7,000 US soldiers exposed to Russian toxic dump at K2 Uzbekistan

DOD, VA asked to address allegations saying base made soldiers sick

KCTV News
By Angie Ricono, Zoe Brown
Mar 6, 2020

“The response from the Department of Defense (DOD) has been inadequate. Veterans who deployed to K2 in Operation Enduring Freedom served bravely in defense of the United States, yet many of them have not received answers to their legitimate questions about the potential hazards they may have been exposed to while deployed there.”

The United States House Oversight Committee wants the Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to respond to allegations that a military base made U.S. soldiers sick.

FAIRWAY, KS (KCTV) -- The United States House Oversight Committee wants the Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to respond to allegations that a military base made U.S. soldiers sick.

This concerns Karshi-Khanabad or “K2” in what is now Uzbekistan. Veterans say that base was a toxic waste dump for the Russians.

They said they immediately noticed bad smells and black goo around the base. There were glowing green ponds of water they called “Skittles ponds” because the color was so intense.

K2 has been the focus of previous investigative reports at KCTV5 because a local veteran is collecting information on sickness and death.

The letters point out soldiers from K2 are filling out questionnaires and are already aware of 30 deaths among the 7,000 soldiers who served there. Those deaths are mostly cancer related.
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Supporting the troops reduced to just a slogan at Fort Campbell

update Of the more than $3.6 billion that was redirected to the wall, $80 million came from projects in North Carolina, including $40 million for a new battalion complex and ambulatory care center at Camp Lejeune, $6.4 million for a storage facility for the new KC-46 tanker at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base and $32.9 million for a previously canceled elementary school at Fort Bragg. The ambulatory care center was to replace current facilities that are “substandard, inefficient, decentralized and uncontrolled,” according to the military.

This report makes me sick to think about how many times we hear "support the troops" yet this verifies our politicians reduced it to a slogan!

Their loved ones serve our country but call their living conditions a slap in the face

FOX 17 News
by Erika Glover
December 19th 2019

“Why should my husband, or anybody’s husband or spouse, be deployed or be training and having to worry about if their family is sick this week and in the hospital because of the hazardous conditions?”

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (WZTV) — Back in February, concerned military spouses took their housing frustrations to Capitol Hill. Those at the top vowed to make a change.

However, Fort Campbell families allege some are still feeling the burdens of potentially hazardous housing conditions.

“I am appalled. I am frustrated. I am angry,” said one military wife who concealed her identity out of fear of retaliation.

For nearly one year, her family of four lived in Fort Campbell's on-post housing at the Pierce Village apartments. She said brown recluse spiders took over their two-story duplex, despite paying more than $1,300 per month.

“When I was doing dishes they would crawl across the counter,” she explained. “If I was sitting on the couch, they would crawl on my legs. They were in our bed. They were in our clothes.”

The concerned mother shared photos of mold hidden behind walls and chipping lead-based paint. There are other families, she said, who are currently exposed to these housing conditions.
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Add San Diego Navy housing to this.

Defense Bill Provides New Rights For Families In Private Military Housing

90 Army posts have contaminated drinking water

update List of Bases Contaminated with PFAS Chemicals Expected to Grow, Pentagon Says

read it here

These 90 Army posts have contaminated drinking water

Military Times
By: Meghann Myers
  September 11, 2019

“Because many PFAS chemicals build up in the body, even very low concentrations in drinking water can increase the risks of serious health problems. What’s more, the lack of regular monitoring suggests that military personnel could have been drinking water with even higher levels of PFAS in the past.” EWG senior scientist Dave Andrews

As a Pentagon task force looks into unsafe drinking water on its installations, a new list of Army posts has been added to the roster of bases where per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances have been found in ground water as recently as this year.

Ninety active Army, Army Reserve and Army National Guard posts are on the list, obtained by the Environmental Working Group by Freedom of Information Act request, the findings of which were posted to the organization’s site late Tuesday night. The Army says that despite the confirmed presence of PFAS in the drinking water, no one is taking in unsafe levels of the chemicals, because their filtered water complies with Environmental Protection Agency guidelines.

