Project Day Lily: An American Biological Warfare Tragedy

Project Day Lily: An American Biological Warfare Tragedy

Postby admin » Mon Oct 23, 2017 8:59 am

Project Day Lily: An American Biological Warfare Tragedy
by Garth L. Nicolson, Ph.D. and Nancy L. Nicolson, Ph.D.
© 2004 by Garth L. Nicolson, Ph.D. and Nancy L. Nicolson, Ph.D.

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.



Table of Contents:

• Inside Cover
• Dedication
The Following is Based on a True Story
• Forwards
• Prologue: Incidents at the Beginning of the First Gulf War (1991)
• Part One: The Beginning
o Chapter 1: The Magnificent Flower (circa 1980)
o Chapter 2: Watching, From England as War Rages (1991)
• Part Two: Illnesses Strike the Veterans
o Chapter 3: A New Casualty of War (1993)
o Chapter 4: Finding a Cause and a Treatment (1994)
o Chapter 5: The Prisons Have a Problem (1994)
• Part Three: The Conspiracy
o Chapter 6: The Emperor Strikes Back (1995)
o Chapter 7: A Fateful Trip to Cambridge (1994)
o Chapter 8: The Conspiracy Continues (1994)
• Part Four: The Invitations
o Chapter 9: A Trip to Moscow (Late 1994)
o Chapter 10: Back in Austin
o Chapter 11: The Veterans and Prison Guards Ask for Help (1995)
o Chapter 12: The Trips to Washington DC (1995)
• Part Five: The Move From Texas
o Chapter 13: Dr. Masters Becomes Impatient (1996)
o Chapter 14: The Attacks Continue (1996)
o Chapter 15: The McNichols Decide to Leave (1996)
o Chapter 16: The Move to California (1996)
o Epilogue: The Struggle Continues
o Appendix Materials
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Re: Project Day Lily: An American Biological Warfare Tragedy

Postby admin » Mon Oct 23, 2017 8:59 am

Inside Cover

Project Day Lily chronicles the events surrounding the "Gulf War Syndrome" suffered by over 150,000 veterans (and tens of thousands dead) without proper acknowledgment or treatment to keep secret the origin of their illnesses. Were our Armed Forces exposed to chemical and biological toxins that were supplied, in part, by a sinister network of rogue bureaucrats, intelligence operatives and scientists? This is the story of how one of these biological agents was found by two American scientists as part of a massive testing program and how various academic and government employees did everything in their power to keep this information secret.

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Garth Nicolson (B.S. UCLA 1965; Ph.D. UCSD 1970) is President of the Institute for Molecular Medicine, Huntington Beach, California. Previously the David Bruton Chair at the U.T.M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and Professor of Internal Medicine at U.T. Medical School, he has published 550 medical and scientific papers and 14 books and served on 20 medical and scientific journals. Nancy Nicolson (B.A. Johns Hopkins 1975; Ph.D. Florida State 1982) is CEO of The Institute for Molecular Medicine. Previously on the faculty at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, she has published over 50 papers. They are both Colonels (Honorary) of the U.S. Army Special Forces and U.S. Navy SEALs (Honorary).
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Re: Project Day Lily: An American Biological Warfare Tragedy

Postby admin » Mon Oct 23, 2017 9:00 am

Dedication

This book is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Fred Conrad (Colonel, USAF, retired) and five other academic colleagues who died under mysterious circumstances while investigating aspects of the alleged illegal testing of Biological Weapons in Texas hospitals, nursing homes and prisons.

This book is also dedicated to the men and women of our Armed Services and their family members who were put in harm's way and were never properly warned about the dangers of Biological Weapons.

And to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice personnel and its prisoners and to the people of the Great State of Texas who were betrayed and lost their health and loved ones to a vicious agenda in the name of 'National Security.'

"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."

-- Reichsmarshall Herman Goering, Nuremberg Trials, 18 April 1946
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Re: Project Day Lily: An American Biological Warfare Tragedy

Postby admin » Mon Oct 23, 2017 9:00 am

THE FOLLOWING IS BASED ON A TRUE STORY

The authors have written this book in order to shed light on a crisis facing our country and the world. They have chosen to use a fictional format to maximize dramatic impact. The events described are true, but fictitious names, places and composite characters have been used to develop the story. Dialogue between the characters was constructed from the recollections of various sources. The scientific principals and results discussed in this book are true and have been documented in the authors' publications, reports and sworn testimony to Presidential Commissions and committees of the United States Congress.
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Re: Project Day Lily: An American Biological Warfare Tragedy

Postby admin » Mon Oct 23, 2017 9:01 am

FORWARDS

Forward to the Book by Michael McClay


As of today, the history books will show that the single most destructive act of war ever launched against the United States was on September 11, 2001.

As of today.

Now, four years later, the citizens of the United States have been waiting for the other shoe to drop-another act of terrorism on a massive scale. It hasn't happened, but when it does (and it will), we may not know about it when it happens, and by the time it's discovered, it will be too late. It's there every day, lurking in the shadows, never far away from our consciousness.

After 9/11 there has been a flurry of activity in response to the tragedy. The Homeland Security Act created a new Executive Federal Branch. Laundry lists of scenarios have underscored screaming headlines of another daily news item related to this certainty. The War ... Homeland Security election year political fallout ... daily acts of terrorism around the world the list goes on. At the top of this list is bioterrorism and when that hits, it will affect everyone.

The authors of this book have as much firsthand personal knowledge about the biological threat we all face as anyone on earth. This book is a road map on how they discovered and found a treatment for some of the very biotoxins that are in the hands of terrorists and rogue nations who have the capability to unleash such an attack on the United States.

And what's been done?

Our ability to respond to a biological crisis has been improved from virtually nothing to a modest ability to respond to the most obvious threats, such as anthrax. Although deadly if inhaled in moderate doses. anthrax is not contagious and cannot be passed to others.

On the other hand, there are a variety of other biological warfare agents that are highly contagious and will spread to unlimited numbers of people with only casual contact. Most of these agents will initially cause an innocuous flu-like disorder that doesn't appear life threatening, only to later progress to a fatal disease that cannot be stopped by available drugs and treatments. These agents are difficult to detect, and the diseases that they cause are difficult to diagnose.

This is not a problem limited to the United States, as the citizens of Spain and Russia know all too well. All nations under the Charter of the United Nations are under this threat, and there are those out there who do not want to have this message heard. Not just terrorists, but our own government officials who don't want the population to know how unprepared we really are or that there are scientists within our own government and academic institutions who have perpetuated the terrorism.

This is the first and only book that exposes the truth on how this threat began (During World War II), how it was actively developed in our own military labs and in other laboratories around the world (During the Cold War), how it came to fruition (During the Gulf War) and how it's threatening us now. Little has changed since the Nicolsons first exposed the infection behind much of the illnesses associated with the Gulf War. These infections are still slowly penetrating into our population and will continue to cause chronic illnesses.

Project Day Lily chronicles the events surrounding what the public knows as 'Gulf War Syndrome.' To this day there are over 150,000 veterans of the first Gulf War that suffer from chronic illnesses and tens of thousands have died without acknowledgment or proper assistance to keep secret the origin of their illnesses. Some of these illnesses were caused by infectious agents worked on by our own scientists, some of whom were trained by 'Operation Paperclip' scientists brought back from Germany after World War II. This is based on solid, scientific facts, backed by some of the most respected and well-known scientific minds and leading professionals in the world.

The story continues to this day, although the book itself largely ends when the Nicolsons leave their academic positions in Texas after discovering a massive cover-up of illegal biological testing in the Texas prison system. The scientific information is completely factual as is the truth regarding the way the principals uncovered the events and the efforts of those who went to extreme and deadly measures to keep this vast scientific-military-governmental conspiracy from becoming public knowledge.

Michael McClay
Ventura, California
September 2004

*********************************************************************

Forward by the Authors

On January 5, 1993 former President George Herbert W. Bush delivered a speech at the West Point Military Academy that would accurately predict and prophesize almost a decade later the post-9/11 world that we live in today. The former President would emphasize that the most important aspect of leadership of the nation's highest office was the role of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, for it was in this capacity that the President's decisions affected every person on the planet. "We risk the emergence of a world characterized by violence, characterized by chaos, one in which dictators and tyrants threaten their neighbors, build arsenals brimming with weapons of mass destruction, and ignore the welfare of their own men, women, and children." "We can not be passive or aloof ... or we could see an increase in international terrorism with American citizens more at risk than ever before." How prophetic this statement would prove to be. The world after September 11, 2001 has become exactly what former President Bush feared when he made his speech at West Point.

Our former President possessed a clear understanding of our complex world, but he might not have known that a sinister group of rogue scientists, physicians, bureaucrats and government administrators with extremist and inhuman attitudes existed and were camouflaged within the academic, military, veterans' and intelligence organizations in the United States and abroad. This well-organized faction, steeped in Cold War philosophies and backed financially by organized crime and global syndicate special interests, has operated and continues to operate within our midst while arrogantly ignoring the basic dictates of human rights and dignity. They continue to conduct their reckless experiments to test biological weapons and other weapons of mass destruction on an unwitting public and Armed Forces personnel using incredibly underhanded and amoral tactics and strategies. This group has not been held accountable, nor have they accepted responsibility for their heinous acts against mankind that span decades of abusive conduct since World War II.

Unfortunately, the professional organizations of scientists and physicians around the world have done little to identify and stop this rogue group and have for the most part been too intimidated or apathetic to assist Congress and the Executive Branch of the U. S. Government and other governments around the world to stop this form of insidious scientific-medical terrorism. We consider this to be one of the greatest betrayals ever perpetuated on the people and the governments of the world.

As scientists and researchers whose foremost goal is to protect peoples' health, we are ashamed that this deadly faction has been allowed to commit their abominable crimes against humanity. This book, Project Day Lily, is based on our two decades' struggle to make this rogue faction accountable and to provide positive scientific and clinical solutions for citizens and military personnel, such as the thousands of veterans of the first Persian Gulf War and their family members that have contracted various chronic illnesses. To assist citizens, veterans and military personnel we established the nonprofit Institute for Molecular Medicine (http://www.immed.org). Its mission is to discover novel solutions and treatments for chronic illnesses, such as those caused by incapacitating biological weapons.

In the ultimate irony the book underscores the reality that the rogue group responsible for developing and testing deadly biological agents on our citizens were financed by the illegal use of various trusts left to one of us. The use of financial instruments that are part of an inheritance illegally held by others unfortunately paved the way for financing the development, testing and manufacture of unconventional weapons of mass destruction. Groups of unethical attorneys and trustees managed the trusts that are responsible for financing what we consider to be a loathsome agenda against humanity as well as orchestrating a horrific campaign against us to prevent one of us from assuming control of her family's financial legacy, which was to be used for humanitarian purposes.

Fortunately the Patriot Act has ensured that only the true owners of trusts, such as the ones left to one of us, can give permission for the utilization of the funds. This law will ultimately prevent further illegal use of the funds. At present, we are working with the U. S. Government to make certain that these trusts are used for the good of the people of the United States and our neighbors around the world.

Garth L. Nicolson, Ph.D. and Nancy L. Nicolson, Ph.D.
The Institute for Molecular Medicine (http://www.immed.org)
Huntington Beach, California
November 2004
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Re: Project Day Lily: An American Biological Warfare Tragedy

Postby admin » Mon Oct 23, 2017 9:01 am

PROLOGUE

Incidents at the beginning of the first Gulf War (1991)

Preparation for the first assault into Iraq, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)


The sky was dark as only darkness can be in a Saudi desert with few physical features and essentially no vegetation. At the front lines Coalition Forces were pulling back from the border, regrouping and readying for the assault that would come in a few hours. The focused assaults on the Southern borders of Iraq and Kuwait would be almost entirely mechanized, and the armored personnel carriers, tanks, trucks, transporters and other vehicles began to line up for the run to the border and the breaching of the Iraqi border positions. They would be led by special tanks and bulldozers equipped with anti-mine devices to clear the border area of the deadly land mines that lurk just below the surface of the sand. Engineering units would destroy any obstacles and bridge any trenches that the Iraqis have built to slow the Coalition Forces. They would also quell any possible oil fires started in the trenches by filling them with sand, and they would bury any unfortunate Iraqi soldiers who refused to surrender or stay in their bunkers. However, the Iraqis had a special weapon waiting for their enemies just under the surface of the sand. They had hidden thousands of chemical-biological landmines that won't destroy vehicles but will release deadly clouds of chemical and biological weapons. They had also deployed more than 60 chemical-biological weapons sprayers to contaminate large areas just inside the border. The mechanized units would unknowingly be contaminated as they silently passed through such areas.

As the flashes briefly illuminated the border area, the immediate objective could be clearly seen, if just for a second or so at a time. Near the border was an endless bream or long wall of sand several meters high built to slow an advance of mechanized vehicles and provide cover for defensive forces. Distant piercing white flashes illuminated the breams brieOy, and the flashes were followed with a slight delay by deadening explosions that sounded like dull thuds instead of high-pitched explosions. Coalition 'arty' was softening up the staging areas to the rear of the border defenses. The dull reports increased gradually almost as a rolling thunder as more and more coalition artillery opened up and pounded Iraqi positions that faced the coalition forces behind the border between Saudi Arabia and Iraq and Kuwait. As the incoming shells passed overhead, they screamed as they traveled to their targets. The softening up of the border area had been underway for several weeks, and almost daily B-52 high altitude carpet bombing attacks with dumb bombs have left Iraqi soldiers shaken and disoriented. There was no food or water left on the Iraqi side of the border, and all the Iraqis could do was wait for the attack that seemed to never come.

Many miles south from the Iraqi border at a Coalition airbase near Al Bitan in Saudi Arabia shadowy figures in MOPP IV (Mission Oriented Protective Posture-Level IV) BC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) protection gear and night vision goggles stood guard and surveyed the no man's land that separated the desert between Iraq and Saudi Arabia. There was tremendous noise as UH-60 Blackhawk, CH-47 Chinook and AH-64 Apache helicopters of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division revved their engines in the dark, the fiery jet exhausts breaking the silence of the desert. They were waiting for air assault infantry to load into the Blackhawks and Chinooks and begin the deep insertions into Iraq before the Ground Offensive of Operation Desert Storm was officially underway. Last second instructions were given to air crews and soldiers awaiting the command to commence Operation "Clean Sweep" to destroy Iraqi Command & Control Centers, Chemical and Biological Warfare Centers, storage depots and SCUD missiles armed with Chemical and Biological Weapons before the Ground Offensive started. The most important part of the mission was to block retreating Iraqi forces and prevent a northwestern retreat of Iraqi Republican Guard armored divisions. They would do this by taking the bridges that cross the Euphrates River and deploying in a formation that would block the Iraqi forces from moving North-West and force them back into a killing zone where a combination of air and land forces could decimate them at will.

In the night it was usually difficult to see without night vision equipment; however, the burning jet fuel provided a little light when the engines were revved. Soldiers emerged in long lines with their gear and supplies, and aircraft crews helped load the air assault forces and their supplies, including BC protective gear, in preparation for the long trip North.

Alarm Black at a support base near the 101st Airborne Division HQ at Al Bitan

At a support base near the Base Bravo airfield a siren sounded in the background. It went almost unnoticed with the noise of trucks and transporters gunning their engines and maneuvering into columns, but in the tents containing NBC detection equipment pandemonium broke loose. A young Chemical/Biological Weapons Specialist that was in his first action yelled to the NBC Officer in the COC (Combat Operations Center), "Captain! We've got hypersonic incoming, probably SCUD B targeting our area! We already have CBW reports 3 clicks to the east!" The NBC Officer replied, "What does Charley Company report?" The CBW Specialist replied, "Their M8A 1 units were positive for chemical agents, and Baker Company reports they are under chemical attack. We are the next unit down wind!" The Duty Officer continued, "Make sure our RSCAALs (Remote Sensing Chemical Agent Alarms) are on. Don't panic the men, Lieutenant, just go to MOPP IV, and clear the area." The CBW Specialist answered, "Yes SIR!" Sir, Headquarters says to disregard the Chemical Alarms. Why in hell would they issue that order when we are under attack? The Duty Officer stated, 'Just get us to MOPP IV. We'll worry about what HQ says later!" The CBW Specialist replied, "Yes, Sir!"

The young First Lieutenant ordered his sergeant to use the camp PA. A moment later the Specialist alerted the base, "SCUD incoming, I repeat, SCUD incoming! Alarm Black! Alarm Black! Gas! Gas! Gas! Go to MOPP IV! Go to MOPP IV! .... This is no drill! Go to MOPP IV! I repeat, Go to MOPP IV!" A siren sounded, and an Iraqi SS-l SCUD B warhead exploded high in the sky above the area leaving a cloud of bluish purple mist hanging in the area. About 30 seconds later, the first RSCAAL Chemical Alarms went off, and then another, one by one. Over the post PA could be heard, "Alarm Black! Gas! Gas! Gas! This is no drill! Go to MOPP IV! Go to MOPP IV!"

As the Chemical Alarms sounded, soldiers ran for cover, and the order to go to MOPP IV was repeated several times. Soldiers quickly donned their NBC suil~ and masks, but some were slow to get into their MOPP gear and were quickly exposed to the bluish purple mist that was settling into the area. These exposed soldiers immediately felt burning sensations on their skin and throat and then their lungs felt like they were on fire. They began scratching their skin, eyes and throat, and then they began vomiting. They vomited over and over again as if they were trying to turn their stomachs inside out and expel them through their throats. Other soldiers in full MOPP IV gear began to deploy as Chemical Agent alarms sounded and other dull detonations were heard nearby. The soldiers were unaware that the purple-blue material was Prussian Blue-specifically designed to destroy the filters in the MOPP protective suits. They were also unaware that the Iraqi Prussian Blue was actually manufactured in Boca Raton, Florida and exported to Iraq during the Iraq-Iran war with the blessings of the United States and its Commerce Department.

At a support base near AI Bitan all was suddenly quiet. Then the muffled sound of "Medic! Medic!" was heard but not at a distance. Much more audible were the screams of exposed soldiers who could not find their MOPP gear in time. Then their screams began to be drowned out by the roar of trucks preparing to depart for the Iraqi border. At the same airbase Special Forces trained for identifying and destroying unconventional weapons also loaded for the deep insertions into Iraq. They had their own specially outfitted helicopters, painted black for the 'Special Ops' nature of their mission. Their mission was to find and destroy Iraqi Chemical and Biological factories, storage depots and SCUD launchers. As the Air Assault and Special Forces units loaded for battle, they didn't look back; there was no time to contemplate, only react. In addition to the airborne infantry of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Field Artillery units were also preparing to depart. The artillery and supplies would be carried along with their crews by the large cargo helicopters. As they lifted off, last second instructions on Chemical/Biological Warfare were given over the intercom to the crews and their cargo of airborne warriors who prepared to face the dangers of a modem battlefield.

