Frankie Sadowski hated waiting. Butterflies had invaded his stomach. The palms of his hands perspired as he clutched the rim of his hat. His daughter, Susan, sat quietly by his side. They were told to stay outside the hearing room and asked not to wander far from the corridor. He tried to keep his mind focused on why he was there in the first place. The reason he had agreed to do this.
It all started with the reunion. They’d grown into old men who complained about their various health issues as though their surgeries were badges of honor. Frankie smiled at that. Once upon a time this same group bragged about their children, their promotions, even their golf handicaps. But this reunion was a litany of ailments. It wasn’t long before the eight men realized each of them had gone through or suffered from too many of the same things: pulmonary infections, chronic respiratory problems, and pulmonary fibrosis. Duke Hutchins had had five heart bypass surgeries. Calvin Clark was getting ready for his fourth.
At first they had laughed. By the end of the evening they were elbowing each other in smaller groups, whispering their suspicions. Was it possible that their time in the service had had anything to do with so many illnesses?
Frankie shared their concerns with Susan, who was a nurse. Immediately she said it was a strange coincidence. She started doing research. Frankie had never even heard of SHAD until she explained that it was an acronym for Shipboard Hazard and Defense. The tests were part of Project 112 and were conducted secretly from 1962 until around 1974. She told him about veterans getting sick.
The government, of course, had denied any such tests until 2002. Since then Congress had held hearings, ordered study after study, tried to enact legislation—but all of it had simply put off doing anything about the servicemen who had been exposed. And consequently, it allowed the VA to deny those servicemen any benefits or compensation.
Frankie figured they would just keep putting it off until all of them were dead. He wasn’t sure how anyone had managed to bring it back to life. Another congressional hearing. Another possibility of getting some help for his friends.
Frankie’s buddies had christened him their crusader. Slapped him on his back and wished him well. They even took up a collection among themselves to pay for Frankie’s flight to D.C. He felt bad about that. None of them had extra money sitting around. He hadn’t asked for their money or their trust. He simply wanted answers, and he wanted his friends to finally get the medical benefits they deserved.
Frankie started coughing and Susan offered him a bottle of water. He took it and sipped. The cough had gotten worse. He hadn’t told Susan about the blood he’d hacked up the other day. At Segway House he was afraid Hannah would notice that her little dog named Grace could obviously smell his cancer. Hannah had barely finished telling him that the dog was capable of doing just that when Frankie noticed Grace staring at him, long and hard.
Now all Frankie cared about was that if he could help Gus and the others, then this would be worth it. He thought about Gus being worried about his grandson. The kid had come home from Afghanistan without one hand. What they’d been through might have caused them some health issues, but at least all his buddies were in one piece. He couldn’t imagine going through life with only one hand.
Maybe they were silly to be fixated on a stupid government test that had been kept secret for sixty years. Even Gus had said that if they were able to keep secret who killed Kennedy for this long, how did they ever expect to bust open Project 112?
Frankie shook his head thinking about Gus. He knew his friend didn’t have much time left, either. Frankie knew Gus was dying, too. But he knew this not because Gus had told him. He wasn’t sure Gus even knew. Nor did he know it because of his daughter, who was a nurse at the care facility that Gus went to. If she did know, she’d never divulge that information to her father.
No, Frankie knew that Gus was dying because that’s what the man from the government had told him. The man who had visited him a week ago and suggested what Frankie should and shouldn’t say during his testimony.
Frankie and his friends knew the government might try to discourage them from testifying. They had battled with their VA for years now. And they knew there were others like them who had been fighting this fight for many more years. All of them had been denied benefits, first because the government denied Project 112 and Project SHAD even existed, then because the government’s studies claimed those projects did not hurt any military personnel. Of course, their own studies would not show any evidence despite private studies showing the opposite.
So Frankie wasn’t surprised to have someone visit him and try to guide his testimony. He didn’t care. It was too late to worry about himself. But he didn’t want the others to worry, so Frankie hadn’t told Gus about the man. He hadn’t told Susan, either. In fact, he hadn’t told a single soul.
25.