Exposure to Depleted Uranium Cause of Raging Cancer?

[FayeforCure]

Today's front page story in the Daytona New Journal reminds me of the heroic efforts of Michael Donnelly:

Tuesday, December 25, 2001

Michael Donnelly was at the top of his game flying combat missions in the Persian Gulf war. His plane, the F-16, was handsome and sophisticated. Tall and strapping in his olive drab flight suit, his blue eyes hidden behind aviator glasses, Major Donnelly seemed the perfect match for that machine.

Today, at 42, the retired fighter pilot and father of two needs a ventilator and a feeding tube to stay alive. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or A.L.S., has stripped him of his ability to move or speak. From his wheelchair, he communicates with his eyes, forming words by painstakingly blinking the alphabet.

It has been six years since Major Donnelly got sick, and in that time he and his family have waged an impassioned campaign to convince the government that the gulf war was to blame. In a book ( Falcon's Cry: A Desert Storm Memoir), on television and in a stream of telephone calls to the Pentagon and the Veterans Affairs Department, they pressed the case. With the Defense Department denying the existence of ''gulf war syndrome,'' it seemed a losing battle.

This month, they won.

In large part because of Major Donnelly, Anthony J. Principi, the secretary of veterans affairs, declared that A.L.S., long known as Lou Gehrig's disease, was connected to gulf war service. He ordered medical, disability and survivor benefits for those affected -- the first time the government had linked a specific illness to service in the region

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/25/us/campaign-by-pilot-s-family-secures-benefits-for-gulf-war-veterans.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=3

This one is very local and compelling in regards to the forgotten casualties of the Iraq War.

September 13, 2009

Mother soldiers on

Lori Brim is still seeking answers and military recognition for her son

By AUDREY PARENTE
Staff Writer
ORMOND BEACH -- She closed the door and climbed onto the center of her bed with a U.S. Postal Service priority package and scissors.

The parcel had arrived a week earlier. But Lori Brim procrastinated opening the box, because she knew cutting the tape would be like slitting open her heart, and she would relive the most painful part of her life.

The contents were missing belongings of her son, Army Spc. Dustin Brim, a motor-pool mechanic who died Sept. 24, 2004, less than six months after being carried from his cot out of Iraq.

She had been requesting her son's personal items from the military, along with his medical records from Iraq, to no avail despite numerous written requests on all the appropriate forms. But a recent twist of fate -- and Facebook -- turned up Dustin's belongings, although his medical records are still missing.

Opening the box meant Brim would be reminded of her son's body riddled with death -- not from bullets but from aggressive cancers.

And Lori Brim would again have to confront what she believes caused her son's painful, slow death -- although she has no proof -- exposure to radiation from minute particles of depleted uranium, a metal used to strengthen military weapons and armor.

She took from the box dozens of loving cards she had mailed him -- and he had lovingly preserved. A bullet casing tumbled out onto the bedspread. She ran her hand over a black velvet scrapbook of photos, many of which she had never seen: Dustin with his girlfriend; Dustin with his buddies; Dustin doing the things he loved.

"I cried," Brim said. "I felt like I let Dustin down because I can't make things right."

Had her son died in an ambush or from a roadside bomb, he might at least have been listed among the war casualties and remembered as a hero.

Instead, she feels her son is forgotten, his records lost in the shuffle of paperwork.

What happened to Brim's personal effects is not the norm, Army spokesman Lt. Col. Charles M. Moose said.

"The personal effects of any deceased soldier are of the utmost importance to the family. The Army understands this and makes every effort to safeguard, inventory and deliver all personal property to the primary next-of-kin in cases of soldier deaths," Moose said. "In combat zones, there may be instances where a deceased soldier's chain-of-command may not be aware of all personal property immediately. When personal effects are identified, commanders make every effort to deliver them to the soldier's family."

As to missing medical records, Moose said those normally are stored at the National Archives Records Administration in Kansas City, Mo., and the Army's Long-Term Family Case Management Office makes every effort to assist with families' requests. He said the office is still willing to continue to search, but Brim hasn't submitted any updated requests in the last few months.

Brim said she will continue to try to get those records, but she also wants to find a way for her son to be recognized as a war hero. And she still hopes to find a way to make the military acknowledge that his death and deaths of hundreds of soldiers from cancer is related to exposure to depleted uranium. She's tried lobbying legislators, contacting lawyers and communicating with other parents.

Since 2004, U.S. Rep. Jose E. Serrano has introduced legislation to help identify troops exposed during military service to depleted uranium and to provide for testing. Each year the legislation has died.

