Falcon's cry

by Donnelly, Michael

In 1996 Major Donnelly was diagnosed with ALS, Lou Gehrig's Disease, at the unusually young age of 35; the onset of this illness marked the beginning of a kind of torture beyond the scope of even the most rigorous military survival training. Betrayed by his body, eventually paralyzed and confined to a wheel-chair, he experienced another betrayal perhaps even more difficult to comprehend - betrayal by his country. For despite the fact that over 110,000 Desert Storm veterans are sick, many dying of mysterious cancers and neurological diseases, including more than ten times the normal incidence of ALS - and despite all evidence pointing to U.S. troops having been dosed by low levels of Iraqi nerve agents and exposed to chemical weapons' fallout - the Pentagon adamantly denies any connection between their illnesses and their service in the Gulf War. A first step has been taken toward justice for the tens of thousands of Desert Storm veterans who are suffering virtually in isolation, many w