Officers' Staff Meeting: 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)

Lieutenant Colonel David Smith, Division Chemical/Biological Officer, 101st Airborne Division, was speaking to his staff. Although LTC Smith had not ever been in an unconventional war, he tried to speak with the authority that was expected by his staff. A tall slender Texan with piercing blue eyes, LTC Smith spoke with a slight drawl, giving away his West Texas origins. He stood ramrod straight while addressing the assembled officers and noncoms. Schooled at Texas A & M University and a product of the proud Aggie 'Corps' and 11th. Man on Kyle Field at College Station, LTC Smith was actually slightly out of place with the younger Academy-trained officers. He did not want to show his staff that college chemistry and microbiology were not his strong classes at A & M. Along the way he had learned what he had to learn at Fort Detrick and the Dugway Proving Ground. "Ladies and Gentleman, the BC offensive threat is high, I repeat, the threat is high. G2 indicates Iraqis have full complement of Chemical and Biological Weapons, including 120 millimeter rockets and SCUD B missiles specially equipped for CBW use, and these have been moved within the last 72 hours to forward positions here, here and here." He gestured as he pointed to a map of Southern Iraq. "Intel indicates likely hostile first use of Chemical and Biological Agents. First, be sure that your troops are ready for CBW attacks, your MOPP gear is fully operational and that each soldier has extra filter units. Second, be sure that they all take their PB pills as ordered. Some units will have to take the white antibiotic pills as well. Third, remind your units of the six basic steps of NBC warfare: (I) Preparation, (2) Identification, (3) Protection, (4) Survival, (5) Decontamination, and (6) First Aid. We have gone through this before, and you should be ready. The Iraqis have blister agents, nerve agents, blood agents, and choking agents, such as sarin, tabun, lewisite and mustard. They also have several kinds of Biological Agents, including anthrax, botulism, micotoxins and others" ... He paused ... As LTC Smith continued, "For the Chemical Agents we have deployed M8Al and M256 Chemical Detection Units and Fox Mobile Detection units. But let me remind you, we don't have any detection equipment for Biological Agents, so be especially careful if you see dead animals and soldiers with no apparent wounds. Don't assume only Chemical, unless your NBC unit has confirmed. Intel indicates that Iraqi forces are operating under Soviet War Doctrine, so they will be mixing Chemical and Biological Agents in the same attack to confuse us. Let me remind you that the biggest threat that we face will come from Iraqi unconventional weapons."

A Junior Officer asked, "Sir, How do we detect the Biological Agents?" LTC Smith responded, "We don't! As I said before, we don't have any detection capability for Biological Agents in theater. For whatever reason, the brass stateside wouldn't let us deploy our Pace Biological Detection Systems to the Persian Gulf. We've asked the guys at Fort Baker to send us their detection units, but for some reason the higher ups have decided that we don't need them. if you encounter suspected Biological Agents and are possibly contaminated, you will have to identify the agent by the types of symptoms that casualties are displaying. Most signs and symptoms of rapidly acting Biological Agents, such as anthrax, won't show up for a day or so after exposure. But if you see troops showing breathing distress and coughing up blood, skin itching, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, chills and other problems soon after an attack, they were probably exposed to Chemicals. Remember rapid fluid loss is one of the biggest problems in the desert. Units that have been issued the white antibiotic pills should immediately begin taking two per day. We know that the Iraqis also have slow acting agents, but don't worry about these in the field. They are not expected to cause any problems that could jeopardize our mission. Any other questions?" A Junior Officer asked, "Sir, what do we know about these slow acting Biological Agents?" "And why weren't we all issued antibiotics in case of BW attack?"

LTC Smith thought about the question before responding. He then said, "We do not have much Intel on their slow-acting BW. They should only cause chronic illnesses, so don't worry about them. I repeat, since these should not interfere with our mission, you don't have to worry about the slow-acting Biologicals. We will sort that out after the operation."

A warning on the sand

Air Assault Forces from the 101st Airborne Division were now on the ground deep in Iraq after a long 'helo' ride. They deployed during the night and established a perimeter in advance of an Arty company that would be brought in with the second wave. The 101st Field Artillery, mostly 105- millimeter howitzers, were carried in by the 'heavy' CH-47 Chinooks as soon as the area was secure. As the sun began to rise, dead animals were seen in the distance, and occasionally a dead Iraqi soldier was seen. 101st infantry units regrouped in full MOPP IV gear and were ordered to inspect the area containing the dead animals and Iraqi soldiers. Graves units would be burying the dead Iraqis in large sand pits as soon as some equipment arrived to dig the trenches.

At the moment, there was nothing that could be done for the dead Iraqis. A recon team had searched the area and already reported back. The rest of the 'Screaming Eagles' finally arrived in a Humvee with a TOW missile launcher mounted on top that had been 'air delivered' during the night. They noticed that the faces of the Iraqi soldiers were contorted and were dark purple or black in color. Equipment was scattered everywhere, including gas masks and CBW protective gear. No one wanted to go near the dead animals or Iraqi soldiers, so they just kept their distance and maintained a routine perimeter.

'Incoming'

The distinctive sound of a Russian-made 120-millimeter rocket screamed overhead and broke the silence of the desert. Then another was heard. A soldier shouted, "Incoming! Incoming!" Soldiers dove for cover, and one lost his M46 NBC protective mask. He fell face-to-face next to a dead, bloated Iraqi soldier. The blue-green, bloated face of the dead Iraqi was unusually contorted. His tongue was sticking out, hanging over his beard. The American soldier was frozen for a moment in horror. No matter how many times he had practiced putting on his MOPP gear, panic caused him to hesitate. As he looked at his comrades who had automatically put on their MOPP gear, even the horror of seeing the dead Iraqi soldiers could not overcome the hours upon hours of training for just this moment. But to the soldier who hesitated, a sick expression came over his face. It was too late. The burning in his lungs made him gasp for air, and mucus and clear liquid were pouring out of his eyes and nose, an almost impossible response in the ultra-dry desert of Southern Iraq. Instead of completing his MOPP donning procedures, he rubbed his eyes to stop the intense burning and pain. He would pay a terrible price for his untimely hesitation. The incoming rounds hit and sounded like low-yield explosive warheads, and they landed with a 'thud' instead of a high explosive blast, suggesting that a CBW attack was underway. Purple clouds rose from impact sites, another sign of a CBW attack.

An older Sergeant yelled, "Incoming! Take cover! Take Cover!" No one dared to ask the Sergeant what or why, they just reacted. As another round hit with a 'thud,' the Sergeant didn't hesitate. He yelled though his M46 NBC mask, "Alarm Black! Gas' Gas' Gas! Make sure you're MOPP IV!" But only a few of the soldiers could hear him yell through the cumbersome masks. Clouds of blue-purple mist covered the area, making the scene surreal. Eventually soldiers appeared through the mist in their MOPP gear. As they headed for their helicopters and then disembarked from the area, they did a head count to make sure that no one was left behind. Two privates were carrying the hesitant soldier who was now twisting, shaking and writhing in pain. His comrades placed him into his MOPP gear but it was clearly too late. He was loaded onto a Blackhawk for the long trip back to a Saudi Medivac base. His sergeant shook his head to his platoon leader, a young officer who was facing his first ever engagement with enemy forces. The young officer's eyes were as big as silver dollars as he watched his men in the Blackhawk. They were just as afraid. As the sun slowly continued to rise, the signs of war unfolded, smoke, noise, discarded equipment, and everywhere death. As they left for safer ground, it was a scene that no one would ever forget.
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Re: Project Day Lily: An American Biological Warfare Tragedy

Postby admin » Mon Oct 23, 2017 9:02 am

Part 1 of 2

CHAPTER 1: The magnificent flower (circa 1980)

The U.S. Army Biological Warfare Research Center, Fort Detrick, Maryland.


In the rolling hills of Northern Maryland in the County of Frederick was a sprawling U. S. Army base that became during World War I I and the subsequent Cold War years the main center for U. S. Biological Warfare research. Fort Detrick was America's premiere laboratory for the development of Biological Warfare agents and their defense. Even though Fort Detrick was to be mainly decommissioned and turned into a cancer research facility administered by the National Institutes of Health by the passage of President Nixon's Plowshare Act, the military activities remained relatively untouched at the U. S. Army's Institute for Infectious Diseases headquartered at Fort Detrick. Although the classified part of Fort Detrick where Biological Warfare research has continued to this day was much smaller than in its Cold War heyday, it remained a potent force in a secret war to develop and test new biological agents under the guise of Biological Warfare Defense. It was here and in hundreds of other laboratories throughout America that immediately after World War II our former enemies' scientists were brought in under Operation Paperclip to continue their research and development of some of the most horrible weapons of mass destruction known to mankind.

In 1980 in one of the hundreds of nondescript windowless light yellow concrete block buildings at Fort Detrick Dr. James Deutschman, Dr. Ming Lon, and Brigadier General Richard Armwhite were intently assessing the structure of a previously uncharacterized microorganism found in weapons grade cultures of anthrax saved from our enemies at the end of World War II. Dr. Ming Lon, who was considered a brilliant Chinese scientist now working for the U. S. Army, was an anthrax expert, and it was in his laboratory that the new microorganism was found in an old culture obtained from one of the German SS units retreating back to Germany from Eastern Europe. The Germans had been developing biological warfare agents for use in their killing programs in Eastern Europe, but they had not attempted to identify all of the organisms in their most potent cultures. It seemed that the 'best' isolates were mixtures of microorganisms, and Dr. Ming Lon was assigned to determine just exactly what was in these deadly mixtures. Dr. Lon was old-school Chinese, and his dress, demeanor and polite conversation style were consistent with his Mainland Chinese training. These men came to the Electron Microscope Laboratory to view the potent new microorganism that Dr. Lon had found recently using an electron microscope.

It was indeed a very unusual microorganism. It was not related to anthrax, the potent biowarfare agent that looks under a microscope like lines of small boxcars and can kill within days if inhaled deep into the lungs at very low concentrations. The agent found by Dr. Lon was much smaller than anthrax, it contained much less genetic material, and it did not have the typical 'boxcar' bacterial structure of anthrax. The unknown bug that was to be examined could no longer be alive for this procedure; it must be killed and chemically fixed and heavy metal atoms bound to it, then dehydrated in alcohol and embedded in plastic in order to be cut into very, very thin slices so that it can be viewed in the electron microscope. The electron microscope could magnify images hundreds of thousands of times and allow scientists to see minute details in biological structure that cannot be seen with other methods. The instrument used an electron beam to bombard the specimen, and this beam can be focused similarly to what would happen with light as it went through a series of glass lenses, but in the electron microscope magnetic lenses focused an electron beam before and after it penetrated the specimen. Then an image could be created by the penetrating electrons, which are focused onto a fluorescing plate that can be viewed through thick glass portals. Alternatively the beam can be focused onto a film plate. The entire instrument must be operated under a high vacuum so that air molecules won't interfere with and scatter the electron beam.

The three individuals were in a small dark room with a technician and the electron microscope. No one seemed to notice that the microscope they were using was made in Germany. Both Dr. Armwhite, a Brigadier General in the U. S. Army Medical Corps, and Dr. Deutschman, a scientist from the Pentagon, were products of the Cold War era, and their manner and attitude reflected this. General Armwhite was a rather nondescript man of medium height with a kind looking face that hid his ruthlessness. He was more concerned with his own glory rather than the welfare of any soldiers under his command that might be called to battle. He regarded enlisted soldiers as totally expendable scientific subjects to be used to further his own career. He coveted the position of Surgeon General of the Army but he would never be promoted to this rank because he lacked the personality for a leadership position. It came with the three-star rank of a Lieutenant General and all of the privileges and stature accorded to the rank. Few general officers ever even got the chance to be considered for three stars. It would have been the crowning achievement of an already 'distinguished' career of this one star general. Who would have ever thought that a physician/scientist could hold such a rank? However, as a physician he knew that he must feign concern on the surface for his fellow man, especially those who were ill and in need of medical attention. He was a cruel political animal who used medicine as a tool to achieve his ambitions of glory and power. Dr. Deutschman, a civilian member of the Department of Defense, was an arrogant scientist, and his philosophy was embodied in his demeanor. He was a throwback to the fascist attitudes of the World War II era, and one might have confused him with the stereotype 'mad scientist' of Hollywood B-movies. From his slight accent one might also have concluded that Dr. Deutschman was a 'Paperclip' scientist, one of the thousands of Nazi scientists brought over by the U. S. Army and the ass after World War II, but in fact, his family emigrated from Germany to the United States generations ago. Dr. Ming Lon, by far the most intelligent of the trio, was trained in both China and the United States. He was considered a scientific genius in China and one of the best of his scientific generation, but he was not as arrogant as the others. He did, however, have a central flaw that was unfortunately very common among scientists of his generation. He was incapable of resisting illegal or unethical orders from his superiors. It was true in Communist China, and it remained true in the capitalist United States. He was indebted to the U. S. Government for getting him out of China, and he was not about to make the mistake of biting the hand that fed him. Dr. Lon smiled a lot in the company of more senior personnel. It was a trait that he learned in China, and he could not seem to rid himself of this somewhat obvious response. But his superiors actually liked it, because it seemed that he was being subservient. In reality, however, Dr. Lon thought that his superiors were idiots, placed in their positions out of political concerns not because they were of superior intellect.

The glorious day lily has bloomed

Dr. Deutschman was enthusiastically looking at the electron microscope screen in the darkened room. "It's magnificent! Just like the delicate petals of a glorious day lily. So beautiful for such a short time, and then vanishing from its garden. The perfect silent assassin .... Silent and untraceable." His voice had a mocking, sinister quality as if he was eluding justice and getting away with it. General Armwhite said, "No one would ever think a little 'mycoplasma' could be so deadly. They won't be able to get a diagnosis on this one!"

The minute 'bug' or mycoplasma, whose image they were looking at in the electron microscope, was a primitive form of a bacterium. In fact, it was so primitive that it had lost its outer protective shield or cell wall, the thick coating of complex sugars that protects bacteria from the elements and gave bacteria their distinctive shape. The little mycoplasma had also lost some of its genetic information, such as the genes that encode the thick cell wall and other genes that code for certain enzymes in metabolic pathways. Thus it was smaller than the most common bacteria, and without the distinctive cell walls found in most bacteria it could take on a variety of morphologies. It must hide inside animal or human cells to survive, and although originally thought to be fairly fragile, the little mycoplasma was hardier than anyone had ever imagined. Although it was considered primitive by bacteriological standards, it actually evolved from bacteria that contained cell walls, but along the way it lost its ability to make its own cell wall, probably because it no longer needed it when hiding inside hosts' cells and tissues. But it made up for the loss of some of its genetic information by having evolved with other genetic sequences that allowed it to enter and colonize cells just like viruses.

Although the little mycoplasma was first identified as a virus by Dr. Lon, technically it was not a virus because it retained the genetic and biochemical remnants of bacteria. Like a virus, however, it damaged cells by interfering with some of the cells' biochemical cycles, and it encoded some nasty molecules that caused invaded cells to slowly self-destruct and die. It also released metabolic products that damaged important cellular structures. Important targets inside cells were the mitochondria, the little organelles that likely evolved from a primitive symbiotic microorganism millions of years ago and that were often called the 'batteries' of cells because they produced the energy that each cell needed to survive. Other targets of the mycoplasma metabolites were the DNA or genetic machinery found in each cell. Dr. Deutschman said to his colleagues, "This creature will hide inside cells and cause unbelievable havoc. It will destroy the mitochondria, eventually sending cells into an unrelenting death program, and in the process gene expression will go crazy and surrounding cells will become damaged. This bug will then escape from its dying host cell and go to other places to eventually colonize every organ. And because pieces of the cellular membrane are dislodged when this little mycoplasma leaves its cellular hiding places, its victims should also present with an array of autoimmune symptoms similar to those found in various degenerative illnesses. It may even mimic some neurodegenerative diseases. It's beautiful, because it should cause diseases such as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis, but no one will ever guess that they are caused by an infection. Most physicians are so stupid that they will never figure this out, and if they do we'll just sic the CDC on them. What a delightful weapon!"

Dr. Ming Lon had been patiently listening to Dr. Deutschman, who he considered a scientific idiot and egotistical grandstander and General Armwhite, who he considered more intellectually capable but also potentially very dangerous to the human race. He thought to himself that if he were a sane person, he might even consider them arrogant criminals, fully capable of developing and releasing upon humanity biological weapons of mass destruction just to prove a point. In fact, in their zeal to prove the effectiveness of the weapons that they have developed, some very tragic incidents have occurred. Most all of these have been carefully and cleverly covered up, so that the American public knew nothing of these monsters and their creations.

Most of the victims of the Fort Detrick experiments were civilian conscientious objectors, military recruits or prisoners, 'subjects' that these esteemed individuals considered completely expendable. Dr. Deutschman continued his monologue, not even considering that his comments were unnecessary and even boring to the other participants, "I can hardly wait to see the field results. Nobody will ever guess what it is and how it works! They will never find out that it's a mycoplasma. Our little program with the CDC has convinced everyone that mycoplasmas are completely benign and don't even cause disease. As usual, the medical community has played right into our hands. We will just have to agree publicly with the CDC on this and make sure that they don't later change their minds. Mycoplasmas don't cause disease, do they?" He laughed and slapped Dr. Lon on the back.

Dr. Lon, who was still acting subdued, slowly turned and addressed his colleagues. "Yes, I believe that you can control the CDC and even the AMA. But you may not be able to control everyone. And I agree, it's beautiful, and it's dangerous, but can we control it? What effects will it have on its victims if they are exposed to other microorganisms at the same time? What will happen if they are exposed to Chemical Agents and the mycoplasma? The Germans respected this little nower. If this begins to slowly spread in the community. can we really stop it? Have we really thought out all the parameters?" Dr. Deutschman quipped, "We'll just have to field test it to find out .... I can hardly wait!"

Dr. Lon was hesitant. "But there could be numerous permutations and combinations of mutations and even genetic exchange in this particular species. I don't think we have enough knowledge about this to detect it on the battlefield, let alone accurately develop adequate diagnostic procedures if it infects our own soldiers. And what about civilians? What happens if soldiers return and spread this to their families?"

Dr. Richard Armwhite, the egocentric general officer, interrupted Dr. Lon. "Oh, come off it, Dr. Lon. Don't tell me you're going soft on us! Who in the hell cares about its potential mechanisms at the cellular level anyway, and so what if a few people become sick. Besides, it's not as if it's a virus that cannot be treated with antibiotics." Dr. Armwhite continued, "It's not HIV, you know!" Dr. Lon sarcastically answered, "No, It's worse!" He paused again and then continued, "You've got to know that this is probably the true killer in HIV-AIDS! My lab has found this in over sonA) of AIDS patients, and it is especially high in the late stages of the disease. This is what is really killing the HIV-infected people not the H IV virus. The virus may knock down the immune cells, but it can't cause the morbidity and foul up every organ and tissue like this mycoplasma can. And now what we've done is make it impossible to detect! And I would like to know how it got into the AIDS patients?"