"When I began to hear press reports linking depleted uranium exposure to numerous harmful medical outcomes, I became extremely concerned," the N.Y. congressman said in an e-mail to The News-Journal. "These soldiers, who risk their lives for us overseas, deserve to know all the health threats their country has exposed them to".

"The Pentagon seems to have dragged their feet in acknowledging depleted uranium exposure as an issue," he said. "This is counterproductive and harms diagnosis, quick treatment, and the development of preventative measures."

This year Serrano has introduced House Resolution 177, which would provide soldiers with needed information about the effects of depleted uranium, to better protect their health in the future.

"I will continue to push," he said.

Brim said it will take someone with clout to change things.

"Take Pat Tillman," Brim said of the NFL player killed in Afghanistan whose cause of death was determined -- after controversy and military investigation -- to be from friendly fire. "His case was investigated because of who he was. But how many soldiers have died who don't have that kind of credibility and we can't make the authorities listen to us?"

She's speaking of numerous e-mails and letters that have come to her since Dustin's story appeared in The News-Journal in 2006, from other parents whose children have died from cancers after serving in Iraq.

Esther and Terry Bromfield of Anaheim, Calif., told Brim their 6-foot-4, 250-pound son, Spc. Travis Bromfield died in 2007 weighing 105 pounds after serving as a mechanic in Iraq. Travis fought cancers in his brain, lungs, bones, liver, kidneys and a mass on his chest before he died.

"His third doctor said, 'Your son has so much cancer -- the equivalent to someone who suffered for 40 years,' " Terry Bromfield said in a phone interview. He believes exposure to depleted uranium was the cause of his son's death, but the military has denied it.

"They said Agent Orange and Hiroshima took years for effects to show up." For that reason, his son's cancers were not likely from recent exposures, doctors told him.

Bromfield said reading Dustin's story "was like reading about our own son."

Like Brim, he too has been battling to raise awareness. And Bromfield also believes the system has failed his son. He's acquired documentation that the military determined his son's cancers are 100 percent military-related. Yet the military denies the connection to depleted uranium, he said.

The journey has been long for Dustin Brim's mom.

"I am just so let down because everything I believe in and people you want to trust, let you down," Brim said, referring to her efforts to get her son's personal belongings from Iraq.

Dustin's things from his home base in Fort Riley, Kan., arrived, but nothing else, she said.

"Everyone I was in touch with, including (U.S. Rep.) John Mica and other key VA (Veterans Affairs) people, would try" to get the belongings left behind in Iraq, she said. "One of the last people told me if the general she worked for couldn't find them, no one could and I should basically put it aside and that was that."

But when Brim least expected it, 27-year-old Army veteran Amanda Wisener wrote on the wall of her Facebook page, saying that she had personal items belonging to Dustin Brim, and "If I am his mother to please call," Brim said. She called.

From the other end of the phone in Martinsville, Va., Wisener told Brim that she had worked as a fueler at Fort Riley and had noticed soldiers searching through tactical equipment boxes during a cleanup.

"It's a big black box of hard plastic you put your gear in when you have to deploy to Iraq," Wisener said in a phone interview. "When you come back (from deployment), you ship it back. It was in a supply cage."

She said she noticed the name Dustin Brim on some of the contents. She knew the name from somewhere. Then it came to her. It was the name on her boyfriend's tattoo. Her boyfriend, Zackary Rowe, had served in Iraq with Dustin.


"I had just met Zack and we had started dating," said Wisener, now Rowe's wife. At Rowe's suggestion, she grabbed as many of Dustin's belongings as she could and tried to contact his mother through the military. No forwarding information was available. So she and Rowe held onto it until recently when they found Lori Brim's Facebook page.

Brim said she only recently created the page to see photos of the first child of her late son's former girlfriend.

It was during her phone conversation with Wisener, Brim learned about Rowe's tattoo.

"We worked and lived together -- everybody kind of buddies up. We slept in such close quarters that when I woke up I could smack his chest," Rowe said in a phone interview. "He was fine, but then he was having a pain in his stomach and they changed his diet, gave him pills for constipation. For a few months, he kept constantly going back (to get medical help)."

Another of the soldiers close to Brim, Aric Bryson of Tenneco, Neb., also recalls how Dustin suffered.

"At first we made a joke of it, but then it got to be a lot more serious," Bryson said in a phone interview. "He was just sitting on the side of his bed, curled over, holding his stomach all the time."

About that time, Rowe and Bryson were attached temporarily to other units.

Rowe said he came back periodically to the tent to pick up personal items.

"I went into the tent and Brim was the only one there. He was holding his stomach and had tears in his eyes. He was in excruciating pain and said, 'Can you get me some help?' " Rowe recalled. "So I went and got the sergeant. They told me to leave."

