Green Beret has Creutzfeldt-Jakob

[donsu]

http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Nov/11232003/nation_w/113742.asp

Green Beret nearly court-martialed before rare disease found

-- By the time he shipped out for the war in Iraq in January, Special Forces Sgt. James Alford was a wreck of a soldier.
For five months, he had been doing odd things. He had disappeared from Fort Campbell, Ky., for several days. He lost equipment and lied to superiors. In December, he was demoted from staff sergeant to sergeant.
In the Kuwaiti desert, he came apart. The hotshot Green Beret who a year earlier ran circles around his team members and was recommended for a Bronze Star in Afghanistan was ordered to carry a notepad to remember orders. By March, he was being cited for dereliction of duty, larceny and lying to superiors. He couldn't even keep track of his gas mask.
Finally, in April, his commanders had had enough. They ordered him to return to Fort Campbell to be court-martialed and kicked out of the Special Forces.

-snip-

Sensing something was wrong, a neighbor called Alford's parents. They drove 600 miles from east Texas to find a son who had lost 30 pounds and could no longer drink from a glass, use a telephone, button his shirt or say "Amber," the name of his soldier wife.
They rushed him to an emergency room. A month and several hospitals later, Alford's family learned he was dying of a disease eating away his brain. He had Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, an extremely rare and fatal degenerative brain disorder akin to mad cow disease that causes rapid, progressive dementia.

-snip-

But the dying soldier's family wants more. They want a public apology for the ridicule and disgrace that they say filled Alford's final days of service.
"They called him stupid, told him he was lazy, he was a liar, that he wasn't any good, that he was a faker," his mother said, recalling what little her son could tell her about his time in Kuwait. "I want them shamed the way they shamed my son."
And they want his pay restored and his medical benefits maintained. The Army declared Alford medically incompetent, placed him on retirement status and froze his pay until his parents can prove in court they are his legal guardians. His mother said she was given power of attorney long ago.
-snip-
--------------------------

how many more Creutzfeldt-Jakob will turn up? I've been seeing more and different reports every day.

[bluedeminredstate]

1. OMG!!!

Thank you for posting this. I was calm until today when I starting reading the various stories coming out. I think I'll call my
daughter-in-law and ask her if she still favors a "smaller government with few regulations"?

[Cocoa]

2. this should become a huge story

a bizarre conjunction of the Mad Cow story with the Iraq war story.

Plus, it involves a soldier. Time's Person of the Year, remember?

But something tells me the TV people will decide it's not of interest to us...

[barbaraann]

3. I'm wondering if Ronald Reagan has this disease.

Has he been seen in public lately?

[roguevalley]

4. I read about this two weeks ago. This is tremendously sad.

Poor damned guy. Then they haze him. The cretins.
Mad cow. What a terrible way to die.