Still, the EWG remains concerned.

Seventy-three on the list are Guard facilities, including armories, readiness centers and training areas. Of the hundreds of bases known to be contaminated, the Defense Department was required by the EPA to test about 70 following a 2012 rule on contamination monitoring.
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Will new Secretary of Defense fix mold in military housing?

Mold Displaces 200 and Counting at Joint Base San Antonio

Stars and Stripes
By Rose L. Thayer
29 Jul 2019

About one week ago, photos began surfacing on "Air Force amn/nco/snco," a Facebook group page popular with enlisted Air Force personnel. More than 290,000 people follow the page.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Mold in dorms forced about 200 airmen into new housing over the weekend at Joint Base San Antonio in Texas, after online scrutiny of living conditions triggered base leadership to conduct a full review of all facilities. As inspections continue at the Air Force's largest dormitory program, officials anticipate the number of displaced airmen to grow.

The base commander ordered Wednesday a full review of dormitories within 24 hours. Now, follow-up inspections continue, and some remediation has begun in those rooms where mold was found to be a severe problem, Brig. Gen. Laura Lenderman, 502nd Air Base Wing and Joint Base San Antonio commander, said in a statement released Monday.
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Were you stationed at Kunia Hawaii? Are you sick?

Kunia veterans blame possible exposure to toxic pesticides for mystery illnesses

Hawaii News Now
By Mahealani Richardson
May 13, 2019

Veterans who worked at Kunia intel site claim pesticide exposure caused cancer, other illnesses

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - A group of more than 100 Kunia veterans are suffering from neurological issues, cancer, birth defects and other illnesses after they say they were exposed to toxic pesticides.

Tara Lemieux, 50, of Maryland suffers from hand tremors, memory loss and other health problems.

She believes it stems from her days as an Army specialist from 1991 to 1995 at the Kunia “Tunnel” Field Station near Schofield Barracks.

Lemieux says nine out of the 12 members of her unit have died young.

"They didn't tell us that this beautiful absolutely picturesque once in a lifetime duty station that there was another side to it," said Lemieux.

Back then, the three story underground National Security Agency facility sat below Del Monte pineapple fields.

Lamieux believes she was directly exposed to toxic chemicals in 1991 when a broken water well flooded the underground facility. She and a handful of others were waist deep in water that was oily and smelled like chemicals.
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Military families still live in squalor?

Fed up with mold, vermin and lead, House budget plan adds $140 million for military housing fixes

Military Times
By: Leo Shane III
April 30, 2019

President Donald Trump has asked for a $750 billion budget with extra funding for his controversial southern border wall project. Many Republicans on Capitol Hill have voiced support for the plan, but Democrats have vowed to oppose it, and control the majority in the House.

Mold and mildew are shown on the ceiling of buildings at U.S. Army Garrison Fort Lee in Virginia. (Terrance Bell/Army)

House Democrats want to add $140 million to the president’s military construction budget for next year to help improve the quality of family housing across the force.

On Tuesday, lawmakers from the House Appropriations Committee offered their first draft of the fiscal 2020 military construction spending bill, which includes an increase of almost 2 percent above last year’s enacted levels.

The majority of that boost will address issues “such as mold, vermin and lead in military family housing.” The topic has been a major focus of both chambers in recent months, since news reports emerged about serious problems at privatized military housing across the country.

About 2 million individuals are currently housed through the military’s privatized housing program.
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Pease Air National Guard base families speak out on cancer link

National Guard hears ‘heartbreaking’ cancer stories

Sea Coastline Daily
By Jeff McMenemy
Posted Dec 7, 2018

PORTSMOUTH -- More than 200 people who turned out for a meeting at the 157th Air Refueling Wing heard story after story about guardsmen who died from cancer or suffered with other health ailments after serving at the Pease Air National Guard base.

Col. John W. Pogorek, wing commander of Pease Air National Guard base. (Photo Rich Beauchesne Seacoastonlin) 

The guard hosted a “listening session” Friday afternoon to hear the health concerns of retirees, their widows and families, along with active duty guardsmen.

