Widow's VA claim of depleted uranium gaining steam

Widow's VA claim gaining steam
Press-Register - al.com - Mobile, AL,USA
Monday, July 28, 2008
By GEORGE WERNETH
Staff Reporter
A Mobile woman says she was encouraged recently when a Department of Veterans Affairs appeals judge agreed to review a claim involving her late husband, who believed that his Army exposure to radiation triggered his deadly cancer.

Theresa Orrell said she has been struggling with the VA over her husband's case for nine years, seeking acknowledgement of the dangers that he faced, as well as compensation for her family.


About six weeks before dying in 1999, Lt. Col. William A. Orrell III, an Army Reserve officer, filed a claim with the VA, certain that his pancreatic cancer was connected with his encounter with depleted uranium in Kuwait. He was 56 when he died.

Last month, an appeals judge, Lisa Barnard, took Orrell's depleted uranium death claim under advisement after a hearing in Montgomery. A ruling is expected in six to nine months.

"I was encouraged because this judge was more down-to-earth than the previous judge and she wanted all the facts," Theresa Orrell said.

There had been a huge explosion and fire involving U.S. military vehicles containing depleted uranium on July 11, 1991, in Doha, Kuwait, and he was sent two days later to inspect them, she said. That's when he believed he was exposed to high levels of radiation, Theresa Orrell said. She said the vehicles were still smoldering while he inspected them.
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