'Toxic vets' seek compensation for tests

Wait, maybe this is how you support the troops: by dumping VX gas on them. Only a handful of them were really hurt by it anyway. I know what you're thinking...our government doesn't do things like this.

UPI -

Veterans of the Army's Deseret Test Center in Utah say they've been denied health claims after being used as unwitting guinea pigs for Cold War toxin tests.

The U.S. government says only a handful of long-term illnesses resulted from soldiers being unknowingly exposed to chemical and biological agents in test programs at the center, including VX, sarin and E. coli, the Salt Lake Tribune reported Monday.

But some "toxic vets" disagree, complaining they're being unfairly denied claims since they suffered illnesses from the tests.

Deseret veteran Dwight Bunn, 65, who suffers from restrictive lung disease, says he has asked the Veterans Administration for care and compensation for his condition, but his claim has been denied.

"I've been exposed to a hell of a lot of stuff," he told the Tribune. "Can I say definitively what did this to me? No I can't. But I've never lied about it. The military -- it conducted tests on humans and didn't acknowledge it. That's not right."

A spokeman for the Military Health System says renewed efforts to locate vets exposed to chemical and biological testing will likely wrap up next year, the newspaper said.