WEBVTT

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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This committee will come to order.

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Today we have a hearing
entitled “Poisoned Patriots”.

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[sil.]

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You’re ready? Huh? You’re ready?

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Yeah, I was ready for this thing years ago.

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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I joined the Marine Corps in 1970,

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right out of high school.
I lived that life,

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breathed it. I loved it.

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I trained over 2,000 new
recruits on the drill field.

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[music]

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I came back from Okinawa with my family.

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[music]

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And we applied for base housing.

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It’s a typical military base -

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Jacksonville, North Carolina.

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[music]

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We stayed at Camp Lejeune
until December of 1975

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and that was when Janey was conceived.

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[music]

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In July of 1983,

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Janey got leukemia. After the…
the shock of her diagnosis,

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we were off.

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My reaction was to question it why?

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And that nagging question
of why, stayed with me

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through her illness, through her death,

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and for 14-and-a-half years.

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That’s something that doesn’t just go away.
It never does.

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[sil.]

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In ‘97, I found out about
the water contamination.

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[sil.]

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I was fixing a plate of
food in the kitchen,

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ah… getting ready for the evening news.
The reporter said…

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The contaminants found in the water of Lejeune
have been linked in scientific literature

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to birth defects and childhood cancers.
My first thought was,

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was this what happened to Janey?

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I dropped my plate, right there.
I mean, it was like

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God was saying to me,

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”Here is a glimmer of hope, that
you will find your answer.”

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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Come on, come on.

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I knew my son for six weeks.

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Christopher was buried at…

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at Arlington National Cemetery. Ann and I,
I don’t think we never discussed it again.

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I mean, what the hell was there to discuss.

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In about 1998,

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I read that they were looking for persons that
lived at Camp Lejeune. And they talked about the

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exposure to chemicals. Be still, good.

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Stop it.

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I had lots of things going on, but
I said, this is what I want to do.

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I want to find out what the hell happened.

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Jerry was on to it probably three… three
to four years before I even knew about it.

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I don’t think there’s anything significant in
lot of this stuff. So what are these documents?

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Well, we’ll see what we’ve got. I think,
it’s old stuff that I needed to put away.

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It’s an extra junk. We
need to… You need to put a

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ah… posted note on there. Tom
and I worked for six years

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without ever even knowing what the truth was until
the Marine Corps posted a bunch of documents

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by mistake. Tom called me and told
me that they had posted this website

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on the internet. And I said, no kidding.
As soon as I found out,

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they said, oh my god this is the… the holy
grail kid. I was on a Dial-up computer

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and ah… I stayed up for weeks on end,
all night, going through this website.

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I started reading these things and
all these questions came to mind.

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They didn’t vet it very well,
because let’s just put it this way,

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it was only up for like a month-and-a-half
to two months and it was taken now.

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But luckily we captured the
entire thing before they did.

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I couldn’t believe what I reading.

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[sil.]

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These people knew this crap and they covered
it up. When I first found this out,

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I had all the faith and competence in the
world that the United States Marine Corps

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would do what was right by their people.
As time went on,

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I made more and more contacts with
the Marine Corps. And you name it,

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they committed it - stone wall,

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incorrect information. I
started to slowly realize

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that these people were not gonna
do what was right by their people,

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they were gonna have to be forced to do it.

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And that burden fell on me.

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One question all that
came into my mind, why?

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And I couldn’t find any other child, in
her mother’s family history or mine,

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that had ever had leukemia.
In April of last year,

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I was diagnosed with male breast cancer and underwent
surgery in May. When I saw that interview,

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life as I know it, changed.
I called that day.

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I said that, “I know if you can’t give it to me, but
can you please pass my information to Jerry Ensminger

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and have him call me, all right,
because I really want to talk to him.”

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Your ears burning? The
reason I was calling was

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anything that you find, what
I think to be underlined

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and the thing, and put in bold dark letters.
By the way the kids are in the room,

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so watch the WTFs. Ah, okay. Bye.

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Bye. Here you go my dear,

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you need to hurry up, because
I gotta swim by the bank now.

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I mean, who we were beforehand is this, you know,
the Partain family. Just the average American,

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you know, 39-year-old, father of four. I mean, I was
active in boy scouts and went camping with my kids.

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Doing what most Americans do. Okay,
I got to get to work here so…

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That has all changed over the past year.

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[sil.]

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I never thought in my wildest dreams that, you know,
I would be able to know where my cancer from and,

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you know, to be able to make a difference.

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[sil.]

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The health and welfare of our marines, sailors,
their families and our civilian workers

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are a top priority for the Marine Corps.

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We will continue to cooperate in an effort to get
answers for those of our Marine Corps family

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who may have been exposed to volatile
organic compounds in drinking water

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at Camp Lejeune in the past.

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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Officially, I’ve been told nothing.
I’ve read at things,

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and I’ve heard things. It just… It opens a lot
of questions. How long did you live on the base?

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I was conceived on the base. Okay.
I mean, while on the base.

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And my exposure ended at the age of four months. Do you
know if you were nursed or if you were ah… formula?

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No. So, your diet every
day, as a baby, was full

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of the contaminated water. And I’m sure your
mom bathed you often in nice warm water.

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The warmer the water, the
more it’s gonna outgas

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the TCE from the water. The water itself
is gonna send the TCE into your skin.

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Babies’ bottoms are full of fat. Well, it will go
right into the fat and get into your blood stream.

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You know, when I first heard about
this there, I started chemotherapy.

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And I told my oncologist in Tallahassee. They said, “Ah,
there’s no way. That’s too long. I mean, you’re 39 years old,

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that… that occurred 40 years ago.” For most
cancers in adults, we think the latency period

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is between 10 to 50 years. Now, for
children, their cancers can develop

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with much shorter latencies, because of course,
the cells of a child are growing very fast.

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So we think childhood leukemia often comes about
from exposures that take place in the womb.

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That’s why people at Camp Lejeune have
a right to know that they were exposed

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and therefore they should be vigilant about these
things. Because as you know, in your own case,

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the earlier you can find cancer, the better the chance
is that you’re gonna be able to do well with it.

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In six months,

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I’ve located ten families,
including myself in Tallahassee,

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that all lived at Lejeune and are all sick.
And now like that,

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one family, the father died of male
breast cancer. There’s another gentleman,

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he was diagnosed with male breast cancer.
And me, one of the odds in that.

