A Few Good Men, Too Many Chemicals: Toxic Exposure of US Marines and Government Lies

A Few Good Men, Too Many Chemicals is the story of the exposure of U.S. Marines at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, CA, and Camp Lejeune, NC, to organic solvents, benzene, radiation and other carcinogens ingested in their drinking water and through dermal contact and inhalation while working with toxic chemicals without protective clothing and face masks. Thousands of veterans and their families were once stationed at El Toro, an EPA Superfund site and the premier Marine Corps jet fighter base until it closed in July 1999. At Camp Lejeune, another EPA Superfund site, the base wells were contaminated with organic solvents from 1953 to 1987 with an estimated one million people exposed to trichloroethylene (TCE), tetrachloroethylene (PCE), benzene and other toxic chemicals. Legislation to provide health care for Camp Lejeune, an active military installation, was passed in the 112th Congress. In September 2016, Lejeune veterans were eligible for presumptive VA disability compensation for 8 health conditions that the VA agreed were linked to toxic chemicals in the base's wells. There is no presumptive health care and disability for El Toro Marines. El Toro veterans have to fight for health care and disability one veteran at a time. A Few Good Men, Too Many Chemicals documents the denial of responsibility and the cover-up by Marine Corps leadership of environmental contamination from veterans, their dependents, and the public at El Toro: no usage records on TCE and other organic solvents; El Toro's denial of ownership for 16 years of a major TCE plume spreading for miles into Orange County until a lawsuit forced the government to accept responsibility.