General Armwhite looked at Dr. Lon and became highly irritated. "I am warning you, Dr. Lon! Let's not get off on tangents and suppositions! You know damn well that officially it is HIV-l that causes AIDS, and that's how it's going to stay. And don't ask how our little creation got in with the HIV program, and don't go back and remind me of our MKNAOMI and P2 projects! It just got a little out of hand in Africa, you know, and no one cared about those fags in New York, anyway. They will never find out that the H IV-l doesn't cause AIDS without the mycoplama co-infection. Look, there are thousands of scientists working on AIDS, and none of them suspects a thing."

General Armwhite paused and then frowned. "Ming, I am growing impatient with your sudden humanitarian inclinations! Dr. Lon, you know that we can control this mycoplasma with antibiotics." Dr. Lon quietly replied, "I'm not so sure." General Armwhite responded, "It's a beautiful weapon! It's the last thing anybody would expect with the broad spectrum of signs and symptoms that patients could display. You know damn well it is capable of producing a number of very interesting illnesses. It can give us an advantage in terms of long-term military objectives with certain hostile countries. Think of what this might do over the long run in a country like North Korea or Cuba. It could eventually bankrupt their economies if everyone is chronically sick and unproductive. Hell, it wouldn't take that much!"

Dr. Lon shook his head and tried to again get across his point to General Armwhite. "I repeat, sir, how do we prevent this 'flower' from coming back to target our own men .... and eventually their families .... and even ourselves? I do not think it is so controllable. I am not convinced antibiotics will always do the job." General Armwhite stated in an aggressive manner, "Dr. Lon, people like you and me are not ever going to get sick from this little thing. We are different ... We are superior, and we have the inside track."

General Armwhite gazed intently at Dr. Ming Lon, who was dimly illuminated by the fluorescent electron microscope screen. "Dr. Lon, we will not be 'felled' by our own creation!" Dr. Lon responded, "But sir, we may even outsmart ourselves with the chameleon-like characteristics of this thing and its potential to produce so many different symptoms in patients. We may not even be able to tell who has been infected and who is carrying it on to others. And it may change so often that we may not be able to identify or treat it .... and then what?"

Dr. Lon realized that he was not getting his point across. "It may masquerade as so many unusual illnesses and even autoimmune diseases, and only a very good scientist will be able to find it." He waited to make his point again, "I have my doubts that we can control this microorganism if it's ever released." Dr. Deutschman glanced at Dr. Armwhite and turned to Dr. Lon, "Damn it, Ming, enough of your drivel! This has already been decided at the highest levels. It's out of our hands."

In accordance with the attitude of General Arrnwhite, Dr. Deutschman, who was a bit of a political hack, changed to a fatherly manner, "Don't be so noble, Dr. Lon, the earth is already overpopulated, and the elimination of some inferior stock can only help improve the situation on this planet. Look at Asia, Africa ... Are we going to let the entire world go to hell just because we can't control the masses from their expansive ways? Besides, this mycoplasma fits in nicely with the Crystal Spring Harbor Directive, whose long-term objective, need I remind you, is to provide the means to select or create, if you will, a more limited global population of superior individuals. So, only the best of the best need survive. We already have too many inferior people on this planet. They just clutter all of our objectives for the next millennium. They cause an imbalance in the New World Order. Look, you must agree coming from Red China! What a disaster! Look at what could happen if you turned over the planet to a bunch of communist idiots. The whole world would be just like Red China!"

Dr. Ming Lon waited until Dr. Deutschman's passion died down. "But sir, not all people are both physically and mentally strong, and some of the greatest people in history had a variety of handicaps, and they might be the ones who are eliminated." Dr. Armwhite countered, "Who the hell needs them! The world would be a much better place if we could humanely eliminate them." Dr. Lon responded, "I say we do not know enough about this mycoplasma's etiology, its mode of action and the number of different ways that it causes disease. We need to know its mutation capability and its genetic exchange rate. It could change into something that we could not even control. Since it moves slowly through a population, by the time anyone knows something is terribly wrong, everyone will be infected." Dr. Deutschman firmly stated, "You're overreacting again, Dr. Lon! I have no doubt in your ability to manage this infection, and since when have you considered anyone else's welfare since you arrived from Mainland China. Just remember we got you out of that work camp and educated you, so now that you have a good life, you think that you can do what you want and lecture us! I strongly urge you to play ball if you want to maintain your present living standard, or do you want to go back to Red China? Think of your future .... your family's future."

Suddenly it was quiet. The men all looked at each other. Finally, Dr. Deutschman said, "Do you fully comprehend what I am saying Dr. Lon? I want you to continue this vital work, and I do not want any unnecessary delays." Dr. Deutschman then took on an abstracted countenance while Dr. Armwhite appeared agitated but tried to maintain his philosophical manner. After a few moments of silence Dr. Deutschman finally spoke. "There will be plenty of opportunities to test the little 'Day Lily.' Right now we have some preliminary results in Texas that look promising. Remember, we must be prepared to fight a Soviet-type war using conventional and unconventional munitions. In other words, we have to be ready in the event that our soldiers become exposed to Soviet cocktails of CBW agents. Christ, we're not going to let those commies have the advantage. They have been introducing their war doctrine to their Middle Eastern clients for years now. It's about time that we catch up and even take the lead. We have to keep this project, this magnificent creation of yours, Ming, our little secret. As far as the world is concerned," he spoke with a sarcastic tone, "this fragile little flower does not exist. Do you read me?"

Dr. Lon remained quiet, but it was quite clear what the objectives were, and he will have to do what is required to take the little 'flower' into new gardens to see its potential, no matter how many innocents were its victims. After all, it could prove to be interesting, and he might be able to even publish some of the work if he was clever not to reveal the real agenda behind the 'Day Lily.' He will just have to keep the important points secret from his scientific colleagues. This was done all the time by military scientists, so it should not be a problem. He was rarely allowed to publish in China, and the thought of seeing his name in print thrilled him. Thoughts of how to hide the real agenda and truth about the 'Day Lily' mycoplasma while publishing on the more academic points of the microorganism enthralled him. He would control the academic chess game, because he will be the only one that knows all of the facts behind the little mycoplasma. Dr. Lon hesitated and then smiled and nodded his head in approval to the two men. He was weak and would do exactly what they wanted, even though he considered them of inferior intelligence and incapable of important decisions that could affect the future of mankind. One does not have to be evil to do evil, because good men only have to say nothing and do nothing.

Belford College of Medicine, Microbiology Department, Austin, Texas.

Belford College of Medicine was one of the most prestigious medical schools in the United States. Founded as a stand-alone institution in Austin, Texas by a famous heart surgeon, Belford prided itself as a beacon of light in an otherwise rather primitive Texas medical academic environment. In fact, Belford did have many famous or well-known members on its faculty, and it had been extremely successful in obtaining Federal funding for its clinical and basic research programs. It was organized around its associated hospitals, including a large general hospital, a heart center, a surgery center and a children's hospital. Each of these institutions provided faculty members for the Belford College of Medicine, and in turn they gained academic prestige by their association with Belford. Located in downtown Austin, the Belford campus occupied several city blocks along with its associated hospitals. Together they made an impressive team of institutions, both in terms of personnel and facilities. From the outside Belford looked impressive with its tall white buildings, but at the level of an entry faculty member in the basic sciences, it was not quite as impressive as its physical appearance.

It was the late 1980s, and a meeting was taking place between the famous Belford College of Medicine Microbiology Department Chairman, Dr. Virgil Rook and a very junior faculty member, Dr. Marie LeBon, in Dr. Rook's office. The meeting was called by Dr. Rook to discuss Marie's attitude toward basic research and her invitation to the prestigious Meyerhoff Conference in Israel. But in reality the meeting was called to discuss Marie's opinion on biological warfare, a topic that had never come up before Marie was recruited to join the faculty.

Dr. Rook's office was decorated in traditional academic decor. Some of Dr. Rook's cherished objects were tarantulas and snakeheads suspended in globe-like spheres. A mural on the wall depicted Dr. Rook's role in the Belford Influenza Program, and there were pictures of Dr. Rook with then Congressman George H. Bush on the wall as well as various pictures of his trips to third world countries such as Egypt and his work with the Texas Prison System.

Marie knocked firmly on Dr. Rook's door in accordance with her impassioned personality. She was very nervous but masked it well by often taking on an arrogant and somewhat condescending attitude towards her peers. Marie was in her early thirties and had long dark hair. Although she was slim and petite, she stood out in the academic environment because of her good looks and brains. She was graduated from a prestigious biophysics program, and she had been disappointed to find her colleagues so narrowly trained compared to her multidisciplinary background. Her specialty was the study of complex structures in the nucleus of mammalian cells, structures that contain DNA genetic information and protein complexes called nucleoproteins.

Dr. Rook, the fatherly chairman who had seen it all when it came to new, young faculty members welcomed Marie to his office, "Come in, Marie. Have a seat." He pointed to a chair. He then looked directly at her and asked, "Marie, I am going to get straight to the point. I am concerned with your career. I see that you have been sparing with senior faculty in the Department about your unconventional ideas on cell nuclear structure. But before we get into that, I have to ask you an important question. What do you think of Biological Warfare?"

Marie was completely taken aback by the question on Biological Warfare, and her countenance reflected this. She hesitated and then said, "Sir, I consider it completely unethical, and if I may say so, incredibly stupid. We cannot really control biological organisms." Dr. Rook smiled slyly and asked, "Would you ever participate in Biological Warfare research?" Marie shook her head, "Absolutely not!" May 1 respectfully remind you, Dr. Rook, that you are an expert in virology and the study of prokaryotes." Dr. Rook answered with a slight sarcastic undertone that eluded Marie, "1 know I am an expert on viruses and bacteria, so what are you getting at?" Marie replied, "With all due respect, sir, you know very little about eukaryotes, mammalian systems in particular, which happens to be my expertise."

Dr. Rook rubbed his head. He smiled but seemed disappointed, "If you knew of germ warfare research going on somewhere near you would you remain silent?" Marie thought a moment and then emphatically stated, "No .... I don't think I would." Dr. Rook now looked distressed and disappointingly stated, "Well, Marie, you definitely are not a team player. and you are too smart for your own good. Your ideas are not in line with the accepted paradigms. Furthermore, your whole attitude is not politically correct for this environment."

There was silence for a moment. Marie looked puzzled. She had never seen Dr. Rook so mad and frustrated. Dr. Rook continued, "Do you understand what I am saying?" Dr. Rook clearly did not appreciate Marie's comments, and his attitude conveyed an outlook of resentment towards Marie. Marie looked puzzled by Dr. Rook's remarks and behavior, and although she was bright, she was also very naive politically, and she did not accurately fathom Dr. Rook's line of questioning. She had no idea why Dr. Rook was asking her questions about Biological Warfare. Marie had not taken the time to explore all the aspects of her environment, because she like many young faculty members was so tied up in her own world that she had not taken the time to look carefully around her. Everything was not as it seemed, but Marie was too naive to notice.

Marie's entire world was shaken, because the very humanitarian Dr. Rook, the champion of the downtrodden and the savior of the prison health system, had suddenly revealed a different side of his personality. Taken in a different context, every gesture of Dr. Rook, however, now alluded to a more sinister and jaded agenda of purpose, in stark contrast to Marie's young idealism. Marie finally said, "Sir, I know that I am different, but I try very hard to see other peoples positions and attitudes. I don't think that I am politically incorrect, I just have somewhat different approaches to the problems that face us." It had not quite sunk in that Dr. Rook was quizzing her about her moral ideas on Biological Warfare to find out if she could be a team player. In other words, Dr. Rook wanted to find out if Marie could put aside her moral objections and do something she was morally against to save her job.

Marie didn't take the bait, and Dr. Rook looked very disappointed. Unfortunately, the damage had been done, and no matter what Marie said from now on, she would be painted as someone who was not a team player. In her department team effort was very important, and her chairman was adamant about scientists and physicians working together in teams on important problems. Marie was naive about academic politics, and she didn't realize that she had sealed her fate in Dr. Rook's department by not going along with the program.

Dr. Rook looked out the window, "By the way, Marie, do you like people? I perceive that deep-down you are a sentimentalist." Taken aback again by the line of questioning and Dr. Rook's demeanor Marie stated calmly, "Dr. Rook, I decided to become a scientist when I decided that my purpose in life was to help those suffering from disease. I have dedicated myself to this goal through my experiments." Dr. Rook turned directly at Marie and asked, "Where did you get these silly notions, Marie?" Then he hastily added not giving Marie a chance to reply, "Never mind." He switched the subject yet again and stated sarcastically, "No doubt, Marie, a trip overseas should be very exciting for you. But before I forget, you need to have a series of immunizations before your trip, the usual flu shots, gamma-globulin, so on. There's nothing more unpleasant than being sick away from home. To save you the trouble, I have prepared all the shots myself, and you can come by later today to my office. And I want you to prepare a complete summary of the conference. Again, Marie, it's quite an honor for someone at your junior level to be invited to this type of conference, so please don't mess it up. Do you understand?" Marie nodded, but she still did not know why Dr. Rook was being so nice to her. He was a distinguished senior faculty member at Belford, and who was Marie to question his instructions.

Marie meets her match

Marie had her eye on a certain department chairman at the Cancer Center across the street from Belford College of Medicine in Austin. She ran into Professor Jared McNichol at a seminar at the Cancer Center and tried for weeks to make an appointment with him to discuss her scientific ideas. Jared was in his mid-40s, a rather young age for a department chairman at the Medical Center. and Marie was surprised to find out that he was recruited to this position several years earlier. Jared had built his reputation in California at the University of California and was personally recruited by the President of the Cancer Center, the distinguished Dr. Clement Masters, to be the head of a new department that was being formed around Dr. McNichol. The University Cancer Center, also called the D. O. Madison Cancer Center, was located in downtown Austin next to Belford College of Medicine, the State medical school and several large hospitals.

The Cancer Center was founded by an oil baron, Dwight O. Madison, in the 1930s, and it had grown into one of the largest cancer centers in the world under the direction of an esteemed and politically savvy surgeon who reluctantly turned over the helm of the center to Dr. Masters. Jared's specialty was basic research and the cellular structure of normal and cancer cells, but he also had a background in microbiology and cellular biochemistry. His laboratories were located on the 9th floor of the Research Building, which was linked to the main hospital of the cancer center by a footbridge over a small street.

Tall and athletic, Jared was considered a quality catch among the women of the medical center. He was the captain of his volleyball team, and his office was filled with sports trophies, an unusual interest for an academic. Marie, who had been studying Jared from afar, finally made her move. After being put off by Jared's secretary (she was told she would have to wait for 6 months for an appointment to see him), Marie took matters into her own hands and walked right into Jared's office, introduced herself and began a discussion on the role of water molecules in stabilizing the structure of DNA.

Although initially Jared was a bit taken aback by the aggressive nature of this young scientist who just walked into his office, he admired her spunk-and her intellect. Here was a woman who knew what she wanted. Since Marie was one of the best looking young female scientists that Jared had ever seen, it didn't take long to win him over. And win him over she did. In fact, he didn't have a chance against the slim dark-eyed beauty from Belford College of Medicine. Jared was ten years senior to Marie and much further along in his career, which started very quickly in California where he was the youngest full professor in the University of California system. They shared so many common interests that within no time they were spending so much time together that some considered them engaged. However, Jared had been married before, and he wasn't interested in remarrying, at least that's what he thought until he met Marie.

Jared had a nice home in an upscale new development on the outskirts of Austin called Queenswood. It was located in a wooded area with gentle rolling hills, and the lots were quite large. Jared had the house built on the lot even before he moved to Austin, and he didn't spare any expense in its construction. After all, he had made a killing on his home in California, and he needed to dump his profits into another home or be taxed on the profits. The house had an obvious California look to it, modern with many large windows facing the woods to the rear of the house. The lot ran steeply downhill to a greenbelt where a jogging trail was located; however, you couldn't see the trail from the house through the trees and bushes. It took Marie only a few months to convince Jared that she should move in ("to take care of his two black Singapore cats when he was out of town"). So move in she did, and they began to enjoy long many hours in front of the large fireplace during the cold nights of the Austin winter. Marie was especially taken in by Yin and Yang, and Jared's two oriental cats almost immediately fell in love with Marie.

Marie contracts an unusual illness

Marie attended her meeting in Israel and returned to find an invitation to move into Jared's Queenswood home. It was exciting for Marie to finally move out of her small apartment in the medical center area and move into a large house in the suburbs. It was a happy time for both of them and for the two black cats, and all was well for Jared and Marie for several months. In fact, they were so completely compatible with each other and in love that the last thing they expected were health problems. However, Marie was hit hard with an unusual illness that eventually required her to take medical leave from Belford. Actually her department chairman forced her to take long-term leave when none of the Belford staff could identify or diagnose her illness. At the time Marie was having a very difficult time maintaining her research efforts, and she was often at home too sick to come to work.

Marie's department had a well-known research faculty that conducted clinical and basic research on various medical problems, including immune deficiencies and infectious diseases. It specialized in conducting medical trials in the state prison system, and her department chairman, Dr. Virgil Rook, was widely known for his work on prison health problems. Marie thought at the time that Dr. Rook was a marvelous humanitarian. He seemed so fatherly to the faculty that Marie once thought that she would have liked Dr. Rook as a real father.

Marie did not work in the area of infectious diseases that consumed most of her colleagues in the Microbiology Department, and she stood out in her department because of her background and research interests in molecular biology. Although both Jared and Marie were Ph.D.s from wellknown universities, they were not specialists in infectious diseases or internal medicine, although Jared taught in the internal medicine 'block' in the State medical school in Austin. Jared was recruited to Texas to start a new department at the D. O. Madison Cancer Center specializing in molecular and cellular biology, and Jared's own research interests were in the spread of cancer or metastasis.

One evening Jared was working quite late in his office at the D. O. Madison, and upon finally arriving home he found Marie in very poor condition. Unfortunately, her health had declined to the point where she was practically bedridden all of the time. On this night she pleaded with Jared not to take her to the emergency room at a local hospital. Jared finally relented but made Marie agree to seek the help of her old friend and father figure, Dr. Rook. So the next morning Marie called Dr. Rook to make an appointment to discuss her health problems. Marie had always looked up to Dr. Rook as an expert clinician who knew a tremendous amount about unusual diseases, and she certainly had an unusual disease.