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I wonder, when we start to look out in the
country, how many other cancers we’re gonna find?

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[sil.]

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They couldn’t even read
it for about three days.

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The doctor gave it to me and I stuffed it
my purse. Patient is a 43-year-old female.

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She should follow up with
hematology, oncology

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within one week to ten days.

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[sil.]

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It’s aggressive.

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[sil.]

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And this stuff happens fast.

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Come on, mummy.

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She’s my child. Mom! Mom!

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My dad was a marine. And I
was told that the marines

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were the most elite and the
best and the toughest.

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And, you know, nothing less for me. And I was
told that I would gain a lot of self-confidence.

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To a certain point I have.
To a certain point,

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it’s the Marine Corps fault that Jerry
and Tom and I and the rest of us,

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veterans, are fighting so hard.
They trained us to be this way.

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Come one! One, two, three!

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[sil.]

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I decided that being
angry with those idiots

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isn’t gonna help anything.
Getting into a facility

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that knows what they’re doing is gonna help

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and believing in miracles.

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Lots of people are given
really bad prognosis.

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And told they’re gonna die, and
then that there’s no chance.

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I just can’t believe that, Rachel.

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I can’t believe it.

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I just… I refuse to believe
that there is no chance.

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[sil.]

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State Farm, this is Mike.

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For the past ten years I’ve been a claims
adjuster for State Farm Insurance.

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And having the ability to go through and do an investigation,
getting the facts together and learning to do that process

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and creating that skill set is valuable, because,
I mean, we have it… first we gonna camp within,

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Marine Corps says, this is what happened. And
then we find out that that’s not the truth.

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Compliance is a number one priority for us.

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We’re talking about the health and welfare
of our marines and their families.

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[sil.]

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The chemicals were first
discovered in the early 1980s.

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It was not until late 1984 and
early 1985 that it was discovered

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that it was actually in the wells. The base
was… was trying to determine the sewers.

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And as soon as they discovered the source of the
chemicals was the well, that well was shutdown.

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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Born and died, born and died.

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That’s a bunch of them born right after me.

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[sil.]

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Here’s what we need to get.

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These… These stones that tell her parents
is a sergeant or a staff sergeant.

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They were military. There’s a whole bunch of them spread
out through here that got the rank of the father.

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Here’s a first lieutenant.

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They lost two kids. Look
at that, ‘64 and ‘68.

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Get you in there and catalog all those
and then put the dates in sequence

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and see just how quick these kids
were dying and were they on the base?

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Umm…hmm… If we can find their parents.

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[sil.]

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When I first started looking into this, this is
someone who knew nothing about Camp Lejeune.

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And the first thing I wanted
to know was what happened?

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I told Jerry, I said, “Look, you know,

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do we have a timeline?” Because when you have the big
picture in front of you, things start to jump out,

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inconsistencies in stories, misrepresentations.
They start to jump out of you and they create the

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beginning point for you to
start asking questions.

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Once you know what happened, then you can
take that to the media and Congress,

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so they can understand it like we do. Otherwise
they’re gonna rely on the Marine Corps.

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[sil.]

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In the course of putting
together the timeline,

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one of the glaring problems with what the
Marine Corps were saying was Grainger Labs.

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As I started reading what happened,
I could hear in my mind,

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I could hear the technicians talking, you know,
“Why aren’t you doing something about it?

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Why are you still using this water?”

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I wanna talk to these people. To me they’re
witnesses, because they saw a problem.

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I went looking. We found Mike
Hargett of Grainger Labs.

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We recognized some

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contaminants that we didn’t expect to see. I went on base.
And we went to talk with some personnel in Public Works.

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Now, was this is a surveyor or…? No, this
was a… this is an uniformed personnel,

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uniformed officer. You recall his rank? He
was a Major. It was a very brief meeting.

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In the meeting we presented the… the… the
fact that we’d found some contaminants.

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And it was… You know, we were
almost similarly dismissed that,

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”Okay, yeah, we’ll take of it.” Hold it.
Yeah. Let’s back up on that.

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You specifically told them you
had found contaminants. Yes.

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Did you identify the contaminants to them? I don’t believe
we even got around to saying what the contaminants were.

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Well, ah… Yeah, is that right? You did… We didn’t…
We didn’t… We didn’t get that far into conversation.

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Umm… God! It was, you know, water is water.
Ah… We just have to… have to make sure

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we have plenty of it out there. Ah… And these government
regulations were a burden that was unwelcome.

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[sil.]

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The fact that he went down
there and alerted these people

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of what was in that water. How dangerous it was.
And he might as well been talking to offence post.

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Umm…hmm… I mean, for them to say…
Well, we didn’t know what this was.

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Well, we didn’t know what this was. We didn’t know
it was harmful. Well, there goes their story.

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Yeah. I wanna find out what really
was going on behind the scenes.

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Politics, convenience, deniability.

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I got 30 years over there. I’ve seen a lot
of it. Well, I’ll tell you what I think.

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I think that they were gonna keep
this contamination under wraps

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and they thought that no one would ever found
out about the contaminated water. Yeah.

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Okay. For all their problems… I don’t doubt it.
What went wrong with their plan to keep it quiet?

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That was just ah… too much of it, they got on
hand. You can only keep a secret for so long.

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The more people you involve in the secret,
the more likely the secret’s gonna get out.

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[sil.]

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So Marine Corps did not
want an investigation.

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They did not want a health study. So how do you
prevent that? You hide and conceal the truth.

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[sil.]

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You know, there’s a lot of people out there suffering
because of what they were… what was done to them here,

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through this negligence
that need healthcare.

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All these military people who
didn’t stay in and retire,

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who did one or two enlistments and got out,
they’re at the mercy of the public health system.

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We need to bring this issue up publically.

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[sil.]

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Hi, Jerry. Hi… …that’s why… Oh, yeah! Okay.
I inserted the senator’s name.

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This issue as a whole as
far as public health…

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Senator Burr, you… you remember me? I do.
If any situation warrants a…

00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.999
a hearing by our Senate Armed
Services Committee, it’s this one.

00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
Jerry is… he is front-end of this team.

00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
He’s the one that gets out of his farmer’s suit in North
Carolina and puts on his coat and tie and goes to DC.

