Matthew awoke in a panic in his Bronx apartment. He rolled over in his bed and realized his precious Victoria was sleeping peacefully beside him.

The baby, born June 29, 2004, is missing three fingers and most of her right hand, and Matthew, 31, keeps fighting off the depression and guilt.

His wife, Janise, became pregnant shortly after he returned from Iraq. He arrived suffering from an illness the Army doctors couldn't explain. One side of his face swelled up each morning. He had constant migraine headaches, blurred vision, blackouts and a burning sensation when he urinated.

The couple suspected from the start that the baby's deformity had something to do with Matthew's illness.

A few months after Victoria's birth, this column revealed that Matthew, a specialist with the 719th Army National Guard Transport Company, had tested positive for depleted uranium exposure in screening tests sponsored by the Daily News.

Matthew was the fifth of 10 New York Army National Guard soldiers - the others were all members of the 442nd Military Police unit - to show signs of depleted uranium exposure in tests conducted for The News by a scientist at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany.

Depleted uranium is a low-level radioactive material that has been used by the Pentagon since the Persian Gulf War in artillery penetrators and in the plating for M-1 tanks.

Opponents of DU say the microscopic radioactive dust released by exploding shells can lodge in a person's lungs for years and cause physical or genetic damage. But Pentagon officials have repeatedly defended its use as safe.

All 10 guardsmen tested by The News had been sent home from Iraq in 2003 with similar, unexplained illnesses. They all said that Army doctors tried to dissuade them from getting tested for DU.

Their shocking story touched off a national firestorm. They were featured in a big article in Vanity Fair magazine last December, and a documentary film, "Poison Dust," has been released about their experiences and the effects of DU.

They have become outspoken advocates for their fellow war veterans and fierce opponents of depleted uranium.

This month, Matthew, his wife and the baby traveled to Japan on a trip sponsored by that country's Campaign for the Abolition of Depleted Uranium. Their appearances received widespread coverage in the Japanese media.

"I was examined by two doctors in Kyoto who have treated victims of radiation exposure for decades," Matthew said. "Both told me some of my symptoms are similar to what they've seen in their own patients."

After the Japan trip, Matthew and several of the guardsmen joined with state Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz to announce a new bill the Bronx Democrat is sponsoring to protect veterans.

The bill, similar to legislation passed this year in Connecticut, would direct the New York State Division of Veterans' Affairs to aid any soldier or veteran in obtaining proper testing for depleted uranium.

A report released last month by the U.S. General Accounting Office confirmed that there are major problems with the Pentagon's health testing for reserve troops.

"[The Defense Department] is unable to determine the extent to which the reserve components comply with routine medical and physical fitness examination requirements," the report concluded.

The GAO also blasted the Pentagon for not enforcing its own requirements for proper health testing of reserves and for not keeping uniform data bases on testing.

For Matthew, who was so apolitical he never even voted before last year, becoming a national advocate for veterans was unexpected.

But when he thinks of all the anguish and obstacles Victoria will confront in her life, he figures this is the least he can do for her, for his fellow veterans, and for all those Iraqi civilians who will face the nightmare consequences of this war for decades to come.

Mea culpa: In a Nov. 15 column, I misidentified lawyer Jerry Goldfeder. My apologies.

© 2005 Daily News, L.P.

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