Led by Doris Brock, who lost her husband Kendall Brock, a 35-year member of the guard who died in June 2017 from bladder and prostate cancer, a group of widows and retirees have pushed the Air Force to conduct a health study because of what they believe is an unusually high number of cancers at the base.

Brock reminded the people in attendance that it took 35 years before the Veterans Administration sought presumptive disability status for veterans who served at Camp Lejeune, a Marine Corps base in North Carolina with acknowledged water contamination.

“I don’t want to wait that long for us. It has to be faster,” Brock said. “We’ve lost a lot of good people.”

She believes her husband’s exposure to 12 different chemicals on the base known to be carcinogens - along with drinking contaminated water at the former air base - caused his cancer.
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Burn Pits get studied today, forgotten about from all other wars

Wonder if any of these reporters are aware this is how they got rid of the same stuff in all other wars?

*******

Burn Pits Exposed: A Look at How Military Got Rid of 'Anything and Everything' on Overseas Bases

NBC 10 News
By NBC10 Investigators
Published Nov 16, 2018

They served. Now they're sick. Thousands of former soldiers claim they are suffering ill effects from the garbage disposal methods on overseas bases.

In the middle of the deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan, garbage disposal on American military bases was historically a simple thing.

"Anything and everything burned in a burn pit — from mail to dead animals to anything," Ryan Conklin, a former soldier, says.

Asbestos and other chemicals? Yes, retired Army Lt. Col. Dan Brewer, says.

Medical waste? Yes again, according to a doctor now researching the effects of burn pit dust. "It was always burning, always black smoke coming of there," another veteran, Michael Ray, says.

Several former soldiers and medical doctors spoke to NBC10 Investigators about their experiences with burn pits: large holes dug by crews who then filled the pits with trash and lit them on fire with jet fuel. For many soldiers deployed to the desert and living on bases adjacent to the debris disposal, the billowing black smoke was just part of their daily life.
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Add Wurtsmith Air Force Base to contaminated military bases?

Michigan Air Force base water may have caused cancer
By: The Associated Press
August 12, 2018

The chemical was first found in the base's water in 1977, but drinking water wells could've been contaminated for many years before the discovery, according to the report. The Air Force installed a groundwater treatment system to clean up the trichloroethylene in the 1980s after being sued by Michigan.

The Wurtsmith Air Force Base grounds in Oscoda Township, Mich., two years ago. (Garret Ellison/MLive.com via AP)

OSCODA, Mich. — A federal health agency says contaminated drinking water might have caused cancer and other chronic disease among veterans and families who lived at a former northern Michigan military base.

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry released last month a draft report about the Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Oscoda, Michigan, MLive.com reported. The report concluded that people who consumed or had skin contact with Wurtsmith water may be at an increased risk for cancer.

Extremely high levels of benzene and trichloroethylene were documented in the former B-52 bomber base’s water before its 1993 closure.

The report is based on long-term exposure over a period of years. The findings also note that even short-term exposure to trichloroethylene for pregnant mothers during the first trimester could lead to heart birth defects in their children.
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Air Force Contaminated Portsmouth But Won't Fund Study?

Air Force Won't Fund Former Pease Air Force Base Health Study
Portsmouth Herald, N.H.
by Jeff Mcmenemy
31 May 2017

Air Force and health officials believe the well was contaminated by the use of firefighting foam at the base.

PORTSMOUTH -- The director of a federal agency studying the PFC exposure at the former Pease Air Force Base believes there should be a national health study done on the chemical's health effects.

Unfortunately for the children and adults who were exposed to the chemicals in contaminated Portsmouth drinking water, the agency doesn't have the money to pay for the study and the Air Force -- which contaminated the well -- says it can't.

Air Force Lt. Col. Joseph Constantino told the crowd gathered at Tuesday night's meeting of the Pease Community Assistance Panel that they had received a request from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry to pay for the health studies.

But the Air Force's legal team told them "we can't fund that study," Constantino told the crowd at the CAP meeting, which was hosted by the ATSDR.