00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
I have some peculiar ideas about traveling.
So I’m in Idaho, living in my cave

00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
and providing the information.

00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.999
You know, I just wanna see… I just want to see the Marine
Corps accept the fact that they did something to us.

00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.999
I have a hard time that the
Marine Corps has allowed me

00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.999
and thousands and hundreds of others
to get devastating illnesses and die,

00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.999
and just turn their back.

00:24:55.000 --> 00:25:00.000
That is the hardest thing for me to accept.

00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
We testify first. But the order which we… we’re going
to go ahead, and I don’t know. Yeah, that’s right.

00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
What are the key messages that…?
Notification of everybody

00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
that was exposed at Camp Lejeune,
studies for the populations

00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.999
that haven’t been looked
at and healthcare, now,

00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.999
for the people that are hurting.

00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:38.000
[sil.]

00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.999
I’m appearing here today
as one spokesperson

00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.999
for the hundreds of thousands of marines, sailors,
their families, and loyal civilian employees

00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:19.999
who were unknowingly exposed
to horrendous levels of toxins

00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.999
through their drinking water at
Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:29.999
Dr. Sinks, if you had been on these bases
and known about the contamination,

00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.999
would you have felt comfortable
drinking that water? I think that

00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:40.000
umm… I personally would have
been using different water.

00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.999
I’m told that officials waited years before
they identified the contaminated wells

00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.999
and then closed them down in 1985. Who
was in charge then at Camp Lejeune?

00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.999
All of the officials… Sorry, sir. All
of the officials at Camp Lejeune

00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.999
would have been in charge, just like they are today. Your
people were exposed to it, and you didn’t do anything.

00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.999
I wouldn’t say that the Marine Corps at Camp
Lejeune didn’t do anything at that time.

00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.999
As soon as they found that they were contaminated,
they shut them down. General Dickerson, why has

00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:24.999
DOD not notified those residents at Camp Lejeune
that they may have been exposed to TCE or PCE?

00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:29.999
Don’t you think you have a responsibility to let
these people know they may have been exposed?

00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:34.999
Yes, sir. Okay. Then why don’t you do it?
That would be a… a umm… very difficult

00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:39.999
and laborious task. We can try.
But I could never commit

00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:44.999
to finding a 100% of people who may have
been exposed. That’ll be very difficult.

00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.999
You can’t tell me Marine Corps doesn’t know
who was at Camp Lejeune from ‘65 to 2007?

00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:54.999
I just can’t believe you can’t do that.
That’s inconceivable to me.

00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:59.999
These people are sick and dying and fighting for
benefits and help. It seems like we will be doing

00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.999
everything possible to contact every person

00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:09.999
who was on these bases. And I may be not
hearing you correctly, but I get the sense

00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:14.999
that we’re not making that effort. Our most
precious resources are our Marines and families,

00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:19.999
and we are going to do everything
possible to take care of them.

00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:25.000
[sil.]

00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:35.000
[sil.]

00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:48.000
[music]

00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:54.999
The Marine Corps was Johnny-on-the-spot
with a three-page rebuttal

00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:59.999
of why they should not
have to do notification.

00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:04.999
I mean, Semper Fi, you know.

00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:09.999
When we got to the hearings,
I was really expecting those

00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:14.999
to be the catalyst for more
investigations and then ultimately

00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:19.999
get to the… you know, get to the truth.

00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:24.999
Well, I was wrong. People will think,

00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:29.999
”Oh my god a congressional hearing!
Boy, that’s real something.”

00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.999
They held the hearing. They
got great accolades for it.

00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.999
And then they dropped the ball.

00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:44.999
Unfortunately I cannot get the senator
to do a thing. He would not even

00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:49.999
ah… They would not even
take my phone calls.

00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:54.999
You know, the main thing is,
don’t let this issue die.

00:29:55.000 --> 00:30:03.000
[sil.]

00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.999
I don’t know how many
of you know my history,

00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:14.999
but I was a Career Marine. I did 24-and-a
- half years in the Marine Corps.

00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:19.999
I never dreamed that I will be
doing what I’m doing today.

00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:24.999
You know, when I first started
this in 1997, I was by myself.

00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:29.999
The Marine Corps has refused to notify
their people. And I told them that

00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:34.999
if they didn’t wanna live
up to their motto, I would.

00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.999
All of you can help by taking the time to
write a letter to your elected official.

00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:44.999
I’ve been wanting to meet you since I’ve read
your article in Jacksonville Daily News.

00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:49.999
What about New River Air Station?
I was there from ‘63 to 67.

00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:54.999
And I was telling you that something
that he got into at Camp Lejeune.

00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:59.999
This is my grandson.

00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:04.999
Semper Fi.

00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:09.999
You quit, they just keep going.

00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:14.999
Then I’ll go kick some
damn doors down the mall.

00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:19.999
One year ago today, a 39-year-old
Tallahassee resident was diagnosed

00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:24.999
with male breast cancer. Now, Mike
Partain is on the hunt for the truth

00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:29.999
and he is joined by… There is a part of me
that says, you know, shh… be quiet, sit down.

00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.999
You know, you just tell what… you know, the people
you need to tell locally and let’s just, you know,

00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:39.999
let’s not make a big scene. Umm…
But… I’m totally opposite to that.

00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:44.999
It’s one of the things that I’ve
understood. I mean, our biggest weakness

00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:49.999
is the fact that we’re not
concentrated at Camp Lejeune.

00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:54.999
This isn’t like Love Canal, where you can go drive
down the street and see little Suzie’s house there

00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:59.999
and that’s where she died and little Johnny over there,
he got cancer. You… You can’t do that at Camp Lejeune.

00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:04.999
The people that were there were only there
for a couple of years and they’re gone.

00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:09.999
But as word of this gets out,

00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:14.999
that weakness becomes our strength, because
we’re in every town across America.

00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:19.999
We’re in every town, every
city, and every state,

00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:25.000
and everyone of us has a
Congressman and a senator.

00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:34.999
At first I wanna thank you
all for your interest.

00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:39.999
We certainly value the need, the
hunger, the desire for information

00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:45.000
from those of you who have
been here at Camp Lejeune.

00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:59.999
My name is J. W. Townsend. I
arrived at Camp Lejeune in 1955.

00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.999
I joined the United States Marine Corps
and came to Camp Lejeune in 1981.