When Marie was finally able to speak to Dr. Rook on the phone, he was not the sympathetic father figure that she had known and once worked with at Belford. He seemed disinterested in discussing her clinical problems and was aloof and distant. In fact, Dr. Rook told her that he would be canceling her contract to come back to Belford, even if she recovered from her illness. When Marie discussed the conversation with Jared, he did not understand the change in Dr. Rook's attitude toward Marie.

Dr. Rook seemed like such a marvelous person, and he was always very interested in the welfare of his patients and faculty members. However, in Marie's case, he seemed to have turned into a hard stone, and he now considered her nothing but dead weight in his department. Dr. Rook appeared to be cutting his losses, and he considered Marie a lost cause. He obviously wanted to recruit someone else to her position, and therefore he wanted Marie out of his department as soon as possible.

Marie was devastated by Dr. Rook's decision. He never told her directly that he wanted her gone, but it was obvious by the way he and the other faculty members treated her when she dared wander out of her laboratory. They never talked to her about their own research, but they always asked probing questions about her research. At first Marie was flattered that they took such an interest in her research, but eventually she felt that they were just questioning her to find out what she was doing and what she knew about the other projects in the department. Marie could tell that these casual conversations were not friendly; the faculty was following the lead of Dr. Rook in easing Marie out of the department, but they wanted to know exactly what she knew about the research conducted in the department.

Marie has a near death experience

Marie's health had been steadily deteriorating during the year that she moved to Queenswood. The most obvious symptom was severe fatigue, but this had now progressed to other signs and symptoms as well. At this point she was beginning to lose the mobility of her left arm and leg, and this deeply concerned Jared. It started out looking like rheumatoid arthritis, with painful joints and loss of joint mobility, but her illness had progressed to atrophy and actual paralysis or semi-paralysis of the left side of her body. Marie was bedridden and had severe headaches and short-term memory loss, problems that she never had before her illness. She had skin rashes, and she was losing her hair. She had kidney and urinary problems and suffered from bouts of diarrhea. Her eyes were deteriorating and she could barely read without assistance. Her sensitivity to light was extraordinary, and it was almost painful for her to be in direct sunlight. She woke up at night in pools of perspiration; sometimes she was very hot and sometimes chilled, suggesting that she had a low-grade fever. Her stomach was constantly on fire, and she vomited often.

During her illness Marie changed from a cheerful, bouncy person to one who was withdrawn, constantly depressed and always irritable. No one had been able to tell Marie or Jared what was wrong with her, even though the medical facilities in Austin were among the most prestigious in the world and had been at the cutting edge of medicine for the last several decades. The physicians at the medical center that Marie consulted did not have a clue as to what was wrong with her. Jared believed that Marie was suffering from some kind of infection, but they could not identify any infection in the numerous blood tests that Marie had taken at Belford. At this point, the clinical lab at Belford was refusing to do any more tests for Marie, unless Jared paid in advance for the tests.

One evening as Jared entered their bedroom where Marie spent most of her time, he found her clutching her little stuffed elephant from her childhood named 'Lucky Lucius.' Marie hardly ever gave Lucky Lucius a second thought, until she got sick. ow she couldn't be without her little elephant. Marie told Jared in a very weak voice, 'jared, the penicillin makes me even more sick. Each day I seem to get weaker, and now I'm having trouble moving my left leg and left arm. It's as if they are held down with hundred pound weights .... and every time J move them the pain is unbearable. I have so many problems with my eyes that I am afraid I'm losing my sight. I'm scared! I know that I won't ever get well! Am I dying? Do you think I am going to die?"

Jared wanted to tell Marie that something was very, very wrong, but he also did not want to scare her. So he tried to reassure that her illness would eventually pass. When she told him that she was dying, he would say, "That's nonsense!" But he would also admit to her that her treatment must take a new direction, "I'm convinced that we have not gone the right way with your treatment, Marie. We have to think of something else." He tried to look at the slight woman wasting away in his bed in a detached manner, but he found that he could not be detached when it came to Marie. She was not the young vibrant young lady that he first met in his office over a year ago. Her haggard look, matted hair and pale color seemed like death warmed over. Not one to shrink from what he knew was right, he looked at Marie and smiled, "Marie, I believe that you have an infection, but it's something that no one has ever seen around here, or at least they can't think of an explanation. Look at you! You must have more than twenty different signs and symptoms. You've lost over 40 pounds. I don't know what kind of bug can on one hand cause your memory loss, headaches, depression and other neurological problems and on the other hand cause fatigue, eye problems, skin rashes, diarrhea, stomach aches, hair loss and all kinds of other crazy problems. Whatever it is-it attacks everywhere but you can't find it."

Jared thought to himself about Marie's long-term prognosis, but he did not verbalize his thoughts to Marie. He thought that there must have been something that he missed, something critical to finding what was wrong with her. Finally he told her, "Now it looks like you may have some type of meningitis. You would think that what ever it is, we could find something in your blood tests." Marie replied in an anguished voice, "It hurts so much to move and even eat! .... I saw myself in the mirror, and I look like a skeleton! .... It hurts to move, and I can't stay on my left side. It's too painful, like someone took a hammer to my body, especially my back and my left arm .... I am in so much pain! .... Why can't you find out what's wrong with me?"

Jared would stand at the door to their bedroom and stare at Marie for some time without speaking. He usually waited until Marie noticed that he was there, if she noticed anything at all. When Marie was aware of his presence, he would finally speak to her. "O.K. Marie, I'm worried; your weight is down to about 70 pounds, and it looks like you've lost about 40% of your body weight during the last year." Marie stared back at Jared for what seemed to be almost a minute but was really just a few seconds and said, 'Jared, we went over the list of antibiotics, and you agreed that I have some sort of infection. You've been studying this. You say doxycycline crosses the blood-brain barrier, and the penicillin made it worse .... " Marie's voice trailed off.

Jared was trying to cheer Marie up, but his comments probably made the situation worse. "I asked Rook, but he was completely noncommittal. It's as if he doesn't want to know about your illness. I think he has written you off, and he doesn't think that you'll ever return to your position." Jared then tried to be more cheerful and upbeat. He didn't want to scare Marie. "We can try to get you the doxycycline, but 1 don't understand it. All your blood tesls are within normal range, but you obviously have some sort of infection that we can't find with the usual tests. An infection responsive to dox should show up in your lab tests." Marie slowly said. "Look, Jared a measurement is only as good as its sensitivity. 1 tell you, I have been infected with something." Jared realized that Marie had some fight left in her. "O.K., I'll get Rook to give you the dox. After all, most medicine is based on empirical approaches, at least initially. Your chairman has been a pain in the ass, but 1 think that he finally believes that you are really sick. 1 just don't understand how it could be meningitis and not be detectable. Anyway, when 1 last spoke to him he agreed to do what we want. He just wants this problem to go away." Marie said, "Stop being the professor, Jared ... He just wants me to disappear ... but I love you anyway."

Jared was relieved that Marie had not lost her sense of humor, but he was very concerned that he might come home one day to find Marie dead in his bedroom with his cats on each side of her protecting her body. A feeling of helplessness had come over him, and he had never felt this way before. He promised Marie that he would not abandon her-this seemed to be her most dreaded fear, even more than dying a slow, painful death.

The worst day in Marie's life came in a sea of pain, dizziness and nausea. By mid-morning she was too weak to call Jared at work, so she just lay in bed moaning and longing for relief that can only come with death. Marie clutched her little stuffed elephant to her side and slowly drifted off. Her dreams become as vivid as life, and she dreamed of dying and floating up from the bed-free of pain and nausea at last. She could even look down and actually see herself lying completely still in the bed, with Yin and Yang sleeping at her feet. She seemed to be able to see all around her in any direction at the same time, even behind her. It's as if she had panoramic vision. Then a bright light beckoned her to come, and she heard voices telling her that she would be all right. She couldn't recognize the voices, but they were very peaceful voices. But then she heard what appeared to be her dead grandmother who was also calling on to her to keep fighting. Off in the distance Marie could barely see her grandmother, and she motioned for Marie to go back. Marie tried to go to what she thought was her grandmother, but the lady still waved Marie back. The other voices told her that she will be all right but she must go back and help others who might have the same illness.

Marie did not want to go back to the pain and to the ridicule that had been heaped on her by her colleagues. She just wanted to go peacefully, floating off towards the bright light. It was so beautiful. But just as she began her journey, she was physically jolted, and the pain and nausea returned. She couldn't seem to continue on her journey to the light. What was happening to her! It was Jared! She could barely see him, as if he was off in the distance not standing over her. She closed her eyes again.

Marie was mad at Jared for waking her up from the first peaceful sleep that she had in months. Jared was still shaking Marie and saying, "Wake up Marie! Wake up! Don't you go South on me, Marie! Keep fighting baby! You're going to make it." Jared shook her again, and Marie slowly opened her eyes and stared at him for a moment. Finally she said, "What in the hell are you doing? Why did you wake me up?" Jared said, "I thought for a moment that I had lost you!" Marie responded, "Are you crazy? What are you doing?" Jared smiled and said, "Marie, please don't scare me like that again!"
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Re: Project Day Lily: An American Biological Warfare Tragedy

Postby admin » Mon Oct 23, 2017 9:02 am

Part 2 of 2

The slow road to recovery

The year was 1987, and Marie had made a long and painful journey back from a near fatal illness. The choice of doxycycline treatment at a critical point in her illness probably saved her life. She slowly got better with each treatment, but getting Dr. Rook to provide the necessary antibiotics had become a nightmare in itself. Jared had also made some changes in her diet, and he had been giving her some supplements to boost her immune system. Marie was tough; she was a fighter. She and Jared had fought the undiagnosed disease that wrecked her health, and they were finally winning the battle but at a difficult price.

Marie ultimately lost her faculty position at Belford College of Medicine, and she did not know what to do about it. It happened one morning when she received a form letter from Dr. Rook. She tore up the letter without even reading it completely. She was angry at Dr. Rook for not doing more to help her during her hour of need.

Marie had been trying to put her anger aside and find a new course in her life. Her colleagues at Belford were completely unsympathetic about her illness, as if she was making up her case of meningitis! Even her department chairman, the famous Professor Virgil Rook, was unkind to her when she became sick and even suggested that she needed psychiatric help. He always seemed more interested in his own experiments and clinical trials in the prison system than anything that she was doing in the lab.

Marie tried to be a 'team player' and help Dr. Rook solve a particularly difficult problem that they were working on with some unknown illness in the State prison system. The prisoners were coming down with an unusual infection during one of his clinical trials. Even though Marie tried to help Rook, for the most part he avoided her. In fact, almost everyone was hostile towards her at Belford. Eventually Marie received an offer to go to MIT, butshe wanted to stay in Austin with Jared and his two black Singapore cats. A decision must be made if she wanted to continue in an academic career. After long and passionate discussions with Jared, Marie decided to put off any major decisions about her career. Jared had tried to cheer her up whenever he could, but Marie slowly slipped into a state of depression. As an afterthought she finally agreed to go with Jared on a road trip to Utah. He had been pushing her to go outside more and exercise, even if it hurt.

The trip to Bryce Canyon National Park

Marie and Jared decided to take a brief vacation away from the unfriendly lexas atmosphere. They new to Las Vegas, rented a car and drove to Bryce Canyon, Utah for a brief holiday. Jared felt that the vigorous outdoor hiking would help rehabilitate Marie, who had been suffering from a mysterious infection that started slowly but eventually became a full-blown case of meningitis. Marie had been partially paralyzed and in severe pain, but she had made a slow but remarkable recovery. She had begun to gain back some of the weight that she had lost during her illness, and her energy was returning. She could even take semi-vigorous walks on the paths in their hillside community of Queenswood. But this was her first real attempt at being normal again.

Jared finally convinced Marie that Bryce Canyon National Park was the perfect place for her to get out and around in a beautiful environment. It was an extraordinary place, and Jared and Marie marveled at the beauty of the red cliffs, and the canyons containing hundreds of slender, eroded red pillars now capped with a slight dusting of snow. It is as if the formations had been poured one by one from a huge sand pail like making sand castles at the beach. Jared stopped the car near the rim of the canyon so they could get out and marvel at the panoramic view before them. After a brief look, Jared ran to a lookout at the edge of the canyon. The canyon looked absolutely spectacular because a snowstorm had just blown through the night before, and the top of the canyon and the pillars in the canyon had been dusted with fresh snow in some places. The contrast between the white snow and the deep red formations made for a spectacular photograph. It was here that Jared decided to challenge Marie the following morning to hike down to the canyon floor and back to the rim.

Jared had found a motel where they could stay quite close to the Park. They were tired from the trip and quickly fell asleep in their cozy hotel room. In fact, they slept until the next morning. After a large breakfast, they returned to the canyon rim and prepared to hike down into Bryce Canyon. The trip down was fairly easy for Marie, and she enjoyed the sights and sounds of screeching hawks overhead soaring in a brilliant blue sky. Once in the canyon, Marie and Jared felt like they were on a different planet. The red walls of the canyon and the occasional pine tree set between the large red pillars were fantastic.

Marie's long illness had made her weaker than they both thought, and the hike back out of the canyon was very long and painful for Marie. Since Marie had no one to complain to but Jared, he became the brunt of her pain and the impatience at her slowly recovering health. Jared continued to take verbal abuse from Marie for some time as they slowly made their way up the canyon, but then he decided to go up ahead and 'blaze the trail' to the canyon rim. He had received enough abuse from Marie and was going to force her to exercise her body and metabolize the 'toxins' that had weakened her for so long. After nearly reaching the top of the trail, Jared turned and waited for Marie to catch up. She slowly continued her painful ascent with occasional supporting calls from Jared to keep her going. Marie was becoming mad at Jared for forcing her to keep climbing without much rest.

Marie continued climbing the path, and when she finally reached the summit, Jared urged her to smile. She trudged up to Jared and grabbed on to him, collapsing in his arms. He picked her up, swung her around and urged her to smile, "Smile, Marie!" Jared laughed, pulled out his camera and snapped a picture of Marie who was flushed but looking like she was finally on the road to health. Her demeanor reflected someone who was in a pique. Jared teased her with a great deal of joy and jubilation. "You did it, Marie!" Marie sarcastically answered, "So? Give me the camera!" Jared said impatiently, "No' Marie, I know rehabilitation is painful, but you're getting better all the time!" Marie replied in a voice that was a cross between weariness and sarcasm, "It's only been two years of exercise and rehabilitation! Not to mention the thirteen months of constant nausea." They looked at each other smiling and at the beautiful view for what seemed to be almost a minute. Jared was proud of Marie. "You made it Babe! You must be better." Marie then said sarcastically, "So-o-o!" She paused and with a sarcastic expression said, "Let's hear it for me!" Jared ignored Marie's sarcasm. "Marie, you're courageous, and you're not a quitter! I'm proud of you! Remember you came pretty close to checking out on me. You were so weak and wasted that I thought you would blow away. And now, just look at you! You're almost recovered, and you can now pick up your career where you left off." At that time they had absolutely no idea how difficult it would be to continue life as it was before Marie's illness.

Jared and Marie sat down and enjoyed the view from the canyon's edge. After scanning the canyon from the bottom to the horizon, Jared turned and finally said, "Isn't it more fun to rehabilitate in such a spectacular setting?" Marie still a bit impatient replied, "O.K. You're right. I know you're right." Jared and Marie held hands and took a long final look at the beautiful scene. They then began walking slowly back to the car. During their walk, they had one last look at the spectacular scenery. Marie then said, 'Jared this is beautiful, but my career .... I doubt I will ever be successful." She sighed and Jared waited for a moment to answer her. "Stop being so negative!" Marie responded, "I know, I know! But with the likes of Geldter and Krappner going around the scientific community constantly character assassinating me, discrediting my work and saying how I faked my illness. I don't know if I can ever get back to where I was."

Drs. Isaac Geldter and Amy Krappner were senior science faculty members and department chairmen at the D. O. Madison Cancer Center that had crossed swords with Jared and Marie. Geldter and Krappner believed that they were true geniuses deserving of many, in fact, all of the awards and accolades that anyone could possibly receive. In reality they were very average to above average scientists with extra huge egos, some would say egos typical of the Great State of Texas. Although Amy was born and raised in Wyoming, Isaac claimed to be from Israel, but he was really born and raised in Morocco. They both received their academic training in the Mid-West at Southern Illinois and Kansas State, respectively, but they liked to be known as from the 'East Coast.' To make themselves seem more important they always pulled down all those around them, even their closest colleagues, but never to their faces, and they constantly reminded their co-workers of their own importance in the grand scheme of things. They were not particularly well-liked by most of the Madison faculty, but they were completely convinced the opposite was true, and they spent a tremendous amount of time and energy entertaining their colleagues with jokes and stories. Thus they were the life of the party, especially at scientific conferences.

Drs. Geldter and Krappner made sure that they were always at the very center of every important meeting or event, and they always went out of their way and did anything possible to win important and powerful friends. This required quite a bit of energy and expenditure of time, but they prided themselves on their important allies and contacts. In reality, they spent about 50% of their waking hours schmoozing one person or another, for it was a fast moving world, and they must be on the professional radar screen at any cost. If it can't be done on merit, so be it, because Isaac Geldter and Amy Krappner were the world's experts at hyping themselves. In reality, if they didn't maintain the hype, they would probably have fallen quickly by the wayside and melted into the crowd, and this would have been catastrophic to their egos.

Marie was angry at Geldter and Krappner for befriending her and then turning vicious behind her back, but she had no way of knowing that this was their usual behavior. Marie, a quick study, realized early on that Isaac and Amy were at best untrue friends. She once said to Jared, "They are without a doubt the biggest phonies that I have ever met. Not to mention that they are continually telling anyone who will listen that I faked my data-which is quite difficult if not impossible to do in my line of research. It makes it particularly hard to make any sort of start in my career. It's so unfair! I do not know what they have against me. I don't even know them that well! And they don't know anything about me personally or my research. They're not even in my field, and quite frankly, they are so poorly trained in the hard sciences that it's impossible for them to even fathom my research! Yet they are so politically powerful!" Jared finally continued the discussion. "If it makes you feel any better, they did exactly the same thing to me and anyone else around them that they consider a threat, and in my case, they've been doing it for years." He then turned around and pretended to raise his shirt to show the wounds in his back. Marie answered, "That's easy for you to say, since you were already internationally known and respected before you came to Texas. Jared, you know that the majority of scientists are not going to touch the slightest controversy, especially in these times! They have attacked me at such a vulnerable point in my career! And they are not the only ones attacking me. I tell you I am fighting some unknown but powerful force, and I think whatever force it is would like to destroy more than just my career." Jared patiently waited to reply to Marie. "Now Marie, don't get paranoid on me! And quit feeling sorry for yourself! Remember, other researchers are also being attacked by these two miserable people. They must be incredibly insecure of their own science if they have to get ahead by attacking everyone else. But it has happened to me before and to a lot of others. You'll just have to live with it and go on. That's just the way they operate."