Portsmouth resident and CAP member Andrea Amico said she was "terribly disappointed" by the Air Force's decision.
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Parris Island Marine Families Question Cause of Cancer in Their Children

Marine family wonders if child's cancer could be linked to Lowcountry military housing
WJCL News
Meghan Schiller
Jan 15, 2017

A Marine wife created a video last week in effort to warn and educate other military families living on or nearby Beaufort's Laurel Bay Housing. The mother, Amanda Whatley, believes there is the potential for those living in the area to develop cancer and other health problems.

A Marine wife created a video last week in effort to warn and educate other military families living on or nearby Beaufort's Laurel Bay Housing. The mother, Amanda Whatley, believes there is the potential for those living in the area to develop cancer and other health problems.

The Lowcountry military housing neighborhood, filled with Marine families stationed at Parris Island or MCAS Beaufort, is now under the national microscope.

The Whatley family lived in Beaufort from July 2007 to November 2010, according to her Youtube video. In the video, Watley talks about her daughter Katie's fight with cancer. She says that Katie is one of 8 children that she knows of that have been diagnosed since living at Laurel Bay.

Whatley recently posted an update to her Youtube post, saying that the number of children with cancer has grown from 8 to 13.
read more here

Laurel Bay Military Housing and Kids with Cancer
Amanda Whatley
Published on Jan 7, 2017

***Edited to add.....The number of children with cancer has grown from 8 to 13 since the video went live. I have also received emails from at least 20 adults who were stationed in Beaufort and then diagnosed with cancer. I expect that number is actually exponentially higher. The only thing I wish I could add to the video is that we are not certain that the oil tanks are the issue. We have asked the Marine Corps to check a list of contaminated areas on Laurel Bay, Parris Island, and MCAS Beaufort. ***

This video is meant to serve as a public service announcement to all families that have been stationed at MCRD Parris Island or MCAS Beaufort and lived in the Laurel Bay military housing community. In the last several years, 8 children (that we know of so far) that lived at Laurel Bay have been diagnosed with cancer. Please share this video with the Marine Corps and Navy families you know that have lived there.

If your child has been diagnosed with cancer and you were stationed in Beaufort, please contact me at courage4katie@gmail.com

Camp Lejeune Marine Families Finally Getting Some Justice

VA News Release
VA's Rule Establishes a Presumption of Service Connection for Diseases Associated with Exposure to Contaminants in the Water Supply at Camp Lejeune
01/13/2017

VA’s Rule Establishes a Presumption of Service Connection for Diseases Associated with Exposure to Contaminants in the Water Supply at Camp Lejeune

VA to provide disability benefits for related diseases

WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has published regulations to establish presumptions for the service connection of eight diseases associated with exposure to contaminants in the water supply at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

The presumption of service connection applies to active duty, reserve and National Guard members who served at Camp Lejeune for a minimum of 30 days (cumulative) between August 1, 1953 and December 31, 1987, and are diagnosed with any of the following conditions:

• adult leukemia

• aplastic anemia and other myelodysplastic syndromes

• bladder cancer

• kidney cancer

• liver cancer

• multiple myeloma

• non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma

• Parkinson’s disease

“We have a responsibility to take care of those who have served our Nation and have been exposed to harm as a result of that service,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert A. McDonald. “Establishing a presumption for service at Camp Lejeune will make it easier for those Veterans to receive the care and benefits they earned.”

Environmental health experts in VA’s Technical Workgroup conducted comprehensive reviews of scientific evidence, which included analysis and research done by the Department of Health and Human Service’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), the Environmental Protection Agency, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the National Toxicology Program, and the National Academies of Science.

Veterans with 30 or more cumulative days of active duty service, at Camp Lejeune during the contamination period are already eligible for certain medical benefits, following passage of the Honoring America’s Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act of 2012.

In the early 1980s, volatile organic compounds, trichloroethylene (TCE), a metal degreaser, and perchloroethylene (PCE), a dry cleaning agent, as well as benzene and vinyl chloride, were discovered in two on-base water supply systems at Camp Lejeune. The contaminated wells supplying the water systems were shut down in February 1985.