00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:09.999
I worked over at Camp Lejeune as a civilian.
My husband’s name was Billy Marvenhill.

00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:14.999
He worked at Camp Lejeune for 37 years.

00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:19.999
I started working on base in 1966.

00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:24.999
I was a healthy… healthy young person.
My youngest daughter was born

00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:29.999
two months before I was discharged from the
Marine Corps. They were saying cancer cells

00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:34.999
was forming in my body. When I was 47, I
was diagnosed with male breast cancer.

00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:39.999
My son was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s
lymphoma. My daughter, Tiffany,

00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:44.999
was diagnosed with cancer on her kidney. I
was diagnosed with cancer in my left kidney.

00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:49.999
Three weeks later he was diagnosed

00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:54.999
with leukemia. My children, they both, were just
so very sick when they came into this world.

00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:59.999
Incubators couldn’t bring them home.
I want to know why?

00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:04.999
Somebody can explain that to me today?
They knew this about the water,

00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:09.999
why they didn’t tell us? I don’t believe
they should be hiding any information

00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:14.999
from this audience. None.
There is so much pain

00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:19.999
that has happened in this area that people
don’t understand. I blamed myself for years

00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:24.999
till this came out. I hated myself.
I hated my body,

00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:29.999
because I thought I had failed my children.
I had a son, Russell Alexander Thorpe,

00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:34.999
that was born November 30, 1977,

00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:39.999
with an open spine. There was no hope
for one. This is my treasure box

00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:44.999
that I have of him. This is the suit

00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.999
he was wearing the day he died in
my arms at 10 minutes past 12:00,

00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:54.999
New Year’s Eve. This is vomit.

00:34:55.000 --> 00:34:59.999
I have never been able to wash off.
This is what I have left of my son.

00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:04.999
And then, the doctors did not have any idea

00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:09.999
what was causing it. So they
suggested we try again.

00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:14.999
We did. And I had a son
born without a cranium.

00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:19.999
So I have two graves at (inaudible)
Memorial Park. I would appreciate it

00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:24.999
if you all would take into consideration
that we are not numbers in a study,

00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:29.999
we are human beings that have had great
tragedies. And the pain never leaves.

00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:34.999
Rusty would be 30 years old
on the 30th of this month.

00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:39.999
The pain is no less. Thank you.

00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:48.000
[sil.]

00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:09.999
I come up here to get away from the daily stress
of talking to all these people on the telephone

00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:14.999
that were involved in Camp Lejeune.

00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:23.000
[sil.]

00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:39.999
Every time somebody knew finds out
about this, they wanna talk to me.

00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:44.999
And, you know, I can understand that.

00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:49.999
But, you know, I… I’ll tell you what, it
takes its toll hearing all these different

00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:54.999
stories and tragedies.

00:36:55.000 --> 00:37:03.000
[sil.]

00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:09.999
Now, Teri, did want grits with your eggs?

00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:14.999
No, never. Toast… Bread’s right there.

00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:19.999
Toast is right there. It’s
not water falling, Jerry?

00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:24.999
Of course. Well, just about.

00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:29.999
Hey boy!

00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:34.999
He’s overly consumed with this.

00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:39.999
This is his life. This is what he does.

00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.999
He and Janey were very, very close.

00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:49.999
And umm… You know, I can only imagine
what it’d be like to lose a child.

00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:54.999
And he just always seem
like umm… he always seem

00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:59.999
like he didn’t wanna get close again,
because he just can’t bare of losing.

00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:04.999
So it’s been tough. You
know, you lose your sister

00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:09.999
and umm… you know, you kind of feel
like you lost your dad too so…

00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:14.999
It ripped our family apart. I mean…

00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:19.999
[sil.]

00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:24.999
Yeah.

00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:29.999
He was with her all the time. He
lived at that hospital with her.

00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:34.999
She was a type. She wanted to know
everything that was going on around her.

00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:39.999
And she wouldn’t take Morphine.

00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:44.999
The day she died, she was really bad.

00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:49.999
She said, “Oh daddy!” She
said, “I… I really hurt.”

00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:54.999
And I said, “I know honey.” I
said, “But won’t take Morphine.”

00:38:55.000 --> 00:38:59.999
She goes, “Maybe I’ll better have
some.” Her nurse swiped the…

00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:04.999
poured off on her IV line and stuck the
needle and it was getting ready to push it,

00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:09.999
and Janey looked at her, and Janey
said, “Stop!” And she looked back,

00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:14.999
and she said, “I want
something for my daddy.”

00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:19.999
And she said, “Janey!” She said, “We
cannot give this to your daddy.”

00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:24.999
She said, “This is a very, very,
very strong pain medicine.”

00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.999
Janey… Janey looked at her and said,

00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:34.999
”I know, my daddy is hurting too.”

00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:43.000
God,

00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:54.999
it’s hell.

00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:59.999
Yeah. So… And then to find out that…

00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:04.999
[sil.]

00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:09.999
these people knew about this,

00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:14.999
never revealed it!

00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:19.999
Ah…

00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:24.999
Well, you understand my resolve

00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:29.999
in this. So…

00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:38.000
[sil.]

00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:59.999
We’re gonna pull into a
parking lot side of the

00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.999
Hadnot Point water treatment
plant built in 1941.

00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.999
In 1987, it served 37,134 residents.

00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.999
Camp Lejeune covers 159,000 acres,

00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:19.999
559 miles of roadway,

00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:24.999
42.8 miles of railroad,

00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.999
six water treatment facilities and
approximately 7,690 buildings.

00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:34.999
And it’s the largest growing
base on the East Coast.

00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:39.999
[sil.]

00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:44.999
This is a cast disposal area.

00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:49.999
And so just lot of cleaning solvents mostly.
I think it was just dumping over the years

00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:54.999
may be through drains.
Anything and everything camp.

00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:59.999
This is a point of interest

00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:04.999
that has nothing to do with water contamination.
But this Burger King here, on your left,

00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:09.999
is the most profitable
Burger King in the nation.

00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:14.999
This wooden stake on your right,

00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:19.999
that is the site of closed
well TT26, closed in 1985.

00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:28.000
[sil.]

