Comment on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses Task Force; FR Doc. #2013-11384; Stallard, Alonzo Clark

24th Infantry 197th Inf Brigade Desert Shield/Desert Storm Veteran,It is good to see that The Task Force is working on this GWI .Many years I have pushed through this sickness pushing myself through work and building some kind of life with a wife and children working and struggling until I could no longer cope . I feel and I know its not just in my head . For the unfortunate ones PTSD is one thing and you top that illness with an additive of an unknown illness can bring any person to the extent of giving up on life itself and the Studies are bringing new hope for us Gulf War Veterans yet at times and past evidence of what I have read and what has been done , there is some skepticism . First and fore front the Task Force should make all Veteran Administration Doctors aware of whats going on in these studies with the time frame of these war Veterans. What I have experienced is that these are good Doctors yet they are just not informed or either they go around the fact maybe there is more to what we Veterans are trying to tell them because its hard to cure or diagnose a unknown illness .I had read on a study documented at Georgetown University of new ways to detect GWI or what we may call a similarity between healthy Veterans and Sick Veterans with fMri on brain scans .Is this type of research recognized? And why is it that the Doctors at the VA is not informed through further education of this type of research.As a Veteran I am sure there are thousands like me find such research being done read about it ,talk to our Doctors about it , yet feel we are speaking to deaf ears because we are the patient not the educator nor the scientist nor the one with the framed degree on the wall. So in conclusion its good to know we got a big title, that sounds good like Task Force working for us but little if the Task Force does not communicate and educate with Veteran Hospitals .Thank you for all the work that is being done and I honor those who care for our health.