The area included in this presumption is all of Camp Lejeune and MCAS New River, including satellite camps and housing areas.

The rule will be effective either 60 days after publication in the Federal Register, or following conclusion of the 60-day Congressional Review, whichever is later.

Florida Marine's Widow Forced to Fight VA After Camp Lejeune

8 INVESTIGATES: Camp Lejeune widow keeps fighting V.A. for her husband and benefits
WFLA 8 News
By Steve Andrews
Published: October 27, 2016

“I’ve lost my husband, I’ve lost my home, I will not lose my dignity.” Tara Craver

AVON PARK, Fla. (WFLA) — Tara Craver of Avon Park is becoming a familiar site at busy intersections outside V.A. facilities. She protests what she believes is unfair V.A. treatment of marines and their families.

“They killed my husband,” said Tara.

Her husband Karle was a marine, stationed at Camp Lejeune in the 70’s. His is one of the many faces of Camp Lejeune, the site of one of the largest mass contaminations in American history. From 1953 to 1987, an estimated 750,000 marines, their families as well as base employees were exposed to cancer causing chemicals in their drinking water.

“They didn’t contaminate themselves, the government did and they kept it hid for two or three decades. They kept it hid,” added Tara.

Doctors diagnosed Karle with esophageal cancer in January 2014. He died 10 weeks later.

Karle passed well before Tara heard that the V.A. rejected his claim that his cancer was connected to Camp Lejeune.
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Why Are Marine Veterans Forced To Fight Government After Camp Lejeune?

Marine’s toughest fight: getting compensated for exposure to Camp Lejeune’s toxic water
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
By KEITH ROGERS
August 20, 2106

Between 1952 and 1987, nearly 1 million Marines, sailors, civilian employees and military family members unknowingly drank, cooked with and bathed in contaminated water while living or working at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune.

There’s no doubt in Stanley Furrow’s mind that his health problems and those of his wife, children and grandson come from drinking contaminated water and bathing in it years ago when he served in the Marine Corps at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

CHEMICALS IN THE WATER

They all have classic symptoms, according to the EPA, of people who have consumed water tainted with a witch’s brew of benzene, solvents and compounds with long names such as perchloroethylene, trichlorethylene and vinyl chloride. That is what was leaking into the camp’s water supply when Furrow, a Vietnam War vet, and his wife, Linda, lived there in the early 1970s.

He blames his exposure for the migraine headaches and neurological maladies he’s suffered from for years.

They believe it also explains why Linda had miscarriages; their son was born with only three fingers on his left hand; their daughter has battled cysts and tumors on her head all her life; and their 13-year-old grandson, Joseph, was born with twisted legs.

Jolie Furrow: “I just think it’s crazy. Why would you treat someone who served their country this way?” read more here

Camp Lejeune Marine Veteran Fights Toxic Exposure and VA

Desperately ill Marine veteran finally gets some good news
KOMO News
BY TRACY VEDDER
JUNE 21ST 2016

SEATTLE -- The KOMO Investigators are getting results for a local veteran who is desperately ill.

Spike George developed a terminal illness after drinking contaminated water at a Marine Corps base. After being denied benefits numerous times, George is now resting easier knowing at least the bill for his current month-long hospital stay will be covered.

George is in the last stages of systemic scleroderma. It's a disease that attacks the body from the inside out; in George's case hardening his skin and his internal organs. As of June 21st, he weighs just 107 pounds. Still he feels better than when KOMO news first interviewed him more than a month ago.
read more here

Do reporters ever check facts?

"But last year, the VA denied George's health care benefits, saying he made too much money working as a King County Corrections Officer."

A "service connected disability" will cover what is related to the disability after the VA ties service to the disability. For veteran with 100%, everything they need is covered. Making too much money only applies when the veteran has no "approved" claim and is seeking free care.

His claim should have been approved a long time ago considering matching his service record to exposures would be easy to do.