After a few minutes Jared became a bit reflective and said to Marie, "When Fuller and I first presented the Fluid Mosaic Membrane model, we were initially eaten alive. I remember one meeting in particular .... "Jared's voice trailed off when he noticed that Marie had tuned him out. He tried again more forcibly. "You have to know, Marie, that new ideas threaten mediocre scientists like Geldter and Krappner, and your Nucleoprotein Gene Tracking technique is one hell of a lot better than anything they have ever come up with, so you have to expect that it will be met with resistance and even scorn by the mediocre people in the scientific community. So don't expect any praise from your fellow scientists for anything novel! I can tell you that from first-hand experience-it's not going to happen!"

After a few moments Marie continued in a resigned tone, "You're right, I know .... I know! But Jared, it seems to me that there is more to this character assassination than just the science! Remember how vicious the faculty was to me. My God! They even organized their students to throw spitballs at me during my seminar right before I became ill. And their colleagues interrupted me at every other sentence! I would like to know why they harbor such hatred without even knowing me! I never did anything to these people. I realize I was a bit arrogant after I got my degree, and perhaps I was a bit too blunt in my criticism of their research, but you said lots of beginning scientists go through a phase like that! I tried to apologize for any offense these people may have construed from my behavior or comments. But it was to no avail! And besides, their science is shallow. It lacks any deep molecular approach and fails to explore any mechanisms. I am beginning to think that being trained in physics is more of a detriment than a boost to my career. It seems that all that counts these days is political "savoir faire" to succeed ... with the exception of you, of course! But I don't care what you say, I still hate the D. O. Madison Cancer Center. I tell you, it's an evil place! You can cut the evil with a knife when you walk in the lobby! What's more, I tell you they are hiding something sinister!"

Jared tried to calm Marie down. It was obvious that she was becoming negative again. "You are in one of your negative thought loops again! I know you hate the place, but I don't think it's the entire Cancer Center that you hate, it's probably just the administration and a few of the faculty. Be reasonable, Marie. There are lots of very decent scientists and clinicians, even at the D. O. Madison. And this evil you speak about ... the notion that the D. O. Madison administration is hiding something." Jared paused for a moment and thought about what Marie had said. "You know, I feel that you are probably right from the rumors that I hear about Geldter and Krappner and their experiments with Belford in the prison system ... But one day I would really like to see some proof, some documents or something." Marie replied sarcastically, "By the time you have identified the enemy it will be too late. You will never get the absolute proof that you require. They're not going to sky write their underhanded and unethical dealings for all the world to see." Jared didn't ignore what Marie had been saying, but he had to be practical about it. "The institution has its problems but it has not failed me yet." Marie snapped back. '1ust wait! I tell you, one day we will understand the irrational behavior and attitude of the administration." Jared became somewhat impatient with Marie. "O.K.! O.K.! You are like a moray eel when you get on the subject of the D. O. Madison. You get stuck on a subject and just won't quit! Let's think of something positive like the upcoming meetings in Europe and Honolulu!" After a moment, Jared smiled. "You are definitely well enough to go."

Marie's attitude quickly changed and her face brightened at the prospect of going to Hawaii with Jared. "You think so?" Jared said, "Definitely! How would you like to get married in Hawaii? Jared used to live in Hawai'i, and he knew the correct pronunciation) And we can take a honeymoon after the Cancer Research Meetings!" Marie began to light up, and she beamed. "Really?" Jared replied, "Really!" Marie began squealing. "Oh, Jared! Yes!" Marie then jumped into his arms, and they kissed and laughed. Jared then began to swing Marie around and around. Marie was quick to compliment Jared. "What a wonderful proposal!" In a minute or so Marie finally calmed down. "Do you think 1 should present a paper on my Nucleoprotein Gene Tracking at the meeting in Cambridge?" Jared replied, "Why not? Remember, in the end it will be your research and publications that count. The rest is really just window dressing." Marie enthusiastically, "You know what?" Jared smiled and looked directly at Marie, "What?" Marie replied, "I think I will look up Professor Clever while we are in Cambridge. After all, he is the senior statesman in my field." Jared then became more serious. "Good idea!" Marie then said, "Perhaps 1 can get his feedback on the Nucleoprotein Gene Tracking technique. And maybe 1 can find out if he is purposefully blocking the publication of some of my manuscripts." Jared laughed, "Now you're talking! Prove your critics wrong!" Jared continued impishly, "What about Hawai'i? Are we going to stir up some more scientific controversy?" Marie playfully teased and flirted with Jared, "I think not! In Hawaii 1 will be your wife, not a scientist! But in England ... " Marie, still playful, began a parody of how she perceived a British dry-witted and stuffed-shirt academician. "I will take full advantage of my oh-so-proper East Coast training and be the hard-nosed scientist!" Jared stated, "You're incorrigible!" They both started laughing and enjoyed their brief digression before returning to a more serious atmosphere.

Jared was finally jolted back to the present, and he began to take on a more serious expression. "You know, Marie, we are still being followed by that odd French-speaking couple. Look! Over there!" Marie looked intently and spotted the couple. He had on a typical French Beret, and the woman had a European look about her. "They're talking in French again but I can't make it out." Both Jared and Marie barely heard the woman say, "Cette place! Elle est tres belle!" Marie turned to Jared, "Now, look who's being paranoid! So they're French. Big deal!" Jared was still suspicious, "I tell you they were following us yesterday." Marie, who often complained of being followed, said, "So they are using the same itinerary as us! It's not uncommon, you know." Jared remained suspicious, "I tell you, I have seen this couple before. Only I cannot place it." Marie then became slightly irritated. "So, you finally agree that my sense of being followed might have some basis to it?"Jared replied, "O.K., you win. But I would like to know why?" Marie responded, "I wonder if it's because I studied with top physicists who were on the Manhattan Project. I had to sign papers after I received my degree that stated that I would not take my special talents to a hostile government. There always seemed to be intrigue hovering in the background at the Institute where I did my Ph.D." Jared laughed, "No way! Don't be so naive! It has to be something else!" Marie thought about Jared's comment. "But what!" Marie paused thoughtfully, "I told you I felt there was something odd associated with me, but I don't know what!" Jared continued, "I swear you are like a little mushroom hiding in a cave. One day we will get to the bottom of all this! I promise you that!" Marie was now able to take on Jared's normal role. "Now, you lighten up! Let's think only good thoughts, like about where we are going on our honeymoon!" Marie's expression had taken on a decidedly seductive and flirtatious tone. They laughed again after the brief interlude regarding the French couple that had interrupted their conversation. Jared finally succumbed to Marie's way of thinking. "You're right. It's probably nothing."

The Conference at the Diamond Head Hotel

Approximately one month later the time came for Marie and Jared to attend an international joint meeting between the Japanese and American Cancer Associations. They also decided at the same time to get married in Honolulu. They were both excited about the trip, Jared to be returning to a former home and Marie on her first visit. The l1ight over to Hawai'i was routine and uneventful. After stopping briel1y in Los Angeles, they had a completely calm and routine l1ight across the Pacific to the Hawaiian Islands. Landing at Honolulu, they immediately took in the sweet smells of exotic plants and flowers in the airport Japanese garden. After retrieving their luggage, Jared literally pulled Marie off to the airport pick-up where they caught a ride to a car rental lot. Since Jared used to live in Kaimuki on Oahu, he always rented a car so that he would be able to take Marie to some of the places that the tourists never see on Oahu. Taking the H-l into Honolulu and finally turning off onto Kapiolani Boulevard and then right onto Kalakaua to Waikiki, they made their way to the Diamond Head Hotel. Although the hotel was aging a bit and was now surrounded by more modern and taller hotels on the beach at Waikiki, Marie thought it was wonderful. She always wanted to visit Hawaii, and now she was there with the man that she loved. Life could not have been better for Marie. Jared and Marie finally checked into their room after a mix-up in their reservations. It turned out to be a nice airy room with a spectacular view of the Pacific and its dark blue waves breaking on the coral reef several hundred meters off shore. They were tired from the trip and decided to take a nap with the large sliding doors completely open to let in a warm Pacific breeze. They only woke for a lovely evening meal on the lanai.

The next morning was a big day for Jared and Marie. They had an appointment at the Honolulu Courthouse. The county courthouse in Honolulu was a bit unusual for a courthouse with its Polynesian flavor and gardens. It even had a special room for civil marriages, and Jared and Marie arrived dressed in more formal attire than the other couples waiting their turn to be married. Most of the couples were not locals, but visitors like Jared and Marie. Marie stood out in the crowd wearing a beautiful, long blue Hawaiian dress with red and white printed l1owers. Jared chose a more conservative light cream suit, but under the jacket he was wearing a green and dark blue Hawaiian shirt. Friends in Honolulu made sure that they were both covered with maile and other flower leis. The traditional Hawa'ian wedding leis have a delightfully sweet odor. In the old days only the alii or royalty were allowed to wear maile. Jared's best man for the ceremony was Professor Toshi Yakamori, an old friend and colleague at the University of Hawaii at Monoa. Dr. Yakamori and his tiny wife Yuriko stood with Jared and Marie before the judge, and after the ceremony took them for a special Japanese lunch at a lovely little restaurant that sat on pilings elevated over a Japanese garden and large pool with a small waterfall. It was a wonderful time that Marie and Jared would never forget.

Later on the same day of their civil marriage the McNichols decided to attend the opening reception of the conference at the hotel. The reception was on the lawn in front of the hotel facing the beach and the ocean. As the newlyweds arrived, it was just sundown and a local group was playing Hawaiian slack-key at the side of the festivities. Flame torches outlined the view of the famous Diamond Head volcano. As the other participants arrived and found out that a marriage had taken place earlier that day, the McNichols were congratulated, especially by the Japanese scientists attending the meeting. The newly married McNichols were still wearing the traditional Hawaiian wedding leis around their necks, and they were still wearing Hawaiian shirts and dresses. Marie looked beautiful with her long, dark hair and a tightly fitting red and white flower Hawaiian dress. Jared didn't believe in the usual his-and-hers shirts and dresses, so he wore a different looking dark blue-purple Hawaiian flower shirt and white pants and shoes. He still had around his neck the traditional Hawaiian maile leis. The leaves still smelled quite exotic, and to the Japanese who had never seen or smelled maile, it was an unusual sight.

Dr. Issac Geldter and his wife Dr. Amy Krappner were also attending the conference in Honolulu. Since they must always be the center of attention, they were irritated when they found out that Jared had just married Marie, and they were now the center of attention, especially among the Japanese scientists. Isaac and Amy decided to purposely come up to the newlyweds, smiling to seemingly congratulate them and wish them well. Since Isaac and Amy were fairly non-descript and an unlikely looking couple, they always arrived to any gathering in an overly arrogant and loud manner to generate attention. This evening they marched into the reception with their heads held very high-smiling, laughing and talking loudly to everyone they encountered. Dr. Geldter appeared to the McNichols as a slightly pudgy-looking individual of medium height with a fish-like face under a slightly balding big head with dyed black hair. He had a slight Middle Eastern accent. He was domineering, but charming, and he possessed a degree of charisma typical of the New York Borscht-belt comedians. On this occasion he was not wearing anything Hawaiian, and instead he had on his usual dark blue blazer and conservative tie. His wife, Dr. Krappner, was also of medium height with short-cropped dirty blond hair, a rather small head for her frame and beady, dull blue eyes. She always wore rather large glasses for the small size of her face. She was overweight and looked completely ridiculous and out of place in her Hawaiian missionary dress and high heel shoes. The couple always seemed to possess an air of arrogance that they lorded over the rest of the conferees at any meeting that they attended. Amy was the sort of person who wanted to emulate fine taste but always fell short.

The McNichols were engaged in small talk about Hawaii with two Japanese scientists, Drs. Sugima and Kazuchi, when Isaac and Amy approached them. From the 'false' expressions on Drs. Geldter's and Krappner's faces, it was immediately apparent that they were not pleased to see the McNichols married and at the center of attention, and in fact, they were not pleased to see them at all. But they decided to come right up to the newlyweds, so they could put on their false act of sincerity. The two Japanese scientists were at the time in light conversation with the McNichols and were very subdued, respectful, and polite. They were also not dressed in Hawaiian clothes but had on their usual dark suits and conservative ties. Jared at well over 6 feet tall towered over the crowd of mostly Japanese.

Dr. Krappner was the first to speak, and the tone of her voice had a saccharin lilt to it. The demeanor of Dr. Krappner was usually completely false; her smile never reached her eyes when she said, "Isaac and I want to be the first to offer our congratulations on your belated marriage." She then laughed and hesitated a moment before saying, "You must think that this is so romantic!" She let loose with another falsetto-like laugh that was so typical of her personality when she was being insincere. Dr. Geldter chimed in with a big smile and put his hand out to Jared. "Mazel tov!"

Dr. Geldter always tried to be very personable ... to your face. But in fact, he was probably the most vicious academic in Austin. The problem was that only his close associates knew this. He was very, very good at hiding his true feelings about others, and he always took the time to convince his peers that he was such a wonderful, intelligent person. Isaac Geldter was not known for his scientific brilliance but he made up for it by his political savvy and viciousness. Now that the issue of the marriage had come up, Dr. Sugima and Dr. Kazuki were reminded that Jared and Marie had just been married, and they both decided to give a bow of honor to the newly married McNichols, who then returned it. Dr. Sugima asked Jared, "Will you be coming to the Sapporo meetings next spring? Both myself and Dr. Kazuki are anxious to hear from both of you." Dr. Krappner and Dr. Geldter exchanged glances to convey a message to each other that they were not pleased to hear this. They always considered that they were the scientists to be asked first to any meetings in their fields, not people like Jared and Marie whom they considered inferior, even though Jared had more publications than Isaac and Amy combined and served on more editorial boards of academic journals. Isaac, a few years older than Jared, had always considered Jared less important than himself.

It was obvious to everyone that Isaac Geldner and Amy Krappner considered themselves to be the most famous scientists at the conference, and they did not like to hear someone else receive any kudos that they felt should be given to themselves, especially someone who was a faculty member at their own institution. Jared said to the Japanese scientists, "We intend to come to Sapporo and are very honored that you have asked us to present our studies. But a lot will depend upon how Marie feels. You know we are lucky to have Marie with us at all. She had some sort of exotic infection that at one point ravaged her to such an extent that she weighed only 70 pounds and was paralyzed on one side of her body." Dr. Sugima asked, "Really? I did not know." He projected a concerned attitude unlike Drs. Geldter and Krappner, who acted completely skeptical and demonstrated it by throwing their heads around and then looking at each other and smiling as if to convey that it was all a bunch of lies. Marie responded first. "I still am not quite up to par, but I am much better, and there does not seem to be any lasting damage. My left side is still weak with some kind of neuralgia, so I am continually exercising to rehabilitate it." The Japanese scientists looked concerned. Marie continued, "It has been very difficult for me, and I was unable to work for over a year."

At this time Isaac and Amy were still looking at each other and almost laughing at Marie who was still explaining to the Japanese scientists that it took a long time to overcome her illness. Jared finally interjected, "We think she had some infection that was responsive to doxycycline, but she got worse when she took penicillin." Marie continued, "I am convinced that I got this illness in my department at Belford College of Medicine. Drs. Geldter and Krappner exchanged a glance between themselves and could not be contained from laughing. They were clearly acting as if they did not believe that Marie had an illness or that an infection was involved.

Dr. Geldter was smiling and finally interrupted the group of scientists and said in a loud voice, "Marie, I think that you have a marvelous imagination!" Dr. Krappner laughed and turned to Marie and added, "Are you sure your illness was not a result of some negative reaction to the criticisms you received for your molecular biology experiments? Did you think that your science wasn't getting enough attention?" At this point everyone involved in this small conversation group looked uncomfortable at the attempt to paint Marie's illness as a psychiatric problem. Marie barely contained her disdain for Dr. Krappner and her attempt to paint her as psychologically unbalanced. Marie looked directly at Dr. Krappner with a very cold and pointed stare and said, "Dr. Krappner." Amy smiled and interrupted Marie, "Please call me Amy." Marie continued with a slightly sarcastic tone to her voice, "Amy, I would not wish the illness that I have endured on my worst enemy. I can think of far better ways to get attention than to be nauseated continuously for 13 months with excruciating pain throughout my body. Controversy and pressure have always agreed with me, and frankly, if you are familiar with the history of science, any idea or model that is new and novel is often met with extreme resistance, derision, and even ridicule by the scientific community." Amy smiled and answered Marie in a completely false manner. "I really don't think so, Marie, or should I now call you Mrs. McNichols, but I meant no offense." Marie growing more angry continued, "Oh yes you did!" Dr. Geldter then interjected in a charming, laughing manner that quickly changed, "Really, Marie! Amy meant no offense, and I think that you are way out of line, already." Isaac often slipped into poor English with a heavier accent when becoming angry, which he usually hid quite well.

The Japanese scientists took in the exchange with frank curiosity. They didn't understand how colleagues from the same institution could be so outwardly hostile towards one another. Marie ignored Dr. Geldter and spoke directly to Dr. Krappner. "Amy, you may be able to fool and charm most people, but you will find that I am not so gullible." Jared who completely believed in what Marie had to say but still interceded, "Girls, girls! You are starting to act like cackling hens. Amy, please, could you be a bit more understanding. Marie is still recovering from her illness, which I assure you was quite real, and she is still a bit sensitive when anyone suggests that her illness was all in her head. I went through the illness with her, and I can tell you that it was horrific. And I, myself, seem to now have some of the same symptoms that Marie had, only in a milder form. We do feel that there is some sort of contagion involved, and sooner or later, we will identify it and get to the bottom of this entire episode."

Dr. Geldter decided to ignore the group but then became rather combative. He got in Jared's face and asked, "What evidence, if any, do you have for your wild speculations?" Jared spoke directly to Isaac, "Everything about this illness smacks of infection, including the cycling fevers and other symptoms, and it responded to doxycycline." Isaac Geldter was still as skeptical as ever-he showed this from his body language and smiling while shaking his head-indicating that he did not believe what Jared or Marie had to say on the subject. This was a typical public performance for Dr. Geldter, but in private he was quite worried that he might come down with Marie's illness, so he avoided the McNichols for the remainder of the conference.

For all his smiling and acting as if Marie was insane, Dr. Geldter always kept his distance from Marie, and he moved back quickly when Marie made any move in his direction. He also moved so as to position himself so that he was never directly facing Marie. Dr. Geldter usually came across as a bombastic, pompous ass, and he did not disappoint at the conference. He never publicly acknowledged that anyone could think other than himself, and he always coveted the center of attention. This was especially true at conferences where he could strut around like an all-knowing peacock with his chest and feathers out for all to see. His usual behavior was to flit about from one group of people to another looking for someone that might recognize him as the 'most' famous scientist at the conference, and he was always willing to tell everyone his corny second-hand jokes that he picked up from his brother who was in advertising in ew York. But for some reason at this conference. instead of discussing everything about himself, he wanted to let everyone know in public that Marie's illness was all in her head, so he broke away from the small group with the McNichols and mixed with other small groups where he could discuss the 'crazy' Jared and Marie with anyone who would listen.