00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:44.999
I mean, the red flag in this situation at Camp Lejeune
is this huge exposure, you know, lots of people exposed,

00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:49.999
some to an incredibly high levels. And then there
are rare diseases such as male breast cancer

00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:54.999
that set up a red flag. And that’s
certainly true at Camp Lejeune as well.

00:42:55.000 --> 00:42:59.999
But what about the fact that the Marine Corps is saying
that there’s no conclusive links to any of these diseases

00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:04.999
in Camp Lejeune? Yeah… Well, I hate to say,
but welcome to my world. In this instance,

00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:09.999
it’s a government agency. So that’s why it’s an outrage. Okay,
then beat the hell of them, beat them in the submission.

00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:14.999
Well, the one thing I want to ask you Dr. Clapp, you know,
of all the contamination sites you’ve seen professionally

00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:19.999
over the years in your career,
where would Camp Lejeune rate?

00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:24.999
Unfortunately, this is the… I mean, Camp
Lejeune is the biggest disaster of that type

00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:29.999
in this country that I’m aware of, but it’s certainly
not the only one. And there are military toxic sites

00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:34.999
all over this country and in other countries
too, US bases in other countries.

00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:40.000
So, we’re still counting up the damage
done. And I’m afraid we’re not finished.

00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:08.000
[sil.]

00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:14.999
Okay folks, let’s get started.

00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:19.999
The survey is one of the main ways we’re gonna
find out about what happened to people,

00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:24.999
their health conditions and so. So I think that this
is gonna be important for everyone who was exposed.

00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:29.999
I just wanna stress that the Marine Corps top
priority is to notify as many people as possible.

00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:34.999
So, I would say they’re publishing
articles nationwide in about

00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:39.999
6,000 outlets. Is it possible to
get a list of all of the entities

00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:44.999
that you’re using and contacting?
Radio stations, newspapers?

00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:49.999
The penetration of actually what ran
and when? What you actually did?

00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:54.999
I… I can… I can get you what we put out?
When can we expect that?

00:44:55.000 --> 00:44:59.999
I’m not the public affairs officer, so I don’t
have that information myself. I’m not buying it.

00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:04.999
I’m very irritated. I happen to be
still live. I like to have some help.

00:45:05.000 --> 00:45:09.999
Can I get on the TV and notify these people? I mean,
I… I found out in Lejeune what happened to me

00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:14.999
before I was even born. This
time last year I was dying.

00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:19.999
That’s wrong. The Marine Corps
needs to get these people notify

00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:24.999
and they need to get on the TV, they need to get on
the news, and they need to tell them what happened.

00:45:25.000 --> 00:45:29.999
[sil.]

00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:34.999
I’ll just say they started out. It’s a top priority to
notify people, and the Marine Corps is moving forward.

00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:39.999
I’m here today to get ideas from you
on how to do a better job. All right,

00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:44.999
thank you for being able to these
messages back. Break time.

00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:49.999
It is break time. Please be
back in 15 minutes from now.

00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:54.999
Thank you.

00:45:55.000 --> 00:45:59.999
I know we’re not gonna get an apology.
That’s out of the question.

00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:04.999
But how about getting us the
best possible medical care?

00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:09.999
Our taking care of our families?

00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:14.999
There’s so many people who don’t know.
So many people who have already died.

00:46:15.000 --> 00:46:19.999
So many people who are going through
what I’m going through right now

00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:24.999
and have no idea. Are you all right?

00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:29.999
Just feeling nausea and some hot. I\'m okay.
I see some grey hair coming back in anyway.

00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:34.999
Go away.

00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:39.999
And it’s hard. And if I died tomorrow,

00:46:40.000 --> 00:46:44.999
my family gets nothing. Nothing.

00:46:45.000 --> 00:46:53.000
[sil.]

00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:04.999
Danny, I’m gonna be working.

00:47:05.000 --> 00:47:09.999
No fighting. Mom would be home about an hour. How long you gonna
be back then? We’re not going fishing in the middle of the day.

00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:14.999
No, I’m just asking how long you gonna be
back then? May be another hour, I don’t know.

00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:19.999
Hey, this is Mike Partain
from Camp Lejeune.

00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:24.999
When you get a chance… There’s something
that’s come up. I wanna ask for volunteers.

00:47:25.000 --> 00:47:29.999
I’m sorry to bother you on a Sunday… Foundation that is
trying to do some awareness on the male breast cancer…

00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:34.999
So they wanna put together a calendar. I’ve called in to wanting
to see if, you know, who would be interested in doing that.

00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:39.999
If you’re interested there, what they’re
gonna do is fly us up to… 59 men,

00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:44.999
I had four call me about two weeks ago. A calendar, a
pin-up calendar, you know, turned to left, too hard, but…

00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:49.999
When I heard, you know, 59 men with breast
cancer from Camp Lejeune, they’re like, wow!

00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:54.999
And… Well, thank you. Yeah, take care.
Bye-bye. We never get to spend anytime

00:47:55.000 --> 00:47:59.999
like we used to, where we ah…

00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:04.999
where we just sit together, like, we just
have pizza, and we… only board games.

00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:09.999
Do you think what I’m doing with Camp Lejeune
is important? I don’t know if it’s important.

00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:14.999
I’m not saying that what you are doing isn’t
important and that I don’t back you. I do.

00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:19.999
It’s just there are times that, you know,

00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:24.999
when we don’t have a whole lot of time together,
I wonder, if you ever became sick again,

00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:29.999
would that be a regret? No. It’s… It’s hard. I mean, that
I don’t enjoy staying up to 1:00, 2:00 in the morning

00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:34.999
and getting up on five to six
hours of sleep, going to work

00:48:35.000 --> 00:48:39.999
or losing all my vacation time at work.
It’d be nice to go on a family vacation.

00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:44.999
The reason why I do this is because,

00:48:45.000 --> 00:48:49.999
if we could stop people from being
poisoned and children from being poisoned,

00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:54.999
and I can save someone’s life or save someone
from going through what I went through,

00:48:55.000 --> 00:48:59.999
then it’s worth it. I agree.

00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:04.999
[sil.]

00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:09.999
Are you going fishing? Uh?
Are you going fishing? Yes.

00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:18.000
[sil.]

00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:24.999
The Marine Corps is, and always
has been, a very large family.

00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:29.999
We understand that there are those who believe
their health concerns may be a result of

00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:34.999
time spent at Camp Lejeune. The
Marine Corps consists of war fighters

00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:39.999
and those who directly support war fighters.
We have no public health experts.