It was the last time Rowe saw Brim.

And by the time Bryson came back to the unit, he and Brim's fellow soldiers learned of his cancers and death.

"There wasn't a funeral, but we had a ceremony for a fallen soldier and I saved the round (shell casing) that I shot," Rowe said. "I got the tattoo on my forearm because he was a really good friend."

Rowe included the shell in the package he and his wife mailed to Lori Brim.

"I am glad I got to help bring her some closure," Rowe said.

But there is no closure, Brim said. Not until her son's death is acknowledged as a casualty of war.

audrey.parente@news-jrnl.com

http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/frtHEAD01091309.htm

[NotNow]

Very sad.  All of these kids should be honored for their service. 

The military has pretty strict handling requirements for DU rounds.  Do you know what these men did in the service? 

[Ocklawaha]

Some serious Whoop-Ass from the USS New Jersey, in March of 1969.

America whines like a bunch of school girls... Listen, I bought the farm in Vietnam, YEAH! It will probably kill me someday. So F**KING What? We knew when we joined it was for the MILITARY. The purpose of which was to KILL PEOPLE AND BREAK THINGS! Did I ever think it would be me? Hell no, everyone between 17 and 35 knows they'll NEVER die. Yet we trained to do things that we will never speak of here. We DID things you will never hear me or my compatriots speak of in public. It's called the armed forces for a reason, and no one joins without damn well knowing it by the end of bootcamp.

Do I feel for this mother? Sure, it sucks! Imagine the mothers in Japan when we fire bombed Tokyo?
Imagine the soldiers in the field that found out the Yanks had boiled their parents or baby sister alive in the drainage canals of the city. Do we really believe that nobody in the Armed forces is going to be harmed? Good grief, we PLAYED with real guns, ships, torpedo's, artillery, tanks and aircraft. As hard assed as it sounds, we swore in and promised, if needs be, to GIVE OUR LIVES for our country.  You dishonor all of us if you blame the government for our deaths or injury's.

Like NotNow, I can't imagine a time when this or any other kid would be exposed to DU, certainly not without every caution known to man. Even so these innocent little heart felt media stories have done more harm over the years then perhaps any single weapon used against us in the field of battle. How about this instance:

In WWII, we were beating the hell out of Japan with our Submarines, even when we were losing the war. Finally a media inquiry was made, how do we continue to sink enemy shipping without the loss of ANY submarines? The answer was simple enough, "The Japanese set their depth charges at 30 feet, we simply lay down at 200' and they don't even get near us!" Well guess what the headlines were the next day? Oh yeah, "Nips are setting their charges too shallow!" After this, we never again saw a 30 foot deep Japanese depth charge...

A SALUTE to my compatriots in arms, whereever you are in the world, May God bless you and keep you safe, until you come home.


OCKLAWAHA

[civil42806]

Today's front page story in the Daytona New Journal reminds me of the heroic efforts of Michael Donnelly:

Tuesday, December 25, 2001

Michael Donnelly was at the top of his game flying combat missions in the Persian Gulf war. His plane, the F-16, was handsome and sophisticated. Tall and strapping in his olive drab flight suit, his blue eyes hidden behind aviator glasses, Major Donnelly seemed the perfect match for that machine.

Today, at 42, the retired fighter pilot and father of two needs a ventilator and a feeding tube to stay alive. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or A.L.S., has stripped him of his ability to move or speak. From his wheelchair, he communicates with his eyes, forming words by painstakingly blinking the alphabet.

It has been six years since Major Donnelly got sick, and in that time he and his family have waged an impassioned campaign to convince the government that the gulf war was to blame. In a book ( Falcon's Cry: A Desert Storm Memoir), on television and in a stream of telephone calls to the Pentagon and the Veterans Affairs Department, they pressed the case. With the Defense Department denying the existence of ''gulf war syndrome,'' it seemed a losing battle.

This month, they won.

In large part because of Major Donnelly, Anthony J. Principi, the secretary of veterans affairs, declared that A.L.S., long known as Lou Gehrig's disease, was connected to gulf war service. He ordered medical, disability and survivor benefits for those affected -- the first time the government had linked a specific illness to service in the region

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/25/us/campaign-by-pilot-s-family-secures-benefits-for-gulf-war-veterans.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=3

This one is very local and compelling in regards to the forgotten casualties of the Iraq War.

September 13, 2009

Mother soldiers on

Lori Brim is still seeking answers and military recognition for her son

By AUDREY PARENTE
Staff Writer
ORMOND BEACH -- She closed the door and climbed onto the center of her bed with a U.S. Postal Service priority package and scissors.

