weapons, loading them and taking them to the detonation site — doing this every day,” Gabor said.

Morgan Hopson, an Army corporal who served with the 41st Transportation Unit, said he, Gabor and others raised questions about possible exposure to agents used in chemical weapons that were seen leaking from abandoned tanks and on the ground.

“There were no decontamination procedures in place,” he said. “We were told to get the job done, but this was a secret mission and not to discuss it further.”

Gabor, who was discharged in 2006 after five years of service, said he was later diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer, which was treated. He said he experiences symptoms of a chronic multisymptom illness — also known as Gulf War Syndrome.

Gabor said his son, Kevin, who was conceived after his military service ended, was diagnosed with brittle bone disease at birth. He uses a wheelchair and has had hundreds of bone fractures, his father said.

He also said he knows several other veterans from his unit with children who have serious disabilities. All the veterans were directly involved with weapons removal and detonation in Iraq, Gabor said. “No one is looking at this,” he said.

Kendra Peachey-Lubin, a former private who joined the Army in April 2003, was a member of the same platoon and helped to remove and destroy caches of abandoned weapons. “There was a lot of talk about the different colors of the plumes when the weapons were detonated,” she said. The smoke was tinged in green, yellow and orange.

Peachey-Lubin said she left military service in December 2004 after becoming pregnant. She was married to a service member deployed at another location, she said. Her son, Hunter, now 19, was born with a rare genetic disorder that causes intellectual disability, respiratory illnesses, muscle weakness, impaired motor function and feeding issues

“He is nonverbal and cannot walk. He is 100% dependent on us,” said Peachey-Lubin, who is Hunter’s full-time caregiver. His rare condition is called MECP2, which can be inherited, but neither parent was determined to be carriers. She also developed asthma, neuropathy and severe headaches that persist now.

Peachey-Lubin said she has tried to get medical claims for chemical weapons exposure related to his condition. She said she saw three doctors in 18 months. She also saw her veteran service officer to discuss how she believes chemical weapons exposure have affected her health and her son.

“I want this information in my files, so there is documentation,” she said. “The VA is confused by this. They look at me like I have a third eye. They are clueless on how to process a claim for a child with his kind of medical issues.

“No one wants to touch this or do anything about it,” she said. “They pretty much distance themselves from the situation.”

Peachey-Lubin said she has not been contacted by the VA for her one-time medical assessment. “I called several times on my own, but no one has returned my calls,” she said.

Rep. Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., wrote a letter to VA Secretary Denis McDonough in July urging him to the speed up the process by which former service members are medically evaluated and treated for illnesses and conditions that might be connected to chemical weapons exposure.

Brecheen wrote in the letter that his office heard from constituents who are former members of the Army’s 41st Transportation Company about difficulties establishing appointments for exams related to possible chemical weapons exposure.

“There has been a four-year delay in program activity between when the DOD offloaded the program to the VA and when the VA informed the surviving members of 41st Transportation Company that they were eligible for evaluation and for treatment as necessary,” said Ben Decatur, communications director for Brecheen.

Brecheen has not heard directly from McDonough but was told by the VA secretary’s staff that the VA has plans to restart the program, Decatur said.

“Congressman Brecheen will continue to work with the VA to improve its operations. Congress has an obligation and the constitutional power to provide our veterans with adequate medical care,” he said.

In addition, Tester has introduced the Molly R. Loomis Research for Descendants of Toxic Exposed Veterans Act to fund research on connections between toxic exposures and birth defects in the children of exposed veterans.

The findings could be used to support benefits for children of exposed veterans who were born with serious birth defects, his office said. Hopson said he underwent a clinical exam focused on chemical weapons exposure after being contacted by VET-HOME in 2023.

“I was among the first ones to be assessed. But the VA does not seem to have the systems in place for treatment and the doctors are uncertain about how to deal with this,” he said.

Hopson said his assessment supported a finding of chemical weapons exposure, but there is no plan for follow-up treatment.

“They’re like, ‘Hey you have these conditions from chemical weapons,’ but they seem to have no doctors with knowledge about treatment. It’s a problem. You cannot get appropriate care,” he said.

He was medevaced from Iraq in 2003 with a high fever, abnormal blood tests and bleeding from his mouth, after his unit cleared out and destroyed the abandoned weapons, he said. Hopson also said the munitions had an acrid odor, leached an oily liquid and produced unusual plumes upon detonation. He said he also observed leaking rounds that seemed to have been recently filled and stacked.

“The outside of the rounds was still wet and there was a trail of liquid to mobile mixing units,” he said. “The units were these huge metal containers with tubes running from them. They had been emptied out and were laying on their sides when we found them.”

Hopson was hospitalized in Germany, suffering from a high fever, confusion, extreme headaches, blistering on his hands and torso, and “blood sweating,” a rare condition in which an individual’s skin seeps blood.

After being medically discharged from the service in 2005, Hopson experienced a “watershed stroke” caused from a sudden drop in blood flow to the brain, he said.

He has continued to experience inflammation in different parts of his body that require immediate treatment. But he said he was denied disability benefits related to chemical weapons exposure.

“I can wake up in the morning and find that the skin is falling off my hands or have a rash that rapidly spreads throughout my body and that happens internally, too,” Hopson said.

Doctors at the VA’s War Related Illness and Injury Study Center explained chemical weapons exposure can cause universal changes in bodily systems, he said.

Gabor said he has never received disability compensation or health care benefits for medical problems related to what he believes was chemical warfare exposure.

Gabor said a VA claim he filed in 2023 for disability benefits for Gulf War Syndrome has not been acted upon and recently disappeared from his online claim history and records in the VA system. “I’m trying to track it down to see what happened,” he said.

Gabor contacted the VA on his own to schedule a one-time assessment related to chemical weapons exposure after learning about the VET-HOME program. He said he feels the issue of potential chemical weapons exposures by former service members during duty in Iraq is being avoided by military officials and the VA.

Gabor also believes his son’s brittle bone disease — a rare medical condition — is the result of his own chemical weapons exposure.

“I feel let down by the entire system, especially for my child who has a lifelong untreatable condition. I have a lot of grievances and regrets. This service was something I wanted to do for my country.”