Priority Group 7
Veterans with gross household income below the geographically-adjusted income limits (GMT) for their resident location and who agree to pay copays

Priority Group 8
Veterans with gross household income above the VA and the geographically-adjusted income limits for their resident location and who agrees to pay copays

Here are the other group listings from the VA 

Priority Group 1

Veterans with VA-rated service-connected disabilities 50% or more disabling Veterans determined by VA to be unemployable due to service-connected conditions

Priority Group 2

Veterans with VA-rated service-connected disabilities 30% or 40% disabling

Priority Group 3

Veterans who are Former Prisoners of War (POWs) Veterans awarded a Purple Heart medal Veterans whose discharge was for a disability that was incurred or aggravated in the line of duty Veterans with VA-rated service-connected disabilities 10% or 20% disabling Veterans awarded special eligibility classification under Title 38, U.S.C., § 1151, "benefits for individuals disabled by treatment or vocational rehabilitation" Veterans awarded the Medal Of Honor (MOH)

Priority Group 4

Veterans who are receiving aid and attendance or housebound benefits from VA Veterans who have been determined by VA to be catastrophically disabled

Priority Group 5

Nonservice-connected Veterans and noncompensable service-connected Veterans rated 0% disabled by VA with annual income below the VA’s and geographically (based on your resident zip code) adjusted income limits Veterans receiving VA pension benefits Veterans eligible for Medicaid programs

Priority Group 6

Compensable 0% service-connected Veterans Veterans exposed to Ionizing Radiation during atmospheric testing or during the occupation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Project 112/SHAD participants

Veterans who served in the Republic of Vietnam between January 9,1962 and May 7,1975 Veterans of the Persian Gulf War who served between August 2, 1990 and November 11, 1998 *Veterans who served on active duty at Camp Lejeune for at least 30 days between August 1, 1953 and December 31, 1987 Veterans who served in a theater of combat operations after November 11, 1998 as follows: Currently enrolled Veterans and new enrollees who were discharged from active duty on or after January 28, 2003, are eligible for the enhanced benefits for five years post discharge. **Combat Veterans who were discharged between January 2009 and January 2011, and did not enroll in the VA health care during their five-year period of eligibility have an additional one year to enroll and receive care. The additional one-year eligibility period began February 12, 2015 with the signing of the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for America Veterans Act.

Camp Pendlelton Marines Subjected to Sewer and Pool Water

More than 1 million gallons of sewer, pool water found to have leaked at Camp Pendleton
OC Register
Erika I Ritchie
June 17, 2016

Officials estimate the water began leaking in the summer of 2013 when repairs were made on the training pool and that more than 1.6 million gallons of sewer and pool water have leaked since then.

CAMP PENDLETON – Officials at the seaside base said Friday that since 2013, more than 1.6 million gallons of sewer and pool water have discharged into the ground near a training area at the north end of the base, two miles south of San Clemente.

The water came from restroom facilities and a training pool near Area 62, said Carl Redding, a base spokesman.

Crews discovered an irregularity in the piping system while doing a routine leak inspection on May 31 and the valves to the restroom were immediately shut off. On June 1, crews determined the pipe with the irregularity fed into larger pipe that also carried backflow water from the pool. They also determined that a portion of the larger pipe was damaged underground and was leaking.

Officials say the water – about half sewage and half from the pool – drained into the soil near the training area and evaporated, according to Redding.
read more here

News Investigation Gets Justice for Camp Lejeune Marine

TV news investigation prompts action on Camp Lejeune poison water VA claim
WJHL News
By Mark Douglas
Published: June 2, 2016

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Bob Miranda-Boulay says he suffers from 16 medical conditions brought about by toxic water he drank at Camp Lejeune while training as a recruit in the Marine reserves 21 years ago.

Now, after three years of waiting and medical claim denials by the VA Boulay has a glimmer of hope, thanks to an 8 on Your Side investigation that caught the attention of VA claims managers in Louisville, Kentucky. They arranged for a Skype hearing at the VA Service Center at Bay Pines Friday. “If it wasn’t for you doing the story I wouldn’t be here today,” said Boulay after the hearing.