The parcel had arrived a week earlier. But Lori Brim procrastinated opening the box, because she knew cutting the tape would be like slitting open her heart, and she would relive the most painful part of her life.

The contents were missing belongings of her son, Army Spc. Dustin Brim, a motor-pool mechanic who died Sept. 24, 2004, less than six months after being carried from his cot out of Iraq.

She had been requesting her son's personal items from the military, along with his medical records from Iraq, to no avail despite numerous written requests on all the appropriate forms. But a recent twist of fate -- and Facebook -- turned up Dustin's belongings, although his medical records are still missing.

Opening the box meant Brim would be reminded of her son's body riddled with death -- not from bullets but from aggressive cancers.

And Lori Brim would again have to confront what she believes caused her son's painful, slow death -- although she has no proof -- exposure to radiation from minute particles of depleted uranium, a metal used to strengthen military weapons and armor.

She took from the box dozens of loving cards she had mailed him -- and he had lovingly preserved. A bullet casing tumbled out onto the bedspread. She ran her hand over a black velvet scrapbook of photos, many of which she had never seen: Dustin with his girlfriend; Dustin with his buddies; Dustin doing the things he loved.

"I cried," Brim said. "I felt like I let Dustin down because I can't make things right."

Had her son died in an ambush or from a roadside bomb, he might at least have been listed among the war casualties and remembered as a hero.

Instead, she feels her son is forgotten, his records lost in the shuffle of paperwork.

What happened to Brim's personal effects is not the norm, Army spokesman Lt. Col. Charles M. Moose said.

"The personal effects of any deceased soldier are of the utmost importance to the family. The Army understands this and makes every effort to safeguard, inventory and deliver all personal property to the primary next-of-kin in cases of soldier deaths," Moose said. "In combat zones, there may be instances where a deceased soldier's chain-of-command may not be aware of all personal property immediately. When personal effects are identified, commanders make every effort to deliver them to the soldier's family."

As to missing medical records, Moose said those normally are stored at the National Archives Records Administration in Kansas City, Mo., and the Army's Long-Term Family Case Management Office makes every effort to assist with families' requests. He said the office is still willing to continue to search, but Brim hasn't submitted any updated requests in the last few months.

Brim said she will continue to try to get those records, but she also wants to find a way for her son to be recognized as a war hero. And she still hopes to find a way to make the military acknowledge that his death and deaths of hundreds of soldiers from cancer is related to exposure to depleted uranium. She's tried lobbying legislators, contacting lawyers and communicating with other parents.

Since 2004, U.S. Rep. Jose E. Serrano has introduced legislation to help identify troops exposed during military service to depleted uranium and to provide for testing. Each year the legislation has died.

"When I began to hear press reports linking depleted uranium exposure to numerous harmful medical outcomes, I became extremely concerned," the N.Y. congressman said in an e-mail to The News-Journal. "These soldiers, who risk their lives for us overseas, deserve to know all the health threats their country has exposed them to".

"The Pentagon seems to have dragged their feet in acknowledging depleted uranium exposure as an issue," he said. "This is counterproductive and harms diagnosis, quick treatment, and the development of preventative measures."

This year Serrano has introduced House Resolution 177, which would provide soldiers with needed information about the effects of depleted uranium, to better protect their health in the future.

"I will continue to push," he said.

Brim said it will take someone with clout to change things.

"Take Pat Tillman," Brim said of the NFL player killed in Afghanistan whose cause of death was determined -- after controversy and military investigation -- to be from friendly fire. "His case was investigated because of who he was. But how many soldiers have died who don't have that kind of credibility and we can't make the authorities listen to us?"

She's speaking of numerous e-mails and letters that have come to her since Dustin's story appeared in The News-Journal in 2006, from other parents whose children have died from cancers after serving in Iraq.

Esther and Terry Bromfield of Anaheim, Calif., told Brim their 6-foot-4, 250-pound son, Spc. Travis Bromfield died in 2007 weighing 105 pounds after serving as a mechanic in Iraq. Travis fought cancers in his brain, lungs, bones, liver, kidneys and a mass on his chest before he died.

"His third doctor said, 'Your son has so much cancer -- the equivalent to someone who suffered for 40 years,' " Terry Bromfield said in a phone interview. He believes exposure to depleted uranium was the cause of his son's death, but the military has denied it.

"They said Agent Orange and Hiroshima took years for effects to show up." For that reason, his son's cancers were not likely from recent exposures, doctors told him.

Bromfield said reading Dustin's story "was like reading about our own son."

