Justice for my dad
Claire fought for my dad when the government wouldn’t
By Beverly Howe, daughter of Arla Harrell.
My father is a good man, who loved his family and served his country — but for almost 30 years he lived with a secret. As an army soldier in World War II, my father, Arla Harrell, was subjected to mustard gas experiments as part of a secret program by the American military. This caused him terrible health complications for his whole life, such as strokes, skin cancer, and pulmonary issues. The military denied the existence of this secret program and for more than 70 years, my father suffered without receiving the benefits he had earned. Even when the government finally admitted that they had carried out these experiments, they continued to deny the claims we filed to get dad the treatment he deserved. My father was one of 60,000 soldiers subjected to mustard gas in these experiments.
I still remember the first time my father told me about what he had gone through. I was interviewing him for a school paper and asked him about his time in the army. He reluctantly told me about the experiments, but told me we couldn’t tell anyone about them. The government had set an oath of secrecy around the experiments and didn’t lift it until 1991. Our family filed a claim right away to get my father the care he needed for his growing complications. We ended up filing claims again and again over the next 25 years, and each time we were denied. Over that time my father’s health only got worse, and my mother ended up selling our house because it was too hard to take care of my father and keep up the house at the same time. She used what money she got from the sale to help with nursing home expenses for my dad and prescription costs that weren’t covered by his benefits.
Claire joins the fight
It wasn’t until Senator Claire McCaskill started fighting for my father that we were able to get him the benefits he had earned, and the justice he deserved. Like me, Claire’s the daughter of a World War II veteran, so she knows what it means to serve. When Claire launched her investigation and found out that my dad was the last living veteran in Missouri that had been a part of these experiments, she fought tooth and nail to get him his benefits. Claire launched a full investigation into the VA and introduced a bill named after my father called the Arla Harrell Act.
Claire was there for my father when the government refused to be. I’ll never forget that.
This bipartisan bill was a huge win for veterans across the country. Here are the three things the bill did that changed the lives of so many veterans:
- First, the bill made it so the VA had to go back and review all the veterans’ claims they had previously denied — including my father’s.
- The bill changed the claims process altogether to make it easier for veterans who were aging, sick, and struggling with the lengthy appeal process.
- Most importantly, the bill shifted the burden of proof to the VA in the claims approval process.
Before the bill passed, it was veterans and their families that had to prove that they had been subjected to these secret experiments — but many of us didn’t have access to the army documents that would have served as proof. Even if we had access to those documents, my father’s files — like many other veterans’ — were lost to a devastating fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis back in 1973.
Thanks to Claire’s hard work, the Arla Harrell Act passed Congress and was signed by the President last year. My father can’t speak now. We communicate mostly through nods and smiles. But the look on his face when we finally won said everything. Because of Claire, my father felt like the government was finally saying they believed him — that they finally recognized the sacrifice he made for his country. Claire fought for my father like he was her own family because that’s just who she is. She’s fighting for all Missouri families, no matter who you are or what party you belong to. Claire has been our champion. We couldn’t ask for a better Senator.
