by Floyd Smoots » Wed Dec 28, 2005 10:50 pm
O.K., folks, I'm not all the way thru the above links yet, but, I have to give you my personal testimony about our beloved impersonal government. In 1969, I "volunteered" to join the U.S. Navy, in order to countermand my draft notice that I was being conscripted into the Army. Of course, this was smack dab in the middle of the "Late Vietnamese Unpleasantness". I'll try to be brief here, but honest.<br><br>In week two of US Navy boot camp, at Great Lakes Naval Recruit Training Center, I, along with my boot camp company (#582), were lined up in front of our bunks, and presented with paper forms which we were "ordered" to sign. We were further ordered not to read the papers, but only to sign them. I immediately smelled bullshit, so, as an avid, and very fast reader, I "scanned" my form. We were "volunteering" for, oh my goodness, NAMRU!!! NAMRU, the god of Research!!! Autually, it was an acronym (don't "they" love them?), for NAval Medical Research Unit. "FLU" research, according to the paper, don't ya just luv it?<br><br>They "thirded" us. One third of us were given live "influenza virus" (me), one third an experimental flu vaccine, and of course, the last third water placebos. Then, they just waited to see what would happen. Fortunately, no one was hospitalized, or died, but MANY of us were some miserable sons-of-bitches for several weeks of our programmed 12 week training.<br><br>I know it's not a real horror story, but, I add it to the mix just to show that I don't discount out of hand, ANYONE'S testimony about the underhanded, evil perfidy of the government of these Untied States, which I once, long long ago, in galaxy far far away, believed had the best interests of its citizens at heart.<br><br>As an addendum and an end-it-up-um, I will note, for the record, that I have never had another flu shot in my life, and that in the ensuing 36 years of life, I have had very widely separated bouts (TWO) of influenza since that time. Go figure.<br> <p></p><i></i>
