Oregon National Guardsmen win $85 million from KBR

This happened when Congress didn't give a damn and KBR made a lot of money. This is how National Guards Soldiers were treated but too many didn't care to pay attention.

Iraq War Contractor Ordered to Pay $85 Million
By NIGEL DUARA and STEVEN DUBOIS
Associated Press
PORTLAND, Ore.
November 3, 2012
(AP)

A jury on Friday ordered an American military contractor to pay $85 million after finding it guilty of negligence for illnesses suffered by a dozen Oregon soldiers who guarded an oilfield water plant during the Iraq war.

After a three-week trial, the jury deliberated for just two days before reaching a decision against the contractor, Kellogg Brown and Root.

The suit was the first concerning soldiers' exposure to a toxin at a water plant in southern Iraq. The soldiers said they suffer from respiratory ailments after their exposure to sodium dichromate, and they fear that a carcinogen the toxin contains, hexavalent chromium, could cause cancer later in life.

Rocky Bixby, the soldier whose name appeared on the suit, said the verdict should reflect a punishment for the company's neglect of U.S. soldiers.

"This was about showing that they cannot get away with treating soldiers like that," Bixby said. "It should show them what they did was wrong, prove what they did was wrong and punish them for what they did."

Each soldier received $850,000 in noneconomic damages and $6.25 million in punitive damages.

Another suit from Oregon Guardsmen is on hold while the Portland trial plays out. There are also suits pending in Texas involving soldiers from Texas, Indiana and West Virginia.

KBR was found guilty of negligence but not a secondary claim of fraud.
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Oregon National Guardsmen still fighting for justice after Iraq

Oregon National Guardsmen still fighting for justice after Iraq

While they were sure they were willing to face the risks of combat in Iraq, they had no clue they had to fear something else happening to them by a company paid by their own country.

National Guardsmen’s suit accusing Iraq War contractor KBR of concealing toxic danger begins
By Associated Press
Published: October 10

PORTLAND, Ore. — A war contractor knew a critical southern Iraq oilfield plant was riddled with a well-known toxin but ignored the risk to soldiers while hurrying the project along, firing a whistleblower and covering up the presence of the chemical when faced with exposure, the soldiers’ attorney said in opening arguments Wednesday in a federal civil suit.

An attorney for the contractor, Kellogg, Brown and Root, fired back in his opening salvo of a trial expected to last weeks that the soldiers’ injuries weren’t a result of their exposure to the toxin, called sodium dichromate. Geoffrey L. Harrison argued that the company had no knowledge of the chemical’s presence at the plant and when they found it, they promptly and repeatedly warned the military of the danger.

A jury of six men and six women will decide whether the company is culpable for 12 Oregon National Guardsmen’s exposure to the toxin, a known carcinogen, and whether that exposure led to their ongoing respiratory illnesses. The soldiers will also try to show that the fear of future illnesses is causing them to suffer emotional distress.
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Iraq contractor seeks appeal from law suit

Iraq contractor seeks appeal from Oregon veterans

Iraq contractor seeks appeal from Oregon veterans

PORTLAND, Ore. — A Texas-based military contractor is seeking an appeal before trial begins in a lawsuit filed by Oregon veterans who claim they were exposed to a toxic chemical in Iraq. Attorneys for Kellogg, Brown and Root claim that suing a military contractor raises “unprecedented” legal questions that first should be decided by a higher court. Other federal judges have ruled in KBR’s favor in lawsuits in Indiana and West Virginia, saying their courts lack jurisdiction. But U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Papak in Portland told attorneys Wednesday to prepare for trial while he considers the KBR request to have the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals review his rulings. Oregon Army National Guard veterans sued KBR last year, claiming the company downplayed or disregarded their exposure to hexavalent chromium in Iraq.

Iraq contractor seeks appeal from Oregon veterans

KBR wants Ore. guardsmen’s suit dismissed

KBR wants Ore. guardsmen’s suit dismissed

The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Feb 8, 2010 19:50:33 EST

PORTLAND, Ore. — An Iraq war contractor is asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit by Oregon National Guard soldiers over potential health risks from a cancer-causing chemical called hexavalent chromium.

Lawyers for Kellogg, Brown & Root on Monday argued the federal court in Oregon lacks jurisdiction in the case.
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KBR wants Ore. guardsmens suit dismissed

Indiana soldier is first to die of toxic exposure in Iraq

Indiana soldier is first to die of toxic exposure in Iraq


By Daniel Tencer
Monday, December 7th, 2009 -- 12:57 pm
If Lt. Col. Jim Gentry and his doctors were right about the cause of his cancer, the Indiana National Guard officer didn't die for his country -- he died for defense contractor KBR.

Gentry's death from lung cancer last week is being recorded as the US's first fatality from exposure to a cancer-causing toxin in Iraq, according to the Evansville, Indiana, Courier & Press.

