Talk:Doug Rokke

Traprock Peace Center has moved from Deerfield and has apparently dumped Charles Jenks and Sunny Miller. Douglas Lind Rokke, who they heavily supported, is a fraud. Traprock, under Jenks, contributed substantially to the perpetuation and expansion of this fraud, negatively effecting thousands of veterans and their families. Rokke, shown as Colonel Rokke in the video, Poison Dust, was a low level Army reservist with delusions of grandeur and the Army nutured that by giving him titles that he was able to use to mislead the public. The real Douglas Lind Rokke, born in 1949, graduated from Libertyville High School in Illinois in 1967 and promptly enlisted in the US Air Force as an avionics technician. He served honorably for nearly four years and served in Vietnam in some capacity. He claims that he treated wounded soldiers in Vietnam. That claim is untrue. He claims combat service in Vietnam and that claim is most likely untrue, though, he may have participated as aircrew in one or more B-52 missions bombing the Viet Cong, who had no surface to air missile capability and thus could not threaten the B-52s miles above. Rokke went to college, got a degree in Physics and Criminology and briefly worked for the Joliet Police Department as a criminalist trainee. This six month employment did not however make Rokke a forensic scientist as he now claims. He also tried to become a Marine officer but washed out after one month. In 1980, he joined the Illinois Army National Guard, later the Army Reserve and was direct commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Army Reserve Medical Service Corps in 1986 after obtaining his Masters in Vocational Education with the thesis "The necessity and educational acquisition of selected vocational skills by Food Science graduates". Sergeant Rokke was apparently a good soldier and was even commended for rendering first aid to accident victims that he encountered along the highway one evening on his way home from drill. In November 1990, First Lieutenant Rokke was ordered to active duty as a filler for the 12th Medical Detachment (Preventive Medicine), Beloit, Wisconsin. Rokke claims that he was personally selected from his physics research laboratory at the University of Illinois to go clean up the Army's DU mess. In reality, Rokke was a Physical Science Technical Assistant with the University of Illinois, a job that required him to only be a high school graduate, but that did prefer a bachelor's degree in science. In March of 1991, Rokke was attached to a group led by civilian scientists from Rock Island that assessed the contamination by depleted uranium of some Bradley Fighting Vehicles and a couple of Abrams Tanks that had been hit by "friendly fire". Rokke claims to have led this group and that a number of the members had died as a result of the DU contamination. First Lieutenant Rokke was close to the bottom of the totem pole and from indications of others who were there, not a particularly good follower, let alone leader, and none of the members of the group died, let alone from being contaminated by depleted uranium. Later in March, though, Lieutenant Rokke was made a Theater Health Physicist, a temporary designation, good only while he was in Saudi Arabia/Kuwait and Iraq. Rokke now claims to be a Health Physicist even though he knows that he does not have the education or experience to work in that highly specialized scientific field. He makes that claim to have audiences and viewers believe that he Rokke is really and truly an expert in depleted uranium. He is not. Rokke returned home in early June and was released from the Army on July 1, 1991 at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin. This is important because Rokke now claims to be an expert on the July 11, 1991 fires and explosions at Camp Doha, Kuwait. Rokke never was there and he never returned to Saudi Arabia or Kuwait either. Rokke returned to the University of Illinois to his old job and also completed his doctorate in Vocational Education (not Physics, not Medicine, as he often infers in his appearances and videos) with the thesis "Perceived physics concepts needed to teach secondary technology education as general education". You will note that this thesis had nothing to do with research into depleted uranium but this is how Rokke became Doctor Rokke, a title he constantly brandishes as making him an unquestioned expert on the subject. In 1994, Lieutenant Rokke applied for a one-year special tour at Fort McClellan, Alabama and was promoted to Captain. Rokke now claims that this made him Director of the Army's DU program when in reality he was the liaison officer with a contractor that was preparing DU awareness training materials. Captain Rokke was also interviewed for an article that appeared in Armor Magazine which told its readers that a bandana, wrapped around the face, covering the nose and mouth, was adequate to protect against the depleted uranium oxide dust. Rokke now claims that the standard Army gas mask will not protect agains the nano-particles of ceramic DU oxide. He knows how to use words; that is what his doctorate is in, teaching people using simple concepts, and he misused that every time he takes the stage on a Traprock sponsored tour. Rokke also very briefly worked for the Army at Fort McClellan as a civilian employee and that is probably when he decided to get even by lying about depleted uranium. Rokke did not make it through probation. A nearby university, Jacksonville State in Alabama, though, hired Rokke as a Visiting Assistant Professor to teach undergraduate science classes for two academic years. While he was at Jacksonville State, Rokke began his active lying about depleted uranium by claiming to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that he was an insider who knew something about the Navy's accidental use of DU rounds at Vieques, Puerto Rico. In 1999, Rokke was invited to speak by the Cambridge University Anti-Iraq Sanctions Committee and Rokke found his calling, travelling around the world spreading lies about who he is and about his personal campaign against depleted uranium. Somehow, the Army Reserve also managed to promote Captain Rokke to Major in the Army Reserve in about 2000, but by March 2001, he no longer was actively participating in a reserve unit and in September 2003, his participation was so marginal that he was transferred to the retired reserve. We now have Major Rokke and Doctor Rokke. Major Rokke never served in Desert Storm; Lieutenant Rokke did from the safety of the HQ in Riyadh; and Doctor Rokke never studied depleted uranium or radiation physics. For more on the myth of Douglas Lind Rokke, write to the author of this unauthorized biography at DUStory-owner@yahoogroups.com