They were an experimantal drug that was "supposed" to boost a persons ability to deal with the effects of certain chemical munitions. In addition to the shots, we were given pills that "worked" in cunjunction with the shots. I recieved 2 of the 3 shots, but I never took the pills like we were supposed to. The shots made me feel sick for a day or so afterwards so I wasn't going to take any chances with the pills.
What pisses me off is there is no record of my getting those shots in my medical record. I got out of the Army in 1992 and joined the Coast Guard. I brought all this up when they started to process me for retirement and the Coast Guard Docs had no idea what I was talking about. I know they requested all information concerning my medical records from the Army but the Army claims to have handed everything over to the Coast Guard concerning me. I have my lawyer looking into it but I don't expect anything to develop from that either.
I don't even know what the name of the stuff was they gave us and I haven't been able to find anything online about it either. All I know was when they gave us the shots it was the typical military assembly line deal. Line up with your sleeve rolled up, step forward and a medic wipes your arm clean, step forward and get the injection, step forward and sign on the sheet that you recieved your shot, get kicked out of the tent and get sent back to work.
At 19 years old you just don't know enough to ask questions about stuff like that. 16 years later no one has a clue what your talking about, and yeah it bothers me that I don't know. It bothers me that my health is failing and this might have something to do with it, but no one has any records to prove if I did or didn't get this stuff. Never mind the fact that I was at Ground Zero the day after the attack in New York helping with port security. We kept our boats and gear over at Ft. Wadsworth on Staten Island right next to one of the large pillings for the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. The trucks bringing debris out of the twin towers drove over that bridge and we were also having to clean dust off our gear all the time so I also have all that mess going for me too. Who knows what the hell I breathed in there. It wouldn't surprise me at all if I start to develop serious lung problems before too long. As it is I sometimes have a hard time breathing if I work out too hard. I study martial arts and it gets tough sometimes to keep going. I've had tests run but so far they haven't found anything. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Don't get me wrong though. I don't want to sound like I'm complaining or blaming anyone. I'm proud of the service I performed in both cases and would do it all over again if I had to, but hind sight is always 20/20 after the fact. You can't always take the time to weigh the risks in those kind of situations. You just have to do the job and deal with the after effects later or the job wouldn't get done at all, but it does keep me awake at nights sometimes when I start thinking about all the things I've done and seen.