The McNichols were still with Amy Krappner and the two Japanese scientists until the end of the reception. Marie finally cooled down, and with Isaac Geldner away schmoozing other groups of conferees, she related to Amy, "I am sorry if I seemed to Oy off the handle, but it truly has been an ordeal." Amy replied sarcastically back to Marie, "Apology accepted." At the end of the reception Isaac returned to the small group to maneuver Amy away from the McNichols. He wanted to avoid any close contact, and he had quickly realized that there were politically much more fertile grounds at the conference. The Japanese scientists had tried to change the subject of this highly charged, unpleasant encounter in a typically polite Japanese manner. They were a bit embarrassed that Geldter and Krappner would even bring up the subject of Marie's illness on the same day that Jared and Marie were wed, but they were too polite to acknowledge the academic infighting between the American scientists. In Japan this type of disagreement would have been much more subtle and polite. But in America, it seemed, anything was acceptable behavior. Dr. Sugimura nodded to Drs. Geldner and Krappner and politely asked Jared and Marie to accompany them while he softly held onto Jared's arm, "Will you all join us at the dais."

Dr. Kazuki was now smiling again. "Come! Come! They are about to serve the meal. And I must give a quick opening speech before the dinner begins." Everyone finally moved off from the grass and found their seat on a large porch or lanai in front of the hotel. Several scientists had been gathering at the main table as well as in the crowd, and Drs. Geldter and Krappner, who were pointedly looking at Marie and Jared with a mixture of disdain and derision, immediately returned to their schmoozing of some clinicians from the East Coast.

The evening gala was outdoors, and it was a typical beautiful Hawaiian evening. Some scientists who were previously speaking to Geldter and Krappner and were now seated at a table whispered as Jared and Marie walked by to take their seats. The head of the Japanese Cancer Association then reported to the assembled crowd that Jared and Marie had just been married in Honolulu. The McNichols were then asked to briefly address the assembly. Jared and Marie holding hands before the group then made a low bow while holding hands in the Japanese style of newlyweds. Jared then went up to the microphone. "Marie and I want to thank the Japanese and American Cancer Associations for honoring us on this most lovely and important day in our lives. I only want to express my gratitude and introduce my lovely young bride, Marie." There was some polite applause from the crowd, and some of the Japanese were taking pictures. At the side of the gathering were Drs. Geldter and Krappner looking at each other and sneering. They turned and told their colleagues something, but Jared and Marie no longer cared what they had to say about anything. Some day the truth about these two would be known. It was not just academic rivalryt -- hey had something much more sinister to hide, and some day justice would be served.

The Presidential suite at the Diamond Head Hotel

Marie and Jared were just married and spending the first night of their honeymoon in Honolulu in a suite on the top floor of the hotel. As they entered their suite, they found that it was well appointed, with a spectacular moonlight view of the Pacific Ocean and the reefs off Waikiki. The Cancer Associations donated a lovely congratulations floral arrangement that had already been placed on a table. The McNichols undressed, and Marie began to tease Jared with a sexy new negligee. They were finally completely happy, and they made love on the floor in front of the lanai. Some time later Jared had to get up and he told Marie, "I'm having a slight problem. I don't feel so good-my stomach. Jared went to the bathroom and vomited all over the floor. He did not want Marie to know, because he knew that she was scared of this more than anything else. He tried to reassure Marie while he cleaned up the bathroom, but when he returned to bed, it was obvious that he was in the initial stages of the same disease that almost killed Marie.

Sweating profusely Jared tried to reassure Marie, "It was really nice of them to donate this lovely room for the first night of our honeymoon." Marie seemed preoccupied, and she looked away before answering. "Right. It's the least that they could do." Jared tried to look at her in the dark, and he said, "Come on, Marie. Lighten up. This is our honeymoon." Marie looked back at Jared. "Did you see how some of those people looked at us? As if I was Attila the Hun or some kind of freak. Better yet, as if someone had poisoned their minds against us. And I don't even know them," Jared said, "You mean those slime-balls Geldter and Krappner? People know them for what they are. You're overreacting. Everyone knows them, Marie." Marie was still irritated. "No, I am not like that; I am not overreacting .... I have seen that look before. As if someone has said some horribly untrue things about me. As if I am some sort of monstrous criminal! I don't understand it!" Jared continued, "You are getting in a negative thought loop again. It's time to put this aside, at least for our honeymoon." Marie said after a sigh, "O.K. But one day I am going to find out why I get these intense negative reactions from people I do not even know. And I think it's not just my science." Jared added, "I know that it's not your science. I've seen it too. But don't be so sure that it has nothing to do with science. Marie quickly changed her attitude, "I don't want to talk about it!" Jared answered, "You're right. I think we have much better things to concentrate on for the next few days. Don't you?"

Marie then tried to give Jared a sensuous look. In the dim reflected light they embraced and then began to undress each other. When they were completely undressed, Jared removed an orchid from the arrangement and tickled Marie near her cleavage. As they moved to the bed Marie told Jared, "It hurts that I love you more than anything!" Jared not knowing how to answer his new wife said, "I'm crazy about you, too!" Marie in a husky voice, "You know, people call me the kiss of death, Does that scare you?" Jared answered, "I love danger." They both laughed at the attempt to act in a sexually explicit manner. For some reason scientists were not very good at acting sensuously. Marie and Jared fell into the bed and made love while listening to the draperies ruffled by the trade winds and the gentle clanging of the wind chimes on the lanai.

The following morning Marie and Jared had breakfast on the lanai. They were obviously happier than on the previous day as they discussed the rest of their honeymoon on Maui and the strenuousness of their upcoming travel schedule. Marie and Jared would have to fly home only to leave in a few weeks for Europe. Jared, however, was slowly becoming sicker, and it was beginning to be more and more obvious. He tried to hide his health from Marie, but she sensed that he didn't feel well. With the reoccurring fevers, night sweats, fatigue, aching joints and terrible headaches, just like the beginning of Marie's ordeal, Jared feared that he would suffer the same fate as Marie. He was hesitant to tell Marie about his symptoms. He didn't want to worry her, and he was not quite sure if he had the same illness that almost killed her. For the most part he had hidden his illness and especially the nausea. It was the nonstop nausea during the illness that drove most people to consider suicide. It did not abate for months. Although a honeymoon should be the most pleasant time in a person's life, Jared was miserable but he could not let Marie know about his illness. Eventually she found out, however, and she then began worrying all over again. For now there was not much that could be done, but when Marie and Jared returned to the mainland, Jared knew that he must go on doxycycline as soon as possible or perhaps face death in the same way that Marie had done six months earlier.
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Re: Project Day Lily: An American Biological Warfare Tragedy

Postby admin » Mon Oct 23, 2017 9:02 am

CHAPTER 2: Watching From England as War Rages (1991)

Jared and Marie had been busy since they returned from their honeymoon. Jared had to tend to his department and solve the many problems that accumulated during his absence, and Marie had been invigorated by a new position in Jared's department. Jared actually made Marie a part-time investigator on one of his grants, and this allowed her to do some research in Jared's lab. She had been delighted to return to the laboratory and actually perform some experiments that she could not complete in Dr. Rook's department at Belford. This time, however, she adapted her research to the interests of Jared's-cancer and the spread of cancer cells to distant sites. Jared was also pleased with the arrangement, because he could keep track of Marie and keep her out of trouble. Not everyone in Jared's department, however, was pleased with the arrangement, and this would ultimately come back to haunt the McNichols when Dr. Masters, the President of the D. O. Madison Cancer Center, found out that Marie was working in Jared's lab.

Although Jared had been sick on and off, his illness did not progress to anything near what Marie had suffered. The doxycycline saved him from the most severe complications of the unknown illness, and he actually started to feel better by the end of eight weeks of continuous antibiotics. His signs and symptoms began to slowly subside, although he still had some problems, especially after flying long distances or being at high altitude for more than a day. The recurrences of illness would be a continuing problem for Jared, because he had to travel from Austin to England, which was just far enough to kick off a relapse of the unknown illness.

Watching the Gulf War from England

Jared had been made a visiting fellow of the British Society of Medicine, and he was to receive the Medal of the Society for his research on cancer. He had to travel to the Society's headquarters in London to receive his award as well as lecture around Great Britain. Jared was nominated for the award by his old friend and mentor at the Imperial Cancer Fund in London, Dr. Kenneth Hallman. Dr. Hallman had been an old-timer in the cancer research area. He was older than Jared by at least 20 years, and he was a very distinguished looking British academic with his tweed blazer and wavy white hair. He and Jared actually started a cancer research journal fifteen years~rior, and as the editors of the journal, they had been close colleagues ever since. As a visiting fellow of the Society, Jared must lecture and visit various research and medical institutions in England and Wales and then present a formal lecture to the Society in London.

The lecture tour took place just before war started in the Persian Gulf in January of 1991. Jared and Marie were closely following the build-up to the war (Operation Desert Shield) and the operation to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi occupation (Operation Desert Storm) with personal interest. Jared's step-daughter Suzanne was serving with the 101st Airborne Division as a crew chief on a Blackhawk helicopter, and her regiment in the 101st was widely expected to be inserted deep into Iraq as ground forces attacked into Kuwait and Iraq. Suzanne had been deployed in the Saudi desert since September of 1990, and Jared occasionally received letters from her describing the boring nature of their deployment. Their main mission during Desert Shield was to be ready for an Iraqi attack on Saudi soil that never came. So they spent most of their time planning and maintaining their fleet of helicopters. Their mission was about to change in a dramatic way.

The British Society of Medicine

Jared and Marie had arrived at Heathrow, and they had to make their way to the historic British Society of Medicine headquarters. The Society owned a marvelous old building on Wimpole Street in downtown London. The very thought of staying on Wimpole Street stirred thoughts of Sherlock Holmes. Although historic, the building had been renovated and contained offices, meeting rooms, a reception room, a bar and tearoom and apartments upstairs for guests. The Society building was rich with history as were the other buildings on Wimpole Street. As a visiting fellow of the Society, Jared had been given one of the choice apartments upstairs for two weeks as a base of operations while lecturing and touring hospitals and research centers in England and Wales.

Tired from the long flight, Jared and Marie fell quickly asleep after their arrival at Wimpole Street. They actually slept until the morning, and they then decided to take in the local sights on foot. London was a marvelous place to explore but Marie tired quickly, so they stopped in a small tearoom for an afternoon tea. Finding their way back to the Society building, they decided to take a brief rest only to sleep until the next morning. After rising and then listening to complaints from Marie about the lack of room service at the Society, Jared and Marie showered kneeling in a tub with a European-style flexible hose and showerhead, dressed and prepared to go downstairs for breakfast. Since Jared was usually ready before Marie, he went down to the lobby area to inquire about breakfast and was told that it was served in the tearoom until nine. So Jared returned to the apartment upstairs to bring Marie down for breakfast. Unfortunately he found her still in the process of dressing at 8:45 AM. Jared tried to be diplomatic and hurry Marie along. "Aren't you ready yet?"

This was actually a rather standard question in the morning for Jared to ask, because Marie was not a 'morning person' and had to be pushed a bit to get ready in a timely manner. Marie resented being rushed, especially in the morning, and she snapped back atJared. "I'm not ready, and I'm warning you, don't push me this morning!" Jared laughed and told Marie, "They have a TV on in the tearoom, and they even have CNN." Marie replied, "You just want to watch the TV to find out what your stepdaugher is doing." Jared smiled, "That did cross my mind. You know, everyone is predicting that today will be the start of the ground offensive, and you know what that means." Marie responded, "Yes, I know what it means, and if you have to go watch it on TV, go ahead, but come back for me in 10 minutes." Jared replied, "O.K., you made your point. I'll wait for you right here. You know that they close the kitchen in 15 minutes." Marie did not like to be rushed. "Stop pushing me!" Jared just shrugged his shoulders. Marie was definitely not a morning person. If he went down to watch CNN, Marie would likely miss breakfast, and he would hear about it for the remainder of the day.

As it turned out, Jared and Marie just made it to the end of breakfast in the Society's tearoom. Some of the other guests had finished eating and had been watching a TV that was set up in tearoom in anticipation of the beginning of the ground offensive of the Gulf War. The rest of the patrons were only interested in hearing about the I" Armored Division, one of the British contributions to the war effort, and they didn't particularly like the extensive coverage of the American Forces, but that's CNN. If the British stations had nonstop coverage of the war, the TV would have been tuned to the BBC or Sky News. Marie said, Jared, you know, there is something very unreal about watching the war live on CNN." She continued, "It's almost as if we are watching a movie." Jared responded, "Only in this movie people are actually getting killed." Marie paused, "I have a gut feeling that there is something unseen going on. It's so surrealistic .... " Jared finally said, "But this is the real deal." Marie said sarcastically, "I know what you mean." Jared continued, "It's weird seeing the live antiaircraft artillery tracers going up at our planes." He paused and turned to Marie, "I hope Suzanne is all right. You know, her unit will probably be the first to go into Iraq. They have a long history of being dropped behind the lines before the real action starts. Look at what happened just before D-Day."

That comment raised the interest of the local patrons. Marie was trying to change the subject because she knew that Jared was worried. "Suzanne seemed bored in her last letter." Jared saw that Marie was trying to change the subject, "A continual diet of MREs and poor sanitation in the middle of miles and miles of nothing but sand has got to be a major downer." Marie added quickly, "I know, and to be honest, I couldn't stand being out in the dust and sand without a shower for three months. I wish she were homef -- ar away from all this." Jared asked, "What did you mean by unseen dangers." Marie, "I don't know. But what if the Iraqi Republican Guard just lays down its weapons and does nothing." Jared replied, "I doubt if that's going to happen." Marie continued, "It's almost as if they know something we don't." Jared replied, "Our guys will be ready for anything that the Iraqis can throw at them. I wouldn't worry about that, but there will be casualties .... just like any other war."

Marie and Jared watched TV in the tearoom for what seemed like minutes but in reality it was just 30 seconds or so when Marie turned to Jared and said, "Remember, Saddam said he would use all of his weapons, and that this will be the Mother of All Battles. He also said he would take the war to America." Jared smirked, "A lot of that is pure bullshit, but in a way you're right. It will only be a battle with conventional weapons if things go well for the Iraqis. And it won't go well for them, you can bet on that. It's going to be one-sided, and that's when it could be dangerous if the Iraqis start using their unconventional weapons." Marie added, "Which is why I think there will be something unseen in these battles. Those SCUD attacks-could there be chemical and biological weapons loaded on those monsters?" Jared replied, "That's certainly possible, and even the commentators have been talking about this for weeks now. They even trained the reporters to put on gas masks. Sooner or later we're going to find out." Marie asked, "But how much later?" Jared replied, "People will be getting sick. If it's chemical weapons, they will be sick very quickly. If it's biological weapons, then we won't know for some time after exposure." There was a pause and then Jared continued, "And it is pretty common knowledge that Iraq has a huge chemical and biological weapons arsenal." Marie added, "Not to mention the fact that Saddam has the right personality to actually go through with the use of chemicals and biologicals!" Jared replied, "For Suzanne's sake, I sure hope not! But they have a history of using at least chemicals." Marie said emphatically, "If they use biologicals, they are insane!" Jared responded, "I agree, but no one ever made the case that Sad dam was sane." Marie continued, "They can't control it. There is no way to contain a biological agent!" Jared said, "If they use it-that is the question."

Another guest at the tearoom heard the McNichols discussing the war and interjected half-joking, "I don't know why you Yanks got us into this bloody thing! Haven't you got enough oil?" Jared replied, "Apparently not!" Marie smiled, "Let's never underestimate the barbarism and stupidity of man." Jared continued half-heartedly, "It's about Kuwait not oil. Ask BP!" The guest was not convinced. He shook his head and smiled when Jared mentioned British Petroleum, and he turned to watch the scene on TV as he said, "Lord help us understand this bloody conflict." Jared just shrugged, and they finished their breakfast without making another comment.

The train to the Northeast

One of the responsibilities of a visiting fellow of the British Society of Medicine was to travel to various institutions and lecture about current research or treatment. Of high priority were institutions that were usually out of the mainstream for most academic visitors. In this way, they will benefit from having a British Society of Medicine Fellow travel to their locations, rather than their having to travel to London. Thus the information gets disseminated to more professionals who could not have made the trip. At the end of the visit a major presentation was usually scheduled at the Society building in London. This was also an award ceremony where the Fellow received the Medal of the Society. Since Jared was a cancer researcher, his responsibility was to deliver research seminars at various universities and hospitals that work on cancer.

The first part of the trip was to visit institutions in the Northeast, so Jared and Marie must find their way from Wimpole Street to North Euston Station and catch a train North. Jared wanted to go via the Underground to North Euston Station, but Marie wanted him to order a cab instead. Although Jared argued that a cab would take much longer than the Tube, Marie was afraid of the Underground and the crowds. She was still unsure of herself and her strength after her long illness.

The night before terrorists had set up a remote car mortar near Wimpole Street to lob mortar shells at government buildings in the area. It was a VW bus converted to hold six homemade mortar tubes that were pre-aimed and controlled remotely or by a timer. The terrorists simply drove the 'special' van to a prearranged location, parked, opened the top and set a timer or pushed a button from a block away. The mortar shells from such homemade devices made a lot of noise but usually did not cause much damage. Their intended purpose was for the most part psychological. In this respect, it probably had the opposite of the desired effect. Londoners were not easily scared, because the older residents still remembered and talked about the Blitz during World War II when the German Luftwaffe pounded London on a daily basis and caused considerable damage to residential areas. If anything, the minor attacks and bomb scares just increased the resolve of the British, who assumed that Saddam had enlisted the IRA to do the Iraqis bidding in the United Kingdom. Of course, they were right, and in London there was little sympathy for the IRA or the Iraqis.

From Wimpole Street to Euston Station to Reading

Jared was up early and down in the tearoom watching CNN for news of the war in the Arabian Gulf or what we usually call the Persian Gulf. The news was good but sketchy, and the ground war would likely be over in days not weeks. Although there was little specific news of the 101st Airborne Division, what news there was indicated that they were far from most of the intense ground action. While the U. S. Marines and Arab mechanized armies were racing North towards Kuwait City, the main thrusts of the coalition armored units after they rolled over the Iraqi infantry units at the border were headed towards the Republican Guard divisions in Southern Iraq, the most dangerous forces that the coalition would face. The 101st was being used as a blocking force along with the natural barrier of the Euphrates River, preventing Iraqi armored units from escaping to the north. With most of the bridges down on the Euphrates, the only escape would be East to Basra. But before they made it to Basra, they would be encircled and trapped. However, a ceasefire in less than a week's ground action would ultimately save the Iraqi Army from total destruction.