In 2003, Gentry commanded a 600-strong force providing security for KBR's refittal of the Qarmat Ali water-pumping plant, which provided water needed for oil extraction. Gentry and others claim that during that time they were exposed to hexavalent chromium, a cancer-causing toxin that the Iraqis who had built the plant had used as anti-corrosive material.

In a lawsuit filed last year, Gentry and 15 other plaintiffs said KBR, at the time a subsidiary of Halliburton, was aware that soldiers and civilian contractors were being exposed to hexavalent chromium months before they told the people working at the site.

Researchers have linked hexavalent chromium to lung cancer and leukemia, as well as a variety of liver and kidney problems. It's the same compound that poisoned residents of Hinkley, California, in a case that was made famous by the movie Erin Brockovich.
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http://rawstory.com/2009/12/soldier-toxic-exposure-iraq/

Guardsmen say chemical exposure changed lives

Guardsmen say chemical exposure changed lives

By Sharon Cohen - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Jun 28, 2009 8:40:07 EDT

Larry Roberta’s every breath is a painful reminder of his time in Iraq. He can’t walk a block without gasping for air. His chest hurts, his migraines sometimes persist for days and he needs pills to help him sleep.

James Gentry came home with rashes, ear troubles and a shortness of breath. Later, things got much worse: He developed lung cancer, which spread to his spine, ribs and one of his thighs; he must often use a cane, and no longer rides his beloved Harley.

David Moore’s postwar life turned into a harrowing medical mystery: nosebleeds and labored breathing that made it impossible to work, much less speak. His desperate search for answers ended last year when he died of lung disease at age 42.

What these three men — one sick, one dying, one dead — had in common is they were National Guard soldiers on the same stretch of wind-swept desert in Iraq during the early months of the war in 2003.

These soldiers and hundreds of other Guard members from Indiana, Oregon and West Virginia were protecting workers hired by a subsidiary of the giant contractor, KBR Inc., to rebuild an Iraqi water treatment plant. The area, as it turned out, was contaminated with hexavalent chromium, a potent, sometimes deadly chemical linked to cancer and other devastating diseases.
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Guardsmen say chemical exposure changed lives

Nine burn-pit lawsuits filed against KBR

Nine burn-pit lawsuits filed against KBR

By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Apr 28, 2009 17:25:00 EDT

Lawyers filed seven class-action lawsuits in seven states on behalf of service members and civilians who say they were sickened by the open-air burn pits on U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The lawsuits, including a wrongful death suit, were filed against contractor KBR Inc., as well as its parent company, Halliburton, after a Military Times story that ran last October showed that the burn pit at Joint Base Balad, the biggest U.S. base in Iraq, burned everything from petroleum products to dioxin-releasing plastic water bottles to amputated limbs.

Two more lawsuits are expected to be filed Wednesday
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Nine burn-pit lawsuits filed against KBR/

Contract workers say KBR knew of exposure

Contract workers say KBR knew of exposure
The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Feb 15, 2009 15:23:23 EST

HOUSTON — Ten contractors, hired by Houston-based KBR to make repairs at a Basra water plant during the Iraq war, and dozens of National Guardsmen say the company knowingly allowed them to be poisoned by cancer-causing chemicals.

The allegations from the workers, six of whom live in or near Houston, are documented in a federal arbitration complaint pending in Houston and a related federal lawsuit filed in December by the guardsmen in Indiana, the Houston Chronicle reported Sunday.

Most of the KBR contractors were sent to Iraq around April 2003 as part of Operation Restore Iraqi Oil, a no-bid U.S. contract. They were hired to make repairs at the water plant to keep Iraq’s oil fields operating during the war. Members of the U.S. Army National Guard, most from Indiana, escorted and guarded the workers.

KBR officials have acknowledged that a dangerous anti-corrosive chemical was stored and spilled at the Qarmat Ali water plant just outside Basra. Under Saddam Hussein’s regime, the chemical was used to keep pipes free of corrosion as river water from the plant was pumped to oil fields miles away.
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Judge sets date for soldiers’ suit vs. KBR

Judge sets date for soldiers’ suit vs. KBR

The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Feb 2, 2009 20:21:47 EST

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — A federal judge has set a trial date for a lawsuit by 16 Indiana National Guard soldiers who claim they were exposed to a toxic chemical in Iraq.

Judge Richard L. Young on Monday set 10 days for the trial beginning May 3, 2010, in U.S. District Court in Evansville. He also scheduled a settlement conference for Aug. 17.

Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 152nd Infantry, filed a federal lawsuit in December against defense contractor KBR Inc., saying its employees knowingly allowed them to be exposed to sodium dichromate, a known carcinogen, while guarding a water plant in Iraq in 2003.

KBR has said it notified the Army Corps of Engineers after finding the chemical at the site and the Corps concluded the company’s efforts to remediate the situation were effective.