stories of exposure

We wore gloves but no masks. I’m glad we worked outside under a canopy. I don’t know what affect the toluene had on me. I breathed it in all day for almost a year.

Our dad, Joseph, along with Robert Kennedy, Jr., exposed a toxic military dumpsite buried in the 60’s (which included Agent Orange) at Stewart Air Force Base in Newburgh, New York. It is a site that has been covered up by our government, the EPA and DEC for the past 40 years. As a result, this contamination has poisoned the community for over 40 years by leeching into Washington Lake Drinking Water Resevoir, which is right across the street from the Air Force base that serves 10’s of thousands of civilians.

In 2014 I was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma. It all started with severe back…

I was an Air Force Firefighter for just short of eleven years, separating only after a physical injury left me unable to do my job. I served from Jan 1993 – Nov 2003. I was stationed at Fairchild AFB, WA, Clear AS, AK, Shaw AFB, SC, and Ellsworth AFB, SD. I deployed 4 times during my time on active duty. We used AFFF for everything. When an aircraft hangar would have a foam dump, we’d play around in that stuff because it was so deep we didn’t have much choice.

I was a US Air Force firefighter in the 80’s. We used AFFF (Aqueous film forming foam) in sizable quantities continuously. We practically bathed in it and I threw away more than a couple uniforms because of foam. As a right of passage, we also poured it over fellow airmen leaving; either discharged or to another base.

In 1953, like a fool, I joined the U.S. Marine Corps. Then I was sent to Camp Lejeune to train (this was near the end of fighting in Korea). While training, I was chosen to train as a Scout Sniper. While training, I drank the water. I learned in 1987 that it was loaded with death, including cleaning fluids as well as other poisons.

Enter the “Magic Window”. It is defined by Veteran’s Affairs as the year after leaving service for your country. You have to have records of a condition worsening after you left.

My dad worked at the Rocky mountain arsenal when he was 18 years old. I believe they were neutralizing sarin gas and mustard gas. They didn’t wear much in the way of hazardous materials protective gear way back then.

I’m curious about potential exposures at a Maryland Army base in the 1950s, Is this too long ago to look into? Is it pointless? My father wound up with prostate cancer, but many decades later. He ultimately died of a brain tumor at age 80.

My grandfather was stationed at Ft. Devens in the 1960s. His family consisted of…