00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:44.999
And accordingly we rely on the expertise
of the scientific organizations

00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:49.999
to inform our understanding of this issue. The
studies completed to date have not determined

00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:54.999
whether or not there is an association…
Good morning, Tom Townsend.

00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:59.999
It’s about quarter 10:00. I was just
talking to Denita. She’s getting worse.

00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:04.999
They haven’t given any timeframe.

00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:09.999
That’s all I can say. I was just talking to her
minutes ago and the doctors came in and she…

00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:14.999
She will fight as long as she will, but I
think she’s really broken at this time.

00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:23.000
[sil.]

00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:39.999
We walked in to a meeting with
the EPA on their review of PERC,

00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:45.000
which is one of the chemicals we were exposed to, PCE.
That was my first time doing something like that.

00:50:55.000 --> 00:50:59.999
I like to welcome everyone. I’m sitting
there and then I started hearing

00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:04.999
some of the people in the panel. Good
afternoon. I’m speaking on behalf of

00:51:05.000 --> 00:51:09.999
the halogenated solvents industry alliance. Thank you for the
opportunity to share with the panel some of our concerns

00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:14.999
about USEPA’s toxicological
review of Tetrachloroethylene.

00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:19.999
I’m afraid I’m one of
those special interests.

00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:24.999
The evidence linking exposure to Tetrachloroethylene
to cancers in humans is limited.

00:51:25.000 --> 00:51:29.999
One with General Electric Corporate Environmental
Programs. I have trouble understanding how that

00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:34.999
study is evidence of anything? Umm… There
was nobody else there from the public.

00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:39.999
It was just Jerry and me. And
here they are making decisions

00:51:40.000 --> 00:51:44.999
that are going affect my health and whether
or not if this chemical is gonna be

00:51:45.000 --> 00:51:49.999
in my drinking water. It takes every dime I have
to save up money to go drive to Jerry’s house

00:51:50.000 --> 00:51:54.999
and ride with Jerry to DC. These
people can fly in on jets.

00:51:55.000 --> 00:51:59.999
They’re wearing their marriage(ph) suits.
They have headquarters in DC.

00:52:00.000 --> 00:52:04.999
How can the public compete with that?
My intent for appearing here today

00:52:05.000 --> 00:52:09.999
is to ensure that science
is allowed to do its work

00:52:10.000 --> 00:52:14.999
without human biases affecting the results.
I can’t say that

00:52:15.000 --> 00:52:19.999
for many of the other special interest
groups whose motivations are driven by

00:52:20.000 --> 00:52:24.999
the almighty dollar and others who are
attempting to shut their liabilities.

00:52:25.000 --> 00:52:29.999
I listened to everybody here.

00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:34.999
And while we fully admit that
this is a carcinogen to rats

00:52:35.000 --> 00:52:39.999
and other animals, but yet we still
just haven’t tweaked that thing

00:52:40.000 --> 00:52:44.999
to where we could say it’s
a carcinogen to humans.

00:52:45.000 --> 00:52:49.999
The benefit of the doubt

00:52:50.000 --> 00:52:54.999
looks like is gonna go to the chemical
and not to protect public health?

00:52:55.000 --> 00:52:59.999
What is wrong with this picture?

00:53:00.000 --> 00:53:04.999
We have these groups of scientists who meet,
and they decide is it a human carcinogen,

00:53:05.000 --> 00:53:09.999
is it an animal carcinogen? Do we not know
what to call it? And the decision is not

00:53:10.000 --> 00:53:14.999
just a scientific decision, it’s
a multibillion dollar decision

00:53:15.000 --> 00:53:19.999
with multinational implications. Because if you can
delay in classifying something as a human carcinogen,

00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:24.999
you may be saving companies billions.

00:53:25.000 --> 00:53:29.999
[sil.]

00:53:30.000 --> 00:53:34.999
Camp Lejeune is just a tip of the iceberg.

00:53:35.000 --> 00:53:43.000
[sil.]

00:53:55.000 --> 00:54:03.000
[sil.]

00:54:05.000 --> 00:54:09.999
Nice to see you. Great, great!

00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:15.560
He’s Jerry. Hey, Jerry. Hey, how do you do? How are you? Are you okay?
Ma’am how are you? Yeah, welcome, welcome to San Antonio. Thank you.

00:54:25.000 --> 00:54:29.999
And all this plumes will come in this way.
How far do they go beyond here?

00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:34.999
Oh! Ah… Say like may be
two, three miles. Really?

00:54:35.000 --> 00:54:39.999
Yeah. This was one of our first
casualties in our neighborhood.

00:54:40.000 --> 00:54:44.999
And then across the street we have another one.
We’ve put another purple cross on this one here.

00:54:45.000 --> 00:54:49.999
This is your wife?

00:54:50.000 --> 00:54:54.999
Yeah, she passed away three… three years ago.
I’m sorry. Yeah, lot of people are dying. Yeah.

00:54:55.000 --> 00:55:03.000
[sil.]

00:55:10.000 --> 00:55:14.999
The contamination moves under the houses.
And it gets very hot here

00:55:15.000 --> 00:55:19.999
in San Antonio in the summer. So it’s particularly bad. You can
actually smell it. And the houses actually are like tents,

00:55:20.000 --> 00:55:24.999
so when it comes up and vaporizes to the
surface, it’s caught in the houses.

00:55:25.000 --> 00:55:29.999
And there are 20,000 of these homes located
over the groundwater contamination plume.

00:55:30.000 --> 00:55:34.999
They haven’t done anything
to… to help us out,

00:55:35.000 --> 00:55:39.999
the city or the Air Force or… And then they’ll
stall you and stall you and finally he says,

00:55:40.000 --> 00:55:44.999
you know, what the hell with it. I’m not gonna go out there and
fight these people. We can’t beat them. So, he just gave up.

00:55:45.000 --> 00:55:49.999
Yeah, you can. And that’s… Come on, let’s… let’s be
realistic. They… They’re not gonna listen to you.

00:55:50.000 --> 00:55:54.999
I’ve been fighting this at Camp Lejeune
for 12 years. And I’m not quitting.

