VETERANS FOR COMMON SENSE Press Advisory

Gulf War Veterans and Families of Current Service Members Question U.S. Military Build-Up in the Gulf

Time: 9:15 am, January 15, 2003

Location: West Room, National Press Club

529 14th Street, NW, Washington, DC

Contact: Jen Nader

202-543-6176

jnader@igc.org

To mark the 12th anniversary of the start of the 1991 Gulf War, Veterans for Common Sense (VCS) and Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) will hold a joint press conference to highlight critical questions the Bush administration has failed to address regarding Iraq. Panelists include Desert Storm combat veterans who know war and its consequences firsthand and family members of service members who have recently deployed to the Persian Gulf.

Military families and Gulf War veterans will ask President George W. Bush to reassure them and an increasingly alarmed public that his administration is not hell bent on conflict. With no "smoking gun" or "clear and present danger," war with Iraq is neither necessary nor inevitable. Americans feel the President has failed to justify a U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. We encourage him to win without war by adhering to the UN process. Yet U.S. preparations for a second major war in Iraq continue.

Wednesday's national press conference will mark the first time that families with deployed service members and Gulf War veterans have joined together to raise legitimate questions about our administration's headlong rush to war.

Panelists will include:

Moderator: Erik Gustafson, Board of Directors, VCS. Gustafson served in the 1991 Gulf War as a Specialist with the Army's 864th Engineer Combat Battalion (Heavy). He currently directs the Education for Peace in Iraq Center (EPIC), a Washington-based human rights organization.

Charles Sheehan-Miles, Board of Directors, VCS. A decorated Gulf War veteran, Sheehan-Miles served as a tank crewman with the Army's 24th Infantry Division. Former President of the National Gulf War Resource Center, he has worked for years to secure healthcare and disability benefits for ill Gulf War veterans.

Nancy Lessin and Charley Richardson, Co-founders, MFSO. Richardson directs the Labor Extension Program at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell. Lessin works for the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. Their son Joe, an Arab language specialist in the Marines, has deployed to the Persian Gulf.

Jeffrey McKenzie, Co-Founder, MFSO. His son, Army Captain Jeremy McKenzie, is currently being deployed to Kuwait. His daughter-in-law Nicole is in the National Guard.

Steve Robinson, Executive Director, National Gulf War Resource Center. Prior to retiring as a Sergeant First Class from the Army, Robinson worked with the Pentagon's Office of the Special Assistant for Gulf War Illnesses. During the Gulf War, he served with the 1st /10th Special Forces in northern Iraq.

Other military families and Gulf War combat veterans will be present and available for questions.

VCS - 504 Eleventh St. SE, Washington, DC 20003 - 703-668-0353 - www.VeteransForCommonSense.org MFSO - P.O. Box 549, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130 - 617-522-9323