Boulay’s attorneys say out of the blue they received a call from a VA hearing officer about a week after we reported on Boulay’s inability to get assistance from the VA. The story had been re-broadcast by other Media General TV stations and was linked on a number of websites catering to veterans.
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Camp Lejeune Marine Reservist "I Don't Count"

‘I don’t count’ – Camp Lejeune Marine reservist suffering after exposure to tainted water
News Channel 8
Investigative Reporter Mark Douglas
Published: May 9, 2016

Boulay wore the same uniform, crawled through the same mud and drank the same tainted water at Camp Lejeune as regular Marines, but doesn’t qualify for any benefits under the Camp Lejeune Family Act of 2012 because he was a Marine Reservist who was never called up for active duty.

“I don’t count,” Boulay said.

(WFLA) – Like thousands of other former Marines who served at Camp Lejeune Bob Miranda-Boulay suffers a long list of serious and life-threatening illnesses that he attributes to the toxic water that tainted wells at that training base in North Carolina over a period of 34 years.
“This was the Marine Corps that did this to us,” Boulay said.

Boulay insists he enlisted out of patriotism, but now feels betrayed by the Corps.

“I wanted to make a difference,” Bouley said. “I love my country and I wanted to do the right thing. I wanted to be a Marine.”

Boulay says he was an amateur boxer in perfect health prior to his two months of infantry training at Camp Lejeune. About 30 years later he now suffers from liver and kidney disease and has survived a brain tumor. He takes a dozen medications to make it through the day and activated a pacemaker at bedtime to keep from dying in his sleep.

For years Boulay’s various maladies puzzled doctors who at one point chalked up his troubles to Lyme Disease. Now, Boulay’s doctor attributes his medical ills to the chemical-laced drinking water he consumed during training at Lejeune.

“Eventually like my doctor says I’m going lose the battle,” Boulay said. I’m only going hold it off so long.”

read more here

Military Checking 664 Sites for Contaminate Water?

Military to check for water contamination at 664 sites, including 3 in Colorado Springs
Associated Press
By: JENNIFER McDERMOTT
March 10, 2016

The Navy is giving bottled water to its personnel at the Naval Auxiliary Landing Field Fentress in Chesapeake, Virginia, and is testing wells in a nearby rural area after the discovery of perfluorinated chemicals in drinking water, which the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry says may be associated with prostate, kidney and testicular cancer, along with other health issues.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The military plans to examine hundreds of sites nationwide to determine whether chemicals from foam used to fight fires have contaminated groundwater and spread to drinking water, the Defense Department said.

The checks are planned for 664 sites where the military has conducted fire or crash training, military officials told The Associated Press this week.

Colorado Springs installations Fort Carson, Peterson Air Force Base and the U.S. Air Force Academy are among those where checks are planned. So are Buckley Air Force Base and Lowery Air Force Base in Denver.
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VA’s Camp Lejeune decision ‘idiotic’

Sen. Nelson: VA’s Camp Lejeune decision ‘idiotic’ 
News Channel 8
Investigative Reporter Steve Andrews
Published: December 11, 2015

“This is illogical. It’s idiotic that that veteran would get an answer like that,” Senator Bill Nelson

Drinking and bathing in toxic water at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina has caused medical nightmares for countless Marines and their families.

“They’re losing major organs from their body, they’re dying, and it seems like they don’t care,” Judy Zambito said. Judy’s husband Joe is a former Marine, stationed at Camp Lejeune. Joe lost his right kidney to cancer in 1999. He lost his bladder then his left kidney to cancer in 2010.

“So his life now is to live the rest of his life on dialysis,” Judy explained. The Zambitos learned about Camp Lejeune contamination from the news. When Joe went to the VA to be evaluated in 2012, Judy points out that he was never seen by a VA doctor.

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry ties kidney and several other cancers to the Camp Lejeune water contamination. But in Joe’s case, the VA didn’t. Records show Joe’s private doctors were not consulted nor were his private medical records reviewed. Nonetheless, the VA determined his kidney cancer was not connected to Camp Lejeune, but his bladder cancer was.
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