WEEK 7: The Military Covers Something Up Again

Surprise, surprise, another instance of the military messing up, and nothing comes out of it. Luckily this time someone did not have to pay for the military's "mess up" with their life. It is bad enough being a U.S. marine and having to fight for your life on the front lines, but when you have to worry about your life when you are on your own home turf, that is when things get scary.

David Faye, a Pfc in the marines looked death in the eye for 3 days while he was in ICU because of a reaction to a shot the military gave him. It wasn't a shot from a gun or anyhting like that, but from a syringe. David and his unit were supposedly getting vaccinated, but after the shot, things started going way wrong, and was forced to be put in ICU 3 months later.

When you are in the military and anything happens medically, it is supposed to be documented in their medical records, but after Faye got the shot, there was nothing listed on his medical record on November 28th, which is when it happened. It wasn't until Faye's mother called the U.S. Marine Hospital to ask what the shot was did they put it on his records. When his mother called, they told her that the type of shot was confidential, and that they couldn't tell her what it was. The shot showed up 11 months later on his medical records as a flu vaccine. Is that the best they could come up with? A flu vaccine? Did they have some kind of meeting to figure out what to put on his records and come up with a flu vaccine?

I have heard about the military using people as "guinea pigs" to test certain biological weapons, and using the "it's for the greater good" excuse. They don't use it on prisoners, or maybe people who might be on death row, but on their own service men and women, who have the courage to go and fight for their country. Why would the military dishonor someone who has the honor to die for their country by making them die in such a cowardly way.

To me this is just another instance in thousands of instances where the military keeps things extremely confidential to cover something up that they know is wrong. It seems that the military and the government can get away with whatever they want by just covering it up. I am still convinced that a lot of the events that started the biggest wars in our country's history was the government doing it to make an extra dollar. Call me crazy but the government is about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, and war makes a LOT of money, and also deprives people of a lot of money as well.

Although Lavena Johnson wasn't as lucky as David Faye to still be alive, I still think that the ability the military has to cover anything up is ashamed. Lavena Johnson and David Faye's case are just two of many that show that there is something fishy going on within the military. Our soldiers deserve more dignity than this. Getting raped and calling it a suicide? Getting some kind of weird biological weapon tried on you and calling it a flu vaccine? Come on, give our soldiers some respect; they chose to serve their country, let them get that chance.