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"My claim to fame was that I was the first
black British Guy in the Gulf. And I was quite impressed and happy about that. Intially I
liked the army because when I first joined it was something I wanted
to do from when I was a kid and when I got accepted it was like
everything had gone right for me. It was the one thing that I had always
wanted. I wanted to excell at something, I wanted to be able to show
myself off basically. But now when I look back, the way they treated
me towards the end I wished I had never joined. I used to play
football for the Corp, I used to play cricket, rugby.
I represented my Unit at boxing. I represented my Corp in athletics and
I also taught water skiing. I'm a qualified refree and now I'm left with nothing.
Initially there was side effects but after speaking to a medic out there he told us that they hadn't been tested on humans, they had only been tested on animals. My platoon sergeant actually told me to take the tablets and I refused at the time after speaking to this medic and then I was given a direct order by my commanding officer that if I didn't take them I would be like charged. About two years ago I was diagnosed with having Von Willebrand's Disease which is a form of haemophilia where your blood doesn't clot. I've been diagnosed as having a possible muscular dystrophy and basically my body is just repairing itself. If I did any exercises where my muscles and my spine is concerned my back just goes into spasm and I collapse. From the time I knew I was going to be medically discharged I thought well I need to have a different avenue to like focus on. So I thought I would come back to college and study art and design. I feel myself, that I've had to dig deep basically and bring my inner strength back out to carry on, to start a new life basically." They won't be giving me a pension for Gulf War Syndrome because at the present moment they won't even acknowledge it. But what they are willing to give me a pension for is the fact that I have been medically discharged from the forces now."
Glen Taylor, Army Private. |
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