Like Brim, he too has been battling to raise awareness. And Bromfield also believes the system has failed his son. He's acquired documentation that the military determined his son's cancers are 100 percent military-related. Yet the military denies the connection to depleted uranium, he said.

The journey has been long for Dustin Brim's mom.

"I am just so let down because everything I believe in and people you want to trust, let you down," Brim said, referring to her efforts to get her son's personal belongings from Iraq.

Dustin's things from his home base in Fort Riley, Kan., arrived, but nothing else, she said.

"Everyone I was in touch with, including (U.S. Rep.) John Mica and other key VA (Veterans Affairs) people, would try" to get the belongings left behind in Iraq, she said. "One of the last people told me if the general she worked for couldn't find them, no one could and I should basically put it aside and that was that."

But when Brim least expected it, 27-year-old Army veteran Amanda Wisener wrote on the wall of her Facebook page, saying that she had personal items belonging to Dustin Brim, and "If I am his mother to please call," Brim said. She called.

From the other end of the phone in Martinsville, Va., Wisener told Brim that she had worked as a fueler at Fort Riley and had noticed soldiers searching through tactical equipment boxes during a cleanup.

"It's a big black box of hard plastic you put your gear in when you have to deploy to Iraq," Wisener said in a phone interview. "When you come back (from deployment), you ship it back. It was in a supply cage."

She said she noticed the name Dustin Brim on some of the contents. She knew the name from somewhere. Then it came to her. It was the name on her boyfriend's tattoo. Her boyfriend, Zackary Rowe, had served in Iraq with Dustin.


"I had just met Zack and we had started dating," said Wisener, now Rowe's wife. At Rowe's suggestion, she grabbed as many of Dustin's belongings as she could and tried to contact his mother through the military. No forwarding information was available. So she and Rowe held onto it until recently when they found Lori Brim's Facebook page.

Brim said she only recently created the page to see photos of the first child of her late son's former girlfriend.

It was during her phone conversation with Wisener, Brim learned about Rowe's tattoo.

"We worked and lived together -- everybody kind of buddies up. We slept in such close quarters that when I woke up I could smack his chest," Rowe said in a phone interview. "He was fine, but then he was having a pain in his stomach and they changed his diet, gave him pills for constipation. For a few months, he kept constantly going back (to get medical help)."

Another of the soldiers close to Brim, Aric Bryson of Tenneco, Neb., also recalls how Dustin suffered.

"At first we made a joke of it, but then it got to be a lot more serious," Bryson said in a phone interview. "He was just sitting on the side of his bed, curled over, holding his stomach all the time."

About that time, Rowe and Bryson were attached temporarily to other units.

Rowe said he came back periodically to the tent to pick up personal items.

"I went into the tent and Brim was the only one there. He was holding his stomach and had tears in his eyes. He was in excruciating pain and said, 'Can you get me some help?' " Rowe recalled. "So I went and got the sergeant. They told me to leave."

It was the last time Rowe saw Brim.

And by the time Bryson came back to the unit, he and Brim's fellow soldiers learned of his cancers and death.

"There wasn't a funeral, but we had a ceremony for a fallen soldier and I saved the round (shell casing) that I shot," Rowe said. "I got the tattoo on my forearm because he was a really good friend."

Rowe included the shell in the package he and his wife mailed to Lori Brim.

"I am glad I got to help bring her some closure," Rowe said.

But there is no closure, Brim said. Not until her son's death is acknowledged as a casualty of war.

audrey.parente@news-jrnl.com

http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/frtHEAD01091309.htm

Very tragic, but the NYT article doesn't use the words depleted Uranium.  In fact how would a fighter pilot have any significant exposure to DU?  The balast in the newer aircraft use DU as opposed to lead.  But only the dust from grinding machineing or a big old SABOT round entering a T-72 would be considered hazardous.

[Overstreet]

Back in the 80's F-16s did not have any depleted uranium armor or ammunition. The internal gun was a 20mm. The only depleted uranium rounds were 30mm. They could have carried the GPU 5. However pilots don't handle the rounds. If this were true he'd have to have some personal armor. 

Of course they could have upgraded the 20mm round with depleted uranium, but still the pilot only briefly looks at the gun during preflights. I'd expect more 461xx and 462xx  crews in A-10 units having problems with cancer since they handle the bulk ammo and the loading of the guns. 

[FayeforCure]

Very tragic, but the NYT article doesn't use the words depleted Uranium.  In fact how would a fighter pilot have any significant exposure to DU?  The balast in the newer aircraft use DU as opposed to lead.  But only the dust from grinding machineing or a big old SABOT round entering a T-72 would be considered hazardous.