While the war in Iraq and Kuwait raged, Jared and Marie arrived by cab at North Euston Station to make arrangements for their trip to the Northeast. As they were in line to purchase their tickets, a uniform policeman, a Bobby with a bright orange vest on, ran up to the line, pointed and yelled, "Everyone move to the gates! Straight on now! Step lively! Move on to the gates!" At the same time the ticket office windows slammed shut, and there was no explanation. Bobbies with police dogs were running around sniffing passenger luggage, and Jared and Marie joined the crowd from the ticket office now moving to the gates. Along the way Marie spotted a piece of luggage without a passenger, and she yelled to a policeman, "I think you're looking in the wrong place!" She pointed to the luggage, "Who does this belong to?" The policeman replied, "Thank you young lady, now move on!" The dogs were almost immediately on the bag. Marie asked, "What are we going to do?" Jared replied, "We're going to get the hell out of here and go where they tell us!" The police were directing passengers onto a platform where a train was loading.

Marie and Jared were told by a Bobby to immediately board the train. Before they boarded, however, police dogs got a good chance to check out their luggage. Marie asked a policeman, "What if we don't have our tickets?" The Bobby said, "Don't worry, young lady. Just board the train, and please mind the gap!" Jared said to Marie, "He means, watch your step, Babe, and don't get your clothes caught between the platform and the train! Let's get on!" Marie to Jared, "You're actually liking this, aren't you?" Jared replied, "This is fun, don't you think? Marie replied, "No, I don't think this is fun!" Jared pushed Marie onto the train, "Where is your sense of adventure?" Marie said as she was pushed onto the train, "I don't like this! Where's my bag?" Jared said, "Let me get my bag on, and then I'll get yours." Marie replied, 'jared, my bag! 1 don't like this one bit!" Jared answered as he lifted Marie's bag onto the train, "I know, 1 know!" Marie asked, "Where are we going?" Jared replied, "I have absolutely no idea." Marie angry, "You mean, you just pushed me onto a train, and you have no idea where it's going!" Jared said, "That's right! But 1 do know that they must have a good reason to put us on this train." A passenger then turned to Jared, "Bomb scare!" Marie squealed, "I knew it! That bag in the station!" Jared ignoring Marie asked, "Do you know where this train is headed?" Passenger to Jared, "To Reading, 1 suspect. That's where this train usually goes at this time of the day." Jared turned to Marie, "Well, you just heard it, we're likely going to Reading." Marie asked, "But we aren't going to the Gray Laboratories?" Jared replied, "Right now we are apparently on our way to Reading!" Marie asked, "What do we do? We don't even have tickets, and we don't have a place to stay in Reading!" Jared laughed, "We'll work something out." Marie continued, "I don't like this!" Marie was mad at Jared for taking the events of the day so lightly.

Jared and Marie moved forward to another car, found two seats, and Jared found some space for their luggage. Most of the other passengers in the coach did not have luggage, which made it a bit easier. Some of the male passengers had to stand, because there were not enough seats for everyone. Jared thought about giving up his seat, but Marie wouldn't hear of it. She did not want to sit next to a stranger on this very stressful day. Jared started talking to one of the passengers, "Do you have any idea of the train schedules?" The passenger replied in a Welch accent, "No, but 1 know this train." Jared asked, "Can we go North on this line?" The passenger shook his head, "I think not. 1 expect that we will see Reading before anything else." Jared turned to Marie, "I don't think that this will help us that much if we can't get a train to the Northeast." Marie asked, "Why don't we just go to the coast?" Jared replied, "Well, we can do that, but 1 expect that we will be missed." Marie continued, "Who will miss us? We were to have the weekend off, weren't we?" Jared replied, "You're right. We probably won't be missed until Monday before my lecture ... And 1 would guess that we could call them and tell them what happened." Jared asked the passenger, "Would you have a map?" The passenger smiled at Jared, "I do, but it's not a very good map." He then removed an old British Rail map from his case and handed it to Jared. Jared looked at the map and studied it for some time. On the back was an old intercity train schedule. Jared finally turned to Marie and asked, "It doesn't look like we can go to where we should be going without returning to London, and I don't think that we want to do that."

Jared smiled and said, "Let's see. How would you like to go to Wales?" Marie became excited and immediately said, "Yes!" Jared continued, "That didn't take long, did it? From Reading, we can go to L1yandidno on the sea." Marie excited, "How did you know that 1 wanted to go to Wales for the weekend?" Jared answered, "I obviously didn't, but we might as well enjoy ourselves. It's probably safer in L1yandidno than anywhere in England." The passenger smiled and nodded his head. He was Welch, however, and Jared considered that he favored this idea anyway. Jared handed the map back to the passenger and thanked him. The McNichols then settled down to enjoy the scenery for the remainder of the trip.

The countryside whipped by very quickly. Rural England was so different from what Jared and Marie were used to that they never seemed to tire of watching out the coach windows. To the other passengers, however, the view was probably boring. The only highlight for them was the teacart that came by occasionally to offer hot tea and biscuits or what we would call cookies. They also had small sandwiches, and Marie was adamant about having some sort of a sandwich with her tea. They decided to do both, and they shared their meal with cups of hot tea. Marie was finally calming down from the ordeal of the bomb scare at Euston Station.

To Llyandidno, Wales

Jared and Marie were amazed that no one asked them for their tickets when they arrived in Reading. It seemed that everyone that had been pushed onto the Reading train was given a free ride by British Rail. At Reading Jared went to the ticket booth and bought two round trip tickets to Llyandidno, Wales. As it turned out, a train for Wales and L1yandidno was on the tracks waiting to leave from Reading. Jared signaled to Marie, "Get your stuff, and let's get out to the tracks! Our train leaves in five minutes!" Marie stated indignantly, "I can't make it in five minutes!" Jared said, "Yes you can!" Marie insisted, "No, I can't!" Jared replied, "You're impossible! Give me your bag. You can make it. Get your ass moving." Marie was mad, but with a little coaching they made the train. As they ran out on the platform Marie said, 'Jared, just get on the train!" Jared replied, "I will, just as soon as I find our car." At the same moment the Conductor blew his whistle indicating that the train was pulling out, and passengers had to board immediately. Marie yelled to Jared, "What do we do now?" Jared was not frazzled, "O.K., get in this car, and we'll sort it out later!" Marie said, "I can't make it!" Jared insisted, "Yes you can!" He threw the luggage onto the train, while Marie was helped onto the train by another passenger. Jared jumped onto the train just as it moved and began pulling out of the station. He smiled to Marie, "See, we made it!" Marie was not convinced, "So what are we going to do about accommodations, Mr. Smartass?" Jared smiled back, "We'll just have to wait and see." Marie said, "I hate this! Couldn't we have just made some arrangements at the train station?" Jared replied, "What, and miss the only train for the next three hours? 1 don't think so. We'll go to the station booking place, and they will find us a room." Marie was angry, "Why do you always do this? 1 hate not knowing where we are going to stay." Jared calmly said, "It will all work out. You'll see. I do this all the time. Trust me." Marie stuck out her tongue at Jared.
Jared showed his tickets to another passenger who told him that he was in the wrong coach. Of course, Jared knew this, but he asked for directions anyway. It seemed that they were only one coach off, so they just had to move forward to the next car and find their seats. Marie said, "I'm having a hard time with this, and dammnit Jared you know it!" Jared replied, "I know, but look at it as an adventure in traveling." Marie spit back, "I hate traveling with you!" Jared smiled, "Sure you do. Now shut-up and enjoy the view." This time Jared was right. They moved forward with some difficulty and rather quickly found their seats and settled in for the lovely trip to Wales. As the countryside rolled by, they had a chance to relax and actually enjoy the view.

They were on a local train that made all the stops. After what must have been over an hour and a half or so, they finally arrived at Llyandidno Station, and Marie was upset all over again. They didn't have any accommodations. Jared told Marie to calm down and let him find the visitors' booth at the train station. Once the booth was found, a young lady was very quick in finding a first class hotel for the night. She called, found a room, and Jared made the arrangements and paid the booking fee. After a short cab ride, they arrived at the Palace Hotel, a famous old Victorian style hotel located almost right in front of the even more famous Llyandidno Pier. In fact, from their room on the third floor, they had a marvelous view of the pier and the sea. Marie was now very happy to be out of London, especially when Jared turned on the TV only to find out that London was having a spate of bombing emergencies at many of the London railway stations. Marie did not want to hear about the bombings, and they would later find out from the BBe that it was likely her direction to the Bobby that located a bomb in Euston Station that fateful day when they were pushed onto a train to Reading.

An unintended weekend in Wales

Llyandidno was marvelous in the winter because of the lack of crowds. In the summer the popular seaside resort was usually full of vacationers. But the winters were relatively free of most visitors, except for some on the weekends. Marie hated crowds, and a brisk walk on the Llyandidno Pier with Jared, even in the cold Welch winter weather, was a nice way to get away from the ever-present crowds in London. The pier itself was a Victorian style marvel with its intricate ironwork and lovely lampposts. There were little shops on the pier, but they were closed for the winter. There was even a Ferris wheel. Marie and Jared marveled at the stoic Welchmen who didn't mind the cold wind at all. To them it was probably a very fine afternoon indeed, but to the couple from the scorching Texas Hill Country, it was anything but mild. They were obviously from overseas and not used to such cold weather, but they enjoyed the scenery with the dull blue-gray waves breaking against the old pier. Jared loved the old pier and said to Marie, "This is great! I really enjoy walking by the sea, but 1 can't understand how this could be considered a resort." Marie responded, "It must be grand during the summer, with all of the shops open." Jared looked at Marie with a question on his face. He was raised near the Southern Californian coast where warm, white sands and clear, blue waters invited visitors to relax and bask on the beach. Jared wondered how visitors could enjoy the stony, bleak and cold beach, even in summer. But this was Europe, and good beaches were hard to find in the northern latitudes.

After a brisk walk to the end of the pier and then along the beach, Marie regained her appetite, and Jared and Marie decided to try the dining room at the hotel. They were not disappointed. They arrived at high tea, and they decided to visit the tearoom. There they spent a lovely time enjoying the British scones and clotted cream and finger sandwiches. Marie rewarded the hostess with ample praise, "I love your scones. And the clotted cream is just delicious." The Hostess said to Marie, "We make them fresh here at the hotel each day. I will tell the pastry chef that you approve." Jared also responded, "I would say that she more than just approves-she loves them." Marie and Jared relaxed in comfortable chairs in the cozy tearoom. The decor was not quite as old as the outer appearance of the hotel, and it was tasteful and very comfortable. The pictures on the wall were of scenes from late in the nineteenth century to early in the twentieth century. Jared strained to look at the pictures while Marie was enjoying her tea with milk-quite British but they both completely enjoyed the custom. In fact, visiting various tearooms at high tea became some of the most memorable times during their visit to the U.K.

After almost an hour relaxing and enjoying their small sandwiches and scones with tea in the tearoom, Jared took Marie back to their room, whereupon he almost immediately turned on CNN to find out what was happening in the war. They were fortunate that they chose the Palace Hotel, because it was probably one of the only hotels in Llyandidno to offer TV in its rooms and CNN to its guests. Unfortunately, there was not much on CNN about the war beyond what was on TV the previous morning, so Jared turned it off. The Pentagon was managing the news again, and they were only letting out some news that they wanted the people to hear. The BBC was not much better but it was a different slant from CNN. Unfortunately, the BBC World News only appeared at certain times during the day, a problem that would be later rectified. The war news was agitating Marie, so it was just as well that Jared turned it off for the evening. They were both quite tired from the ordeals of the day, especially Marie. They both fell asleep knowing that they were quite safe and sound in their warm bed in Wales.

The following day Jared was up early to watch CN , but there was no report on the 101st Airborne. After breakfast Jared contacted the porter about a rental car, and they checked out of the hotel and were driven by cab to a car rental lot. Jared finally chose an English Ford for the weekend. After a discussion with the clerk as to the best routes of travel, Jared studied the map and they were off. Fortunately, Jared had some experience driving on English and Scottish roads and was quite used to the large lorries that passed ever so close on the 'wrong' side of the car. In Scotland and Wales the stonewalls that often border the back roads presented a real challenge when a lorry came bearing down from the opposite direction. This usually scared Marie who was not used to passing so close to stonewalls on the left that almost took the side mirror off each time a lorry passed on the right. The main 'A' roads, however, were quite manageable and without much traffic.

Marie and Jared drove to Conway Castle, built during the time of Bonnie Prince Charles. The castle was a beautiful structure with high walls and towers. It seemed incredulous that they could be enjoying a trip to Wales, running through ancient castles while half way around the world their step-daughter was in command of a Blackhawk helicopter deployed in the stark desert near the Euphrates River. Jared and Marie tried not to think about the ongoing battle for Southern Iraq. There was not much they could do about it, even if they knew more about what was really going on in Iraq.

Their next stop was Snowdonia, considered one of the most beautiful places in Wales. Their trip took them to a picturesque valley with snow-rimmed mountains on both sides. They decided to stop at a small village just off the main road. Jared spotted a shop selling hand-made sweaters, and they decided to take a look. Naturally, Marie found a heavy wool hand-made sweater that just fit her. It was probably made for a large child, but Marie was so petite that she could wear child sizes. The price was right, so Jared purchased the sweater, and Marie insisted on wearing it during the rest of the trip in Wales. They almost felt guilty about the good time they were having sightseeing in Wales when their stepdaughter was likely in combat in Southern Iraq. Jared admitted that he was frustrated that he could do nothing but watch CNN, so they decided that they had to go on and not focus on the war. There was nothing that they could do about it, even if they wanted to do something.

Back to London and another bomb scare

Because of the train debacle, Jared missed his lecture at the Gray Laboratories, so the next stop on his schedule was Kent. His contact suggested that they return to London, because there was no way to go directly to Kent by rail from Wales. To get to Kent Jared and Marie must return to Euston Station, pick up the Underground to Victoria Station and catch a train South. The first part of the journey came off without a problem. After a lovely trip to Reading where they changed trains and then to Euston Station, Jared and Marie departed for Victoria Station via the Underground. Marie was mad at Jared for not taking a cab to Victoria Station, but Jared convinced her that the fastest route was by the Tube, and they were much less likely to miss their train.

There was a good reason why Marie hated the Underground. It was crowded and stuffy, even in the winter, and Marie hated to be in crowded places with people that she didn't know. Jared and Marie struggled with their bags. The natives seemed unfriendly, but in reality they all had places to go and probably not enough time to get there. Only the tourists took the time to look around and talk to one another. They were a mark, and one scruffy young lad tried to get into Marie's purse and steal her wallet. She yanked it away from him, and Jared gave him a stem look. He just shrugged and likely moved on to the next possibility. Jared would have jumped him, but then he would have had to leave Marie and the luggage alone. He decided that it wasn't worth it. The rest of the patrons seemed so used to the crime, noise and crowds that they were barely awake.

The London Underground, once the most modern subway system in the world, was showing its age and was not a baggage friendly place. The tunnels and stairs were narrow and old in many stations, and the platforms were relatively small by modern standards. The addition of new lines was not especially well thought out, probably because they were afterthoughts, and the tunnel connections between the various lines were often quite crude affairs. The trains themselves were old but serviceable, and there was not much room for baggage, except on the special Express cars to Heathrow Airport, making them a bit awkward for inter-city travelers trying to get from one rail station to another. For the most part, however, they were quite reliable for moving around London, and they were much faster than surface transport. Jared preferred the Tube to the overcrowded, slow-moving streets, but Marie did not like the rocking on some sections of old Underground track and the packing in of passengers on some lines, even during non-rush hour periods. Jared had been studying his map of the Underground. He and Marie were the only ones in sight that did not know where to get off. Jared said to Marie as the Underground made its way toward Victoria Station, "We are just about there-only one more stop and then to Victoria." Unbeknownst to Jared and Marie, the bombers had already planted a device in the Victoria Station. This time it would cause a fatality.

Arriving at Victoria Station

Marie and Jared had finally made it to Victoria Station in order to catch their train to Kent. Entering Victoria Station was like taking a trip back in time. Except for the modern shops, ticket booths and signs, Victoria Station was like a picture from the past. Looking up at the old Victorian style roof and ironworks, one could actually get a feel for how this grand station might have looked in the nineteenth century with steam engines pulling old coaches into the station. Now most of the trains were electric and much cleaner and quieter, except for the diesel trains on the intercity routes. During the day when commuters were not overwhelming the old station, it was quite comfortable with all the shops and restaurants, except that there were few places to sit down and wait for trains. With tickets in hand Marie and Jared waited under the big board that flashed the destinations, track numbers and times of various trains. The clickity-clack of the old schedule board was constantly heard as each letter and number flipped over and over until they stopped and a new destination, track number and time appeared. Each row then moved up one as each train departed.

There was something quite reassuring about the large schedule board. It seemed odd compared to the all-electronic airports where such mechanical boards had long since disappeared in favor of multiple TV monitors. One could also find train schedules on TV monitors at every station, but there was something about the big schedule board that attracted customers. Perhaps because it was so easy to see the various trains and their destinations, and also it probably reminded passengers of a change on the board by its clickity-clack sound. Marie spotted their train first and shook Jared into consciousness. She said, "Our train is on track eight. 1 want to board now." Jared to Marie, "You can't go until it flashes 'boarding'." As he said this the cards in the 'boarding' part of the sign began flipping and finally stopped at 'now boarding.' Jared finally responded, "O.K., You're right. Let's go!"

They grabbed their black, wheeled baggage and headed for track eight where a mass of train riders had converged. Marie said, "I hate this!" But Jared didn't bother to answer. The gates opened, and the riders converged on the gate. The McNichols finally moved slowly to the front of the line as passengers passed through the gate. Jared handed the tickets to the man at the gate who punched holes in them, and they made their way out to the platform to find their coach. To make Marie feel better Jared had purchased 1st class tickets, so they had to find the 1st class coach. Once inside their coach they found that there was much more space for their baggage and the chairs were more roomy and comfortable than in 2nd class. They finally relaxed while Jared read the London Times. After a few minutes, a whistle sounded, and they were off. Later that day they would find out that they missed the fatal Victoria Station bomb by about 15 minutes. Their luck was holding.

To Kent and beyond

Jared had to lecture in Kent and at other sites in Southern England before returning to London to give the evening Society Lecture at Wimpole Street in downtown London. It was their good fortune that they had been invited to stay with Dr. Kenneth Hallman and his wife, Janet, who was a practicing hematologist at one of the Kent hospitals. Their home was on a lovely estate in Eastern Kentshire amongst rolling hills, woods and farmland. Professor Hallman picked up the McNichols at the rail station, and they had a nice ride through the countryside to the Hallman's estate. As they arrived, they were pleasantly surprised. The house was a lovely old mansion on a hill with ample space and beautiful views of the English countryside. By the time Jared and Marie were picked up at the train station by Kenneth, they were completely exhausted from their near miss at Victoria and the rigors of travel from Wales. Thus the McNichols both took an afternoon nap, and later they found Kenneth walking about his berry bushes in the garden. Jared joined Kenneth for a long walk, and by five in the afternoon they were finally ready for dinner, which was a delightful event indeed.

