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My mother, who is in her 70s, told me recently she made a new friend that she's spending a lot of time with lately. I was happy to hear this at first, because she hasn't made many new friends since a move a couple of years ago, but then she told me some things about this friend that make me suspicious.
This woman says she served during the Gulf War, which is perfectly believable. She also had another couple of claims that made me start to doubt her. First, she claims to suffer from "Gulf War Syndrome" and my mother says that this woman claims to still cough up oil sometimes from the well fires. From what I've read there's very little evidence that Gulf War Syndrome cases have a common cause and have anything to do with the conflict, and secondly the claim to be coughing up oil 15 years after exposure to it seems weird too.
The second claim, which I think SHOULD be pretty easy to verify as false, is that she was hit by shrapnel and still has shrapnel in her. She claims to be US Army, and I saw that there were only 466 non-mortal injuries during Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and though I couldn't find the casualties for this conflict broken down by demographics, in other conflicts (like the current one), females make up a tiny percentage of combat injuries. I wouldn't be surprised if there were less than a half-dozen female soldiers injured in that conflict altogether, and of those I find it unlikely that some would still have shrapnel in them, unless it was lodged very near a vital organ.
I'm pretty sure we're just dealing with a habitual liar here, but I'd like my Mom to be informed in case she starts trying to borrow money or otherwise exploit my mother. Can anyone help me find the statistics I'd need to verify/disprove this?
This woman says she served during the Gulf War, which is perfectly believable. She also had another couple of claims that made me start to doubt her. First, she claims to suffer from "Gulf War Syndrome" and my mother says that this woman claims to still cough up oil sometimes from the well fires. From what I've read there's very little evidence that Gulf War Syndrome cases have a common cause and have anything to do with the conflict, and secondly the claim to be coughing up oil 15 years after exposure to it seems weird too.
The second claim, which I think SHOULD be pretty easy to verify as false, is that she was hit by shrapnel and still has shrapnel in her. She claims to be US Army, and I saw that there were only 466 non-mortal injuries during Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and though I couldn't find the casualties for this conflict broken down by demographics, in other conflicts (like the current one), females make up a tiny percentage of combat injuries. I wouldn't be surprised if there were less than a half-dozen female soldiers injured in that conflict altogether, and of those I find it unlikely that some would still have shrapnel in them, unless it was lodged very near a vital organ.
I'm pretty sure we're just dealing with a habitual liar here, but I'd like my Mom to be informed in case she starts trying to borrow money or otherwise exploit my mother. Can anyone help me find the statistics I'd need to verify/disprove this?
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