Exposed at McClellan

The following is a personal story submitted to Civilian Exposure and published as part of our new series: “Contamination Chronicles: Personal Stories of Exposure”. If you would like to submit your story, you may fill out our form here or send directly via email to share-@-civilianexposure.org.

I actually first saw this site while searching all my symptoms online on 2/3/17 and was accepted on the website but never posted. I felt I had best document that I was at Ft McClellan for basic training in 1980 and then to Military Police school.  I was in the 11th Military police battalion, Company A, in 1980.

Since that time, I have experienced innumerable illnesses which ultimately culminated in being unable to work in 2009 and received SSDI. After my illnesses and symptoms seemed to grow, I began searching for what has caused my horrible pain.

Pain from when I had to have a hysterectomy and was told I would have never been able to carry a child to full term, to later on experiencing horrible pain all over that caused my doctor to finally diagnose me with fibromyalgia. It finally meant that the exposure at Ft. McClellan could be the reason I had this underlying pain that caused me to have innumerable ongoing problems that included horrible pain, fatigue, unable to remember things and fibro fog that often makes me unable to recall words while having a normal conversation.

I prefer to not disclose all of my symptoms and losses, but felt it necessary to document my service at Ft McClellan. I have requested my medical records and a new DD-214, so that I can apply for VA disability but haven’t received the DD-214 yet.  Then, I can gradually get the application done online. But I must say it’s hard to deal with the stress that comes from preparing all that. I have put it off because the VA is not acknowledging the chemical contamination at Ft McClellan yet.

Horrible that veterans who experienced Camp Lejeune contamination are still fighting for their disabilities to be acknowledged. I am grateful for the wonderful friends that have experienced this horrible ongoing journey, but loving me just the same. I have learned to live my life the best I can with the limitations that I have.

Note from the Editor: The author currently resides in Washington. The account/editorial is verbatim from the author without edit, with only the omission of their name to preserve anonymity.