Jared had not seen Kenneth for about one year, and they had much research and journal news to catch up on. They were also bound by a mutual dislike of the egomaniacs in their field, such as Drs. Isaac Geldter and Amy Krappner and their ilk, and somehow the conversation eventually turned to this pair as Kenneth jokingly asked how they were doing. Jared and Kenneth had great delight in mocking their importance in the grand scheme of things, but the conversation finally turned to more serious topics, including the war and the bombings in London.

The following morning as Janet was off to the hospital, Jared, Marie and Kenneth made the rounds at the estate. Although it was a cold morning, it was a rare almost clear winter day in Kent. Usually there were high clouds that gave England and most of Europe that gray winter appearance, which can last for months on end with the only interruption an occasional winter storm. Kenneth was very pleased at the lay of the land, and it was clear that he was enjoying his recent retirement and the blessing of not having to fight the commuters going off to London each day. From this lovely location, it was quite a trip by car, train and then Underground to reach his former office. Marie and Jared enjoyed their weekend in the countryside in Kent, and on the following day Jared had to travel to Kent to deliver one of his lectures. The McNichols were beginning to feel quite at home in England, and the Hallmans had done a marvelous job in making them feel comfortable.

Return to The British Society of Medicine

Jared and Marie had to return to the Society building on Wimpole Street, London, because it was time for Jared's lecture and award ceremony. This time Marie was lucky, as Kenneth and Janet were to bring them by auto to the Society. Because of the shortage of car parks in central London, Kenneth had to make prior arrangements for the car. At least in 1991 he could bring a car into central London without paying a nasty fee. However, just arriving in central London was only part of the problem, since they had to find a place to leave the car. All of this had been arranged in advance by the Society, and the Hallmans and McNichols were grateful that they didn't have to take the train and then the Underground to get to the Society headquarters.

That evening was the lecture and the award presentation. Since he was a close friend, Kenneth would be presenting the award to Jared on behalf of the Society. The lecture on Jared's recent research on the molecular mechanisms of homing of metastatic cancer cells to various organs in the body was presented after a course of sherry, a very civilized custom that Jared thoroughly enjoyed. But Marie who didn't drink at all just used the occasion to visit with Janet and the other participants. After the lecture, question period and award ceremony, everyone retired to the bar for a refreshment and toast to the Queen before heading home or departing for a late evening meal.

At the reception after the lecture the conversation turned to a British pathologist, Stephen Paget, who in the mid 19th century proposed the 'soil and seed hypothesis' that certain cancers ('seeds') spread to particular sites ('soil') based on their properties and the properties of the organ site. Jared had used this theory to show how correct Dr. Paget was by demonstrating that malignant tumor cells express particular molecules on their surfaces that allowed them to home to, invade and survive and grow at particular organ sites, explaining in molecular terms why certain blood-borne cancers metastasized preferentially to certain predictable distant sites in the body. Everyone seemed to be satisfied with the festivities, and the Hallmans and the McNichols retired to a private meal with the officers of the Society in a special room reserved for the occasion.

After a delicious meal of English Grill, the conversation turned on many subjects until the final Port toast to the Queen. The McNichols were lucky, since they and a few senior members of the Society had only to go upstairs to their accommodations after the festivities were over. Before taking their leave for the evening, Jared, Kenneth and Marie had their pictures taken in front of a large portrait of the Queen. It was only after their return to Texas that Jared and Marie noticed how similar Marie looked to the Queen, almost like a close relative.

On their way home to Texas

The following day Jared and Marie were making their way to Heathrow Airport when they learned of the ceasefire in Iraq. They were quite relieved, especially Jared, who had thought about Suzanne and her brothers in arms in the 101st almost every waking hour during the trip. It had been difficult not knowing what was happening on the ground in Iraq and Kuwait, a situation that would be rectified in future wars when reporters would be imbedded in combat units. For now they were relieved to know it was over, and the casualties were extremely light for an operation of this magnitude. It was only years later that the real truth finally surfaced and the delayed casualties would pile up to become one of the most costly conflicts in U. S. history. No one would know this, however, because the truth would be kept hidden from the American people.

As they boarded their plane for the trip directly to Houston from London, Jared and Marie reflected on their recent experiences. Even with the bomb scares, homemade mortars and changes in itineraries, they had a marvelous time indeed. And they would find out that Suzanne was safe, at least for the moment. The long trip home was uneventful but tiring. The McNichols were happy to finally see Yin and Yang, who ran around the living room again and again in celebration of their return to Queenswood.
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Re: Project Day Lily: An American Biological Warfare Tragedy

Postby admin » Mon Oct 23, 2017 9:03 am

CHAPTER 3: A New Casualty of War (1993)

Suzanne had been back from the Middle East for over a year when she related to Jared in a telephone conversation that many soldiers in her unit were sick, and she was leaving the military after a nine-year career as a decorated, non-commissioned officer. She had managed to make it through Warrant Officer School with some difficulty, but now she was having health problems. It was difficult enough for a female soldier to be accepted into Warrant Officer School, and she needed all of her strength to make it through. But to Suzanne the reason for Warrant Officer School was to eventually fly for the Army. But to be a pilot, she would have to accomplish this first. For a soldier who was once awarded the title of best soldier in her battalion, Warrant Officer School was the acme of achievement, the highest rank of service for a non-commissioned officer or noncom in the all-volunteer U. S. Army, and the mark of a true warrior.

Jared received a call from Suzanne one evening. She had failed her physical for flight school, and she was devastated. Suzanne had always been in top health and had little patience for those who were always ill or unable to perform, and now it had happened to her. She had always wanted to be a pilot since she was a child, and this would have been the culmination of her ambitions. Now, however, she was facing an uphill battle to retain her hard-fought upward mobility in the military. If she complained that she was ill with chronic problems like headaches, memory loss, joint and muscle pain, digestive and other problems, she would find like others in her unit that there was little understanding of their conditions, no treatments and absolutely no sympathy for their medical problems. Others too, were facing the same difficulties, even the medics and officers that served in the Gulf were having problems in the various services that were deployed to the Persian Gulf in 1990 to 1991, but there were no explanations offered as to what it might be, so everyone was sent to the unit psychiatrist for evaluation.

Just about the worse thing that can happen to a very proud soldier, airman, seaman or marine was to have someone tell you that you were not fit psychologically as an explanation for your medical problems. Since the military psychiatrists could not explain the signs and symptoms of the veterans returning from the Gulf, they assumed that the veterans were suffering from psychological problems from their service in the Gulf War. After all, this was what psychiatrists did-diagnose psychiatric problems -- and they did not want to admit that they had no idea what was going on. Military psychiatrists and psychologists indignantly noted that historians had recorded high incidences of chronic illnesses in veterans after each war since the War of 1812, so the undiagnosed illnesses must be related to what was called 'shell shock' in World War I or 'combat fatigue' in World War II and Korea.

Thus by virtue of their service in the Gulf War it was assumed by psychiatrists (probably none of whom had ever seen combat) that the veterans must be suffering from the psychological effects of combat. The new catchy term for this was 'Post Traumatic Stress Disorder' or PTSD, and it became such a popular diagnosis that some units had frightfully high incidences of this purely psychological condition. Notwithstanding the fact that many of the individuals who were receiving this diagnosis had not even seen combat in the Gulf, ever fired a M16 or any other weapon for that matter at an Iraqi, and were never even near the front lines or combat in this basically 100-hour war. The unknown chronic condition was found in front-line combat units, but it was also found in supply and quartermaster units, command and control units and other services as well as those that were deployed far from the front lines in the war. Some of the more interesting cases would turn out to be sailors on ships in the Persian Gulf hundreds of miles from the battle zone and even soldiers, marines and sailors that were waiting to be deployed from bases in the U.S. when the war abruptly ended. One of the common features of all these Armed Forces personnel was that they received the multiple vaccines given before or during deployment.

Denial and stonewalling

Chronic illness casualties from the Gulf War started to appear after the war, but it was slow at first. By six months after the war, however, there were tens of thousands of soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines reporting chronic health problems. Since these problems did not seem to be life threatening, they were largely dismissed. Also, the health problems did not seem to fit the established diagnosis categories used by the military. At first there ware even denials from the Pentagon that there were any health problems associated with deployment to the Persian Gulf after or during the war. Jared and Marie remembered clearly the Pentagon's spokesperson, Roger Ham, on television dismissing reporters' questions about any illnesses in returning veterans. The possibility that any illnesses might be due to Chemical or Biological Weapons was disdainfully dismissed as pure science fiction. After the spin fell apart when the reports of health problems did not go away, the Pentagon came up with an explanation that they thought would please everyone. The illnesses were all caused by 'stress', meaning that they were psychological not medical causes for the illnesses.

As the number of cases grew from 25,000 to 50,000 to over 150,000, the most common cause basically remained the same-PTSD. Notwithstanding the unusual signs and symptoms in most of these veterans that could not possibly have been explained by a psychological disorder, such as bloody diarrhea, unusual skin rashes, severe muscle and joint pain, intermittent fevers, thyroid and other problems, the Pentagon still insisted it was PTSD. Since most of the ill Armed Forces personnel had to have a psychological evaluation, this was where most of them received their PTSD diagnosis. Although other diagnoses were possible and even used to varying degrees among the services, there was pressure, especially in the 'unexplained illness' cases, to make sure that these veterans' illnesses were listed as PTSD. In fact, there were even directives and guidelines from the Pentagon to make sure that the most likely diagnosis in chronic illness cases that could not be easily assigned to known diseases or unexplained conditions was PTSD. In disgust, many Armed Forces personnel tried to cover up their illnesses or did not bother to report them, because a psychological diagnosis of PTSD could be the end of their promotions and careers in the military.

How many able and brave men and women of our Armed Forces had their careers ruined or cut short by such Pentagon antics will never be known, but it would not matter. The Department of Defense (DoD) was in a down-sizing mode, and the mustering out of less desirable personnel seemed to fit nicely with their own plans. Unfortunately, Suzanne was caught in the middle of this, and it was time to leave the Army and a career that she had been planning for years. And Suzanne was not the only one from the 101st who was now calling and explaining about their health problems to Jared and Marie. Thus the McNichols got a feel for the magnitude of the problem. Eventually many veterans from the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions, famous for their daring exploits just before D-Day in Normandy in 1944 and now famous for their air assaults during the Gulf War, contacted the McNichols for assistance with their 'undiagnosed' illnesses. Also, many of the veterans who received a PTSD diagnosis and a handful of antidepressants from medical personnel eager to please their superiors would contact the McNichols. Not all physicians in the military were so easily persuaded by the PTSD rush to judgment. But just like any other chain of command in the military, physicians must follow orders that come down from above or be relieved of duty. This was a powerful way to control the situation and satisfy the Pentagon's quest to deny that a new type of chronic illness was associated with service in the Gulf War.

An attempt to rationalize Gulf War Syndrome

By the end of 1992 the American press had coined a new term, Gulf War Syndrome, to characterize the undiagnosed illnesses in veterans from the Gulf War, and they smelled a story. They also were beginning to smell something fishy about the DoD and their explanations of the war-associated illnesses as entirely or almost entirely due to stress-related illness or PTSD. Counterattacking the pesky American press from their lofty positions in the Pentagon were some high-level military physicians who were enlisted to convince the press that the military's liberal use of PTSD to explain what now appeared more and more to be unusual illnesses of unknown origin was genuine and appropriate.

Along with this strategy was an all out effort to belittle the efforts of the small number of civilian physicians and scientists who dared to challenge the Pentagon in their zeal to brand the veterans as psychological cases. These civilian researchers and clinicians were proposing that the Gulf War Syndrome was a real condition that was, in fact, due to exposures to toxic chemical and biological materials that resulted in chronic illnesses with nonspecific signs and symptoms. Unfortunately, because of infighting and egos, the civilian researchers and clinicians could not decide among themselves how to present a uniform front to the public and to Congress, and thus they were easy to vanquish by frontal assault. It was surprisingly easy to 'roll over' the few voices that were speaking out against the all powerful Pentagon and CIA.

The DoD even convened meetings on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses and conveniently forgot to invite some of their key detractors, and they would enlist their grant and contract powers to reward those who would without hesitation go along with the entire PTSD program just to receive some Pentagon funding. Thus in the early years of 'Gulf War Syndrome' research over SO°Ic) of the grant and contract awards from the Federal Government were for psychiatric studies. These would, of course, support the notion that Gulf War Syndrome was just PTSD. After all, what else would one expect from psychiatrists and psychologists? Didn't they receive their grants to study PTSD in Gulf War veterans? The DoD and/or the CIA went so far as to hire freelance authors to write comical pieces for various magazines that ridiculed the veterans and belittled their illnesses, all in an attempt to deflect criticism of the Medical Corps and the fact that they could not explain or successfully treat Gulf War Syndrome. Eventually the McNichols would fall into this 'target' category and join a growing group of researchers that questioned the wisdom of the mighty Pentagon. They would even become the brunt of dark humor and other assaults on their intelligence, integrity and loyalty by the 'hired guns' sent to discredit anyone who dared disagree with the official stance that Gulf War Syndrome was caused by stress and was just PTSD. No one wanted to hear that our Armed Forces might not have been fully prepared for modern combat against a second rate power that possessed unconventional weapons of mass destruction or that their preparations themselves might have been part of the problem.

A new veterans' illness or is it similar to civilian illnesses?

From their work with the unknown chronic illnesses in the U. S. Army's Airborne Divisions, Jared and Marie began to work with other units, such as the U.S. Army Special Forces Units that were stationed at the same bases with the paratroopers in North Carolina and air assault forces in Kentucky and some of the Navy SEAL units at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. The casualties were piling up faster than anyone could imagine, and there was much to do but little in the way of funds to help the veterans. In some units almost every other soldier was sick, and they were leaving the military in droves, either on their own or after medical boards set up to evaluate their medical conditions made the decision for them. Since no one was keeping track of the personnel that left the military for medical reasons, it was convenient to just write these veterans off and forget about them. After all, they were now the VA's problem.

Jared and Marie realized that something must be done to avert a disaster in the making, so a fateful decision was made that would change their lives forever and seal their fates in academia. It didn't seem like a difficult decision at the time. The veterans needed help, and they felt that it was their duty as parents of a veteran and loyal Americans to do something, anything, to help those in need, especially since they were not receiving the assistance that they needed from the government.

Thus the McNichols would start on a long and miserable road that almost bankrupted them and cost them their jobs and their future. In the process their idealism and zeal to uncover the truth would be severely tested along with their unwavering loyalty to the Armed Forces personnel who were placed in harm's way in 1991. They would be vilified by the Pentagon's Medical Corps and the CIA and made academic lepers by their peers and associates in academia. If they had only known their futures at this point in time, they would have thought much more carefully about interfering with military affairs and 'National Security' issues. But to let the veterans suffer without proper assistance was also unacceptable to Jared and Marie, so they would just have to suck it up and take the consequences of their actions.

Beginning to amass the data on Gulf War Illnesses

At the end of 1993 Jared had devised and sent out a preliminary questionnaire or health survey form to sick members of the Special Forces and Airborne units that they had interacted with during the last year or so. The idea was to document just what kinds of health problems they were having. Jared was assisted in this effort by some detailed information sent to him and Marie from veterans with whom they had been in contact with over the years. The idea was to make a table of signs and symptoms so that they could be compared with other illnesses or conditions from the literature. At the time the so called 'Desert Storm Illness' in the military was not widely known by the American public, except for some complaints by veterans that were aired as individual accounts mostly in local newspapers.

The mainstream press was just beginning to suspect that there might be a problem from the Gulf War, but for the most part the national press never would dive very deep into the issue. They would be and still are heavily influenced by the VA and Pentagon spin-doctors who were masters at deception and deflecting any possible criticism of military policies. Away from the press, Jared had assembled a small group of interested physicians and technicians with Marie to go over the data that continued to come in from veterans and active duty military personnel. In his office in front of a table with the few interested colleagues from Austin Jared listed the various signs and symptoms complaints that had come in on a white board using a black erasable pen.

Jared addressed the assembled informal group. "Let's see now, thank you all for coming. I would like your opinions on the following data. I have listed the signs and symptoms that we have obtained from the veterans who became sick after their service in the Gulf War in the first column. In looking through the literature I have found some of the signs and symptoms of similar chronic illnesses using Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and for comparison, I have listed these in the second column. I have listed the signs and symptoms from Marie's almost fatal illness in the third column."

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Jared continued, "From the list 1 can't see much of a difference between the groups." Dr. Herlyn, a German physician who was a visiting research associate with Jared spoke first. "It's difficult to assess such illnesses when the signs and symptoms are so nonspecific." Jared responded, "I agree completely. This is probably one of the main reasons that these illnesses have caused so much confusion. They can't be diagnosed from the complaints of veterans without further information."

Primary care physicians could not get a grip on the illnesses from the Gulf War because there was nothing unique about the symptoms presentation that would allow them to be easily assigned to diagnosis categories. "We'll know more when we design a new survey form and send it out to enough veterans and civilians," suggested Jared. "But at least for now, it appears that the Gulf War Syndrome is not likely to be a new syndrome-it most closely resembles Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in its signs and symptoms but it tends to be more severe from the reports that we have received, more like what Marie suffered from in the late 80s." Marie added, "The worst part for me was the nonstop nausea and muscle and joint pain. I could hardly move without pain that you can't imagine." Jared continued, "At the height of Marie's illness she could barely move, and I thought that she would become paralyzed and not ever be able to move her left arm and leg again. But with antibiotic treatment and physical therapy she made a complete recovery." Marie related to the group, "I had such severe headaches that I thought that my head was going to explode! I never thought that I would recover, but I did-it took over a year just to begin to feel normal again." Jared added, "At least you recovered, Marie. These veterans are not recovering for the most part. They are not being offered anything in the way of effective treatments, except for antidepressants and other mood-altering drugs to treat their 'psychological' problems. This is a disgrace. But there is not much that we can do about it, except gather more evidence and try to find out what is happening to these veterans."

The mood was somber in the group. It's difficult to work on something without official assistance, especially without financial support for the rather expensive lab tests and analyses that had to be performed. Jared knew from his experience that it would be difficult to move the Federal bureaucracy to even consider that something other than psychological problems might be causing some of the illnesses from the Gulf War. There seemed to be a stonewall when it came to this issue, and Jared and Marie wondered why there was such resistance to finding out what happened in the Persian Gulf.
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