00:55:55.000 --> 00:55:59.999
Well, that’s… You know, when they… when I told
the command out of the Marine Corps. Umm…hmm…

00:56:00.000 --> 00:56:04.999
I said, you know when I’m gonna quit? Either
when you do what’s right by our people… Yeah.

00:56:05.000 --> 00:56:09.999
…and live up to our model… Yeah.
…or when you pat me in the face

00:56:10.000 --> 00:56:15.000
with a shovel and blow taps… Yeah. …over my dead
ass… Yeah. …that’s when I’m quitting. Okay.

00:56:20.000 --> 00:56:24.999
[music]

00:56:25.000 --> 00:56:29.999
Oh Lord! Mike Partain? Yes.
Dory More. Hi, More.

00:56:30.000 --> 00:56:34.999
We’re kind of pressed with time. You get your time or let’s
keep it, you know… May I also have… now we’re since…

00:56:35.000 --> 00:56:39.999
We’re only marines. You… You wanna go.

00:56:40.000 --> 00:56:44.999
[sil.]

00:56:45.000 --> 00:56:49.999
What have I done! Good morning. Good
morning. I wanna take a moment to thank you

00:56:50.000 --> 00:56:54.999
for your service and your sacrifice
to this country and the Marine Corps.

00:56:55.000 --> 00:56:59.999
I am one of the estimated 12,548
children who were born at the base

00:57:00.000 --> 00:57:04.999
between 1968 and 1985. Our childhood
leukemia rate is between two

00:57:05.000 --> 00:57:09.999
and three times the national average. Just
a quick poll. Ah… Who was at Camp Lejeune

00:57:10.000 --> 00:57:14.999
during this time period?

00:57:15.000 --> 00:57:19.999
We need your help. We would like to spread the word so
that these families can be vigilant in their health.

00:57:20.000 --> 00:57:24.999
We also request that you contact your local Congressmen and
women and then express your concern over what has happened

00:57:25.000 --> 00:57:29.999
and request that they support the
current efforts concerning Lejeune.

00:57:30.000 --> 00:57:34.999
Is it a possibility that was contaminated in the ‘50s? Yeah.
(inaudible)… I’m gonna look for? Were there been any heart effects?

00:57:35.000 --> 00:57:39.999
There is a heart condition among the children that
were born there. Do you have a number we can contact?

00:57:40.000 --> 00:57:44.999
Yeah. Actually if you all don’t mind, you
know, you can put your name and number down.

00:57:45.000 --> 00:57:49.999
I’ve already got a Congressman onboard. He’s onboard,
but I need you guys talk about it, spread it.

00:57:50.000 --> 00:57:54.999
Ah… I just wanna keep in touch
with you guys. Okay. Thanks.

00:57:55.000 --> 00:58:03.000
[music]

00:58:15.000 --> 00:58:19.999
You know, this is Jerry. I
just received a phone call

00:58:20.000 --> 00:58:24.999
from Denita’s son. And he
told me that she passed away.

00:58:25.000 --> 00:58:29.999
Ah… Give me a call,

00:58:30.000 --> 00:58:34.999
and I’ll talk to you then. Take care.

00:58:35.000 --> 00:58:43.000
[music]

00:59:15.000 --> 00:59:19.999
Before Janey died, she told me,

00:59:20.000 --> 00:59:24.999
”If I died daddy, every time you
see a rainbow, it’ll be me.”

00:59:25.000 --> 00:59:33.000
[music]

00:59:35.000 --> 00:59:39.999
I love the odd.

00:59:40.000 --> 00:59:44.999
Let’s go in.

00:59:45.000 --> 00:59:53.000
[sil.]

01:00:00.000 --> 01:00:04.999
I hate this damn finger pad.
Why don’t you bring a mouse?

01:00:05.000 --> 01:00:09.999
And the mouse doesn’t work without
the fucking keyboard, remember. Oh!

01:00:10.000 --> 01:00:14.999
Come on, look here.

01:00:15.000 --> 01:00:19.999
All previous sampling

01:00:20.000 --> 01:00:24.999
in and around Site 22 indicates that
petroleum related products from the…

01:00:25.000 --> 01:00:29.999
from tanks at this site are the only
apparent sources of contamination.

01:00:30.000 --> 01:00:34.999
Somebody’s ass is in trouble over this.

01:00:35.000 --> 01:00:39.999
We found documents related to a fuel spill

01:00:40.000 --> 01:00:44.999
that they never reported to anybody.
They never even tried to clean it up.

01:00:45.000 --> 01:00:49.999
We always realized that there was something

01:00:50.000 --> 01:00:54.999
that the Department and the Navy
and the Marine Corps were hiding.

01:00:55.000 --> 01:00:59.999
But we had no idea of the magnitude.
And when we saw that, we said,

01:01:00.000 --> 01:01:04.999
”Oh my God, this is huge!”

01:01:05.000 --> 01:01:13.000
[music]

01:01:20.000 --> 01:01:24.999
Documents recently reviewed by the
press revealed the contamination

01:01:25.000 --> 01:01:29.999
was far more extensive and deadly than previously assumed. The
newly revealed documents last week inspired for an investigation…

01:01:30.000 --> 01:01:34.999
…massive leaks of benzene, a known carcinogen,
from a fuel storage farm at Camp Lejeune.

01:01:35.000 --> 01:01:39.999
They also suggest… Ah… We’re trying to learn more
as our folks like Jerry Ensminger about the benzene

01:01:40.000 --> 01:01:44.999
and its impact. Benzene
is a known carcinogen.

01:01:45.000 --> 01:01:53.000
[sil.]

01:02:00.000 --> 01:02:04.999
This ain’t church. You guys… You
guys can come up here to the front.

01:02:05.000 --> 01:02:09.999
The worst thing that we found out, we just discovered,
they’ve estimated that 1.1 million gallons

01:02:10.000 --> 01:02:14.999
of fuel had been lost out of
the Hadnot Point fuel farm.

01:02:15.000 --> 01:02:19.999
That… That was spills, leaks

01:02:20.000 --> 01:02:24.999
into the ground at the fuel farm.
Are there any incidents or things

01:02:25.000 --> 01:02:29.999
that you all were doing that, you know, in the back of
your mind, like, “Hey, there’s something wrong with this.”