Civil42806, you are right. It wasn't the DU during the Gulf War that caused ALS. The similarity between the two stories is that it takes the government a decade or more to acknowledge that our young guys were exposed to toxic substances. Negligence especially at government levels is inexcusable.

We need to hold government accountable for the sake of our brave soldiers and their families who have sacrificed so much!

Many agree:

Patient advocates come and go in Washington, but in a place where politics is personal, the Donnellys were able to cut through the bureaucracy and put a face on a devastating disease. Major Donnelly published his memoirs, ''Falcon's Cry'' (Greenwood Publishing Group, 1998), a 251-page book written with his sister, Denise.

They tracked down other sick soldiers, and hooked up with H. Ross Perot, the Texas billionaire, who finances research on gulf war veterans. Mr. Perot, in turn, put them in touch with Larry King, who had them on his program on CNN.

When he could still speak, Major Donnelly testified on Capitol Hill -- where, as it happens, Representative Christopher Shays, a Republican from the pilot's home state, Connecticut, has been a stinging critic of the Pentagon's treatment of sick gulf war veterans. Later, Tom Donnelly took up speaking for his son. The elder Mr. Donnelly, a former Marine helicopter pilot, was on the phone to the Pentagon and the Veterans Affairs Department so often that officials there call him by his first name.

And for Ock, who'd rather have the injured suffer in silence, while he himself enjoys war related disability benefits:

For soldiers with the disease, benefits were at the crux of the debate. In 1994, Congress passed a law allowing gulf war veterans with ''undiagnosed illness'' to receive medical and disability benefits. The law, however, did not help veterans with A.L.S. because they had a specific diagnosis. Those who became ill while on active duty, including Major Donnelly, were eligible for compensation. But those who became ill more than a year after leaving the service were not.

Among them was Joshua Calderon, a former Army flight medic in Tacoma, Wash., who left the service in 1995 and learned he had A.L.S. two years later. He has lost the use of his hands, and was fitted for a wheelchair earlier this month. Three times he has applied for disability and medical benefits, and three times he has been denied.

''I gave 17 years of my life,'' he said, ''and this is how they treat me and my family?''

Now Mr. Calderon will get benefits; officials have told him they will be retroactive. He has never met the Donnellys, but he and his wife, Mary Jane, say they are forever grateful for the family's advocacy. Mrs. Calderon says Major Donnelly had a certain advantage: as a commissioned officer, the Air Force had to take him seriously.

''They've been outspoken,'' she said, ''and us, we fought our battles quietly. We didn't want to harm our chances.''

It's the bully type treatment like Ock's which is intended to shut up the injured.

[FayeforCure]

This time trichloroethylene, benzene, which the federal government identifies as a known cancer-causing agent; and the dry-cleaning solvent perchloroethylene, a suspected carcinogen in water at Camp Le Jeune causing 1,600 cases of cancer!

Poisoned Patriots
Fri September 25, 2009

By Abbie Boudreau and Scott Bronstein
CNN Special Investigations Unit
     
Editor's note: This report is part two of a two-part series.

TAMPA, Florida (CNN) -- For Rick Kelly, the first sign of cancer was a feeling of discomfort in his chest.


Jim Fontella, diagnosed with cancer in 1998, was based at Camp Lejeune in 1966-67. Read his story in Part 1.

"My wife would hug me, and it became almost unbearable," he said. "I went to a doctor, and they sent me to the oncologist, and they did biopsies on both sides. And then I ended up with a double mastectomy."

Kelly is one of 20 retired U.S. Marines or sons of Marines who once lived at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and who are now suffering from breast cancer, a disease that strikes about one man for every 100 women who get it. Each of the seven men CNN interviewed for this report has had part of his chest removed as part of his treatment, along with chemotherapy, radiation or both.

All 20 fear that water contaminated with high levels of toxic chemicals may have caused their illnesses, but the Marine Corps says no link has been found between the contamination and their diseases. Without that link, the men are denied treatment by the Department of Veterans Affairs, which says it can't treat them for a condition that hasn't been shown to have been "service-related."  Watch "That's when I was shocked" »

Kelly was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1998, 16 years after he served at Camp Lejeune. Now a single father of a 7-year-old boy and without health insurance, he filed a claim with the VA to help pay his medical bills.

Kelly said his VA representative told him, "It's not the VA's problem, it's the Marine Corps' problem."  Watch Marine Corps general respond to some of the allegations »

And Peter Devereaux, who was stationed at Camp Lejeune in the early 1980s, was told in writing that his breast cancer "neither occurred in nor was caused by service."

But Kelly, Devereaux and other stricken men CNN interviewed say the Marine Corps knew about the contamination in tap water years before it shut down tainted wells in the mid-1980s. Now they want the service to acknowledge that the water from those wells made them sick, which could make them eligible for VA benefits.

"They want it to go away, and it kind of just makes you sick with disgust," Devereaux said.

The men with breast cancer are among about 1,600 retired Marines and Camp Lejeune residents who have filed claims against the federal government. According to congressional investigators, they are seeking nearly $34 billion in compensation for health problems they say stemmed from drinking water at the base that was contaminated with several toxic chemicals, including some the federal government has classified as known or potential cancer-causing agents.

Jerry Ensminger is a former Marine Corps drill instructor who was stationed at the base in 1976, when his daughter, Janey, was born. She died of childhood leukemia at age 9.

"We were being exposed when we went bowling," Ensminger told CNN. "We were being exposed when we went to the commissary. We were being exposed when we went to the PX. And then when we went home, we were being exposed over there."

Ensminger helped start a Web site, "The Few, The Proud, The Forgotten," which was set up to organize people who believe they have been affected by the contamination. He also testified at a 2007 congressional hearing on the issue.

He and others say the Marine Corps waited too long to test and shut down the wells after learning the drinking water was contaminated.

"Five years they knew they had this stuff in the tap water," Ensminger said. "They never went and tested the wells. I think it's just criminal."

Don't Miss
Breast cancer patients blame water at Marine base
Read Abbie Boudreau's blog about this story

In 1980, the Navy hired experts to test for trihalomethanes, a byproduct from chlorination, in the base tap water. The experts reported that some of the base tap water was "highly contaminated," according to a test report.

In 1981, the lab again found "water highly contaminated" -- and added the word "solvents," with an exclamation point. In August 1982, the experts found one sample with levels of trichloroethylene, a degreaser believed to cause cancer, of 1,400 parts per billion. Today's EPA safe level for the substance is five parts per billion.

"We've never seen 1,400 parts per billion of trichloroethylene, so that is very high," said Frank Bove, an epidemiologist with the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

"These are very toxic chemicals we're talking about," Bove said.

But it would take until late 1984 and early 1985 for the Corps to begin widespread testing of wells on the base and shutting down ones that had been polluted. In addition to trichloroethylene, chemicals eventually identified in the drinking water included benzene, which the federal government identifies as a known cancer-causing agent; and the dry-cleaning solvent perchloroethylene, a suspected carcinogen.

The Marine Corps said two independent studies have found no link between water contamination and later illnesses. And in a statement to CNN, the Marine Corps wrote, "Once impacted wells were identified, they were promptly removed from service."

A fact-finding panel created by the Corps in 2004 ruled that officials acted properly and that the water was "consistent with general industry practices" at the time. And investigations by the Bush administration's Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency found no criminal conduct by Marine Corps officials and no violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Tyler Amon, an EPA investigator, told a House committee in 2007 that some employees interviewed during the criminal investigation appeared coached and were not forthcoming with details. The Justice Department decided against filing charges based on his concern, however.

The Corps told CNN that its actions "must be considered in the context of the state of science at the time" and should be viewed with a "contemporary understanding" of the chemicals involved and the "evolving regulatory structure" of the time.

But while chemical solvents may not have been tightly regulated back then, there was a clear general awareness on base about the need for proper handling.

In June 1974, the base commander issued an order calling for the "safe disposal" of organic solvents, warning that improper disposal could create "hazards" such as "contamination of drinking water." And as far back as 1963, the Navy's Bureau of Medicine outlined similar guidelines.

Two years ago, Congress ordered the Marine Corps to notify all Marines and their families who might have been exposed -- an estimated 500,000 people. The Marines say they have worked with environmental and health agencies "from the beginning" to determine whether the contamination resulted in any illness, and "this collaboration continues to the present day."

"I think if cancer of the breast in men or other kinds of cancer have been linked to this exposure, that we ought to know about that," said Richard Clapp, a nationally recognized epidemiologist who has studied clusters of cancer cases at toxic sites. "The families deserve that. The veterans themselves should know about that, and they should be compensated if the link can be made."

But for now, there is no proven link -- just Marines and their families who say they are suffering.


"Having been a former drill instructor where I trained over 2,000 brand new civilians and made them into Marines, I instilled in those Marines our motto, which is Semper Fidelis -- our slogan, that we take care of our own," Ensminger said.

"Nobody in this world has been more disillusioned than I've been. I feel like I've been betrayed."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/09/25/marines.breast.cancer.folo/index.html

[buckethead]

We should put the government in exclusive contol of healthcare.

[FayeforCure]

We should put the government in exclusive contol of healthcare.

We should hold government accountable. Fire our elected officials when they aren't responsive to our needs.

[civil42806]

stop being a bully Ock   By the way trike  hasn't been used for at least 20 years.  MEK was even worse, but even when it was used, there was always an awareness how hazardous it was.

[BridgeTroll]

Of course the vets should be taken care of... on the other hand... war and the weapons of war... are hazardous.  Always has been.  Men suffered and died during the revolution when the continental congress could not even provide shoes and blankets.  During the civil and WWI as many died of disease as wounds due to the poor conditions.  Subpar and defective weapons in WWII cost untold casualties.  Soldiers in Korea were totally unprepared to fight the onslaught of north korea and China.  The Army and marines did not have proper equipment for the fight in Vietnam.

Rumsfeld was right about one thing when he said... "You go to war with the Army you have... not the Army you wish you had.

As for depleted uranium?  Is there proof?  The article you posted certainly provides none.
Drinking water?  All of our towns and cities should be concerned... but it should tempered with knowledge of standards at the time with standards today...

The Marine Corps said two independent studies have found no link between water contamination and later illnesses. And in a statement to CNN, the Marine Corps wrote, "Once impacted wells were identified, they were promptly removed from service."

A fact-finding panel created by the Corps in 2004 ruled that officials acted properly and that the water was "consistent with general industry practices" at the time. And investigations by the Bush administration's Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency found no criminal conduct by Marine Corps officials and no violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act.

[FayeforCure]

Shameful responses

Many people associated with Camp Lejeune are experiencing deadly diseases. How does the Marine Corps answer this?

The Marine Corps spokesman, Capt. Brian Block, talks about "possible adverse health effects … related to past contamination" and says that "science has yet to find a link."

Maj. Eric Dent said the Marines' leadership "is committed to understanding the issue" and that "scientists cannot give us a clear answer."

The cherry on top? Maj. Dent says, "It would be extremely interesting to see how much time these men spent at Lejeune, where exactly they lived and when."

Really warms the cockles of the heart. I'm sure the families of these victims are filled with glee about the sporting comments! Shame on the Marines, the EPA and the government at large.

Georgia Timberlake, Sun City Center

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/letters/marines-who-served-at-camp-lejeune-deserve-better-treatment/1046143

[BridgeTroll]

The Marine Corps said two independent studies have found no link between water contamination and later illnesses. And in a statement to CNN, the Marine Corps wrote, "Once impacted wells were identified, they were promptly removed from service."

[FayeforCure]

The Marine Corps said two independent studies have found no link between water contamination and later illnesses. And in a statement to CNN, the Marine Corps wrote, "Once impacted wells were identified, they were promptly removed from service."

Do you see the contradiction in that statement?

No link found, yet impacted wells removed.

Let's be clear, they may not understand the mechanism by which the contamination causes the breast cancer, but a definitely link is implied:

In 1980, the Navy hired experts to test for trihalomethanes, a byproduct from chlorination, in the base tap water. The experts reported that some of the base tap water was "highly contaminated," according to a test report.

In 1981, the lab again found "water highly contaminated" -- and added the word "solvents," with an exclamation point. In August 1982, the experts found one sample with levels of trichloroethylene, a degreaser believed to cause cancer, of 1,400 parts per billion. Today's EPA safe level for the substance is five parts per billion.

"We've never seen 1,400 parts per billion of trichloroethylene, so that is very high," said Frank Bove, an epidemiologist with the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

"These are very toxic chemicals we're talking about," Bove said.

But it would take until late 1984 and early 1985 for the Corps to begin widespread testing of wells on the base and shutting down ones that had been polluted. In addition to trichloroethylene, chemicals eventually identified in the drinking water included benzene, which the federal government identifies as a known cancer-causing agent; and the dry-cleaning solvent perchloroethylene, a suspected carcinogen.

BT, why are you protecting the government, since I presume you are no fan of our government?

Do you know any other areas where men have such high rates of breast cancer?

This Republican "tough luck" talk is getting rediculous.

[BridgeTroll]

I see no contradiction whatsoever.  Additionally... From YOUR article...

A fact-finding panel created by the Corps in 2004 ruled that officials acted properly and that the water was "consistent with general industry practices" at the time. And investigations by the Bush administration's Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency found no criminal conduct by Marine Corps officials and no violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act.

And...

The Corps told CNN that its actions "must be considered in the context of the state of science at the time" and should be viewed with a "contemporary understanding" of the chemicals involved and the "evolving regulatory structure" of the time.

And finally...

But for now, there is no proven link

Regardless of whether the link is proven these ex Marines should be taken care of....