01:02:30.000 --> 01:02:34.999
Yeah, right. Yeah. While the times that we used to flush hydrants,
I don’t know how far the hydrant went in almost knocked me down,

01:02:35.000 --> 01:02:39.999
nose started snorting, eyes started
running. It was like rotten gasoline

01:02:40.000 --> 01:02:44.999
coming out of the tank… out of the hydrant.
Huh! Sure. It… It came up a little bit

01:02:45.000 --> 01:02:49.999
and then it stopped and then the water started
coming out. Every time they had a major rain

01:02:50.000 --> 01:02:54.999
and everything, they had…
they had gasoline and vapors

01:02:55.000 --> 01:02:59.999
come up in those buildings and the fire department,
we… we responded to those buildings right regular.

01:03:00.000 --> 01:03:04.999
And when you went to the buildings, I mean, what
the smell was? The smell of the gasoline. Yeah.

01:03:05.000 --> 01:03:09.999
I mean, was it like… No doubt. Did that
get reported up anywhere? Or you just…

01:03:10.000 --> 01:03:14.999
I reported to… to my captain.
But who it went from there,

01:03:15.000 --> 01:03:19.999
I never knew no more about it. You knew
something was wrong, but then you know,

01:03:20.000 --> 01:03:24.999
if I say something that I gonna
agree with my family, you know.

01:03:25.000 --> 01:03:29.999
Well, let’s down to the rule of it.
It was like a little thing, okay.

01:03:30.000 --> 01:03:34.999
If you talk, you might not going away. You don’t pushing.
And you respect rank and you do what you’re told,

01:03:35.000 --> 01:03:39.999
you know, within the job description, of course, you have
to or else. So, you… you didn’t pay too much attention

01:03:40.000 --> 01:03:44.999
to a certain issues, you just did it.
And after a while,

01:03:45.000 --> 01:03:49.999
it sort of clicked. You know,
this is what’s happening.

01:03:50.000 --> 01:03:54.999
Would any of you be interested in speaking
to an Associated press reporter? Yeah. Yeah.

01:03:55.000 --> 01:03:59.999
This thing about the fuel, choo…
This is going to explode.

01:04:00.000 --> 01:04:04.999
Good evening.

01:04:05.000 --> 01:04:09.999
Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina
is the place where thousands of young Marines…

01:04:10.000 --> 01:04:14.999
In other news. A stunning and very upsetting admission today from
the federal government… A form of cancer that might have come

01:04:15.000 --> 01:04:19.999
from the water they used every day.
They told their story in Washington…

01:04:20.000 --> 01:04:24.999
Scientists and federal investigators
now believe Camp Lejeune may be

01:04:25.000 --> 01:04:29.999
the worst example of water contamination
this country has ever seen.

01:04:30.000 --> 01:04:34.999
They were told to dump it, get rid of it. We
were dumping toxic chemicals into the ground.

01:04:35.000 --> 01:04:39.999
Really? We gotta get to the bottom of this

01:04:40.000 --> 01:04:44.999
and that means Congress is gonna have to press the Marine Corps for answers.
Okay, so… Thank you. It’s nice meeting with you. Semper Fi to you too.

01:04:45.000 --> 01:04:49.999
Okay, take care. And I mean that. Thank
you. And I mean it. I’m sorry to touch you.

01:04:50.000 --> 01:04:54.999
[sil.]

01:04:55.000 --> 01:04:59.999
Bring your elbow into you just a
little bit. Yeah, that’s nice.

01:05:00.000 --> 01:05:04.999
One more smile. That’s good. Beautiful.

01:05:05.000 --> 01:05:09.999
What kind of treatment did you have? They took
off my right breast. I was diagnosed with

01:05:10.000 --> 01:05:14.999
breast cancer in 2003. And then I
was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

01:05:15.000 --> 01:05:19.999
I was at Camp Lejeune. Yeah, I had one
son, but he died after he was born.

01:05:20.000 --> 01:05:24.999
He had holes in his heart. The story broke
about the Marines and the breast cancer.

01:05:25.000 --> 01:05:29.999
I got calls from around the country. It’s
very rare for men to get breast cancer.

01:05:30.000 --> 01:05:34.999
You’re talking to somebody who’s mad at the federal
government, mad at the Marine Corps. That’s why I’m here.

01:05:35.000 --> 01:05:39.999
I received a call and it was Mike Partain. And
I was number eight and now there are 65 of us.

01:05:40.000 --> 01:05:44.999
That’s great! Can we go with that one?

01:05:45.000 --> 01:05:49.999
Everybody knows what it looks like by now.
Yeah. And I’ve told everybody,

01:05:50.000 --> 01:05:54.999
I do this as long as I didn’t have
to be in a speed oven topless.

01:05:55.000 --> 01:05:59.999
Ah, there we go!

01:06:00.000 --> 01:06:04.999
I just wanna thank everybody for coming.
Right now we’ve identified

01:06:05.000 --> 01:06:09.999
that probably the single largest male breast cancer
cluster that’s ever been now. This project we’re doing,

01:06:10.000 --> 01:06:14.999
the proceeds from the calendars are gonna go for
a grant research to look into Camp Lejeune,

01:06:15.000 --> 01:06:19.999
not only for male breast cancer but for the other diseases.
So, we have a unique opportunity to make a statement about

01:06:20.000 --> 01:06:24.999
what happened to all of us and everybody from
Camp Lejeune. Jerry, did you wanna say anything?

01:06:25.000 --> 01:06:29.999
This guy that started all. Come
on, let’s give brought. Come on.

01:06:30.000 --> 01:06:34.999
Jerry started this whole
thing, because without Jerry,

01:06:35.000 --> 01:06:39.999
we wouldn’t know what happened to us.
Ah… You know, I’m just glad that

01:06:40.000 --> 01:06:44.999
I was able to help you people in this room.

01:06:45.000 --> 01:06:49.999
So, Semper Fi. Thank you. Semper Fi.

01:06:50.000 --> 01:06:54.999
All right, here we go. Smile. All right.

01:06:55.000 --> 01:06:59.999
Suck it in. Suck it in. Relax a little bit.
That’s good. Don’t look stiff. Don’t worry guys.

01:07:00.000 --> 01:07:04.999
All right, right over here, look into me. Nice
smile. That’s good, look into me. Beautiful.

01:07:05.000 --> 01:07:09.999
Wonderful. Thank you.

01:07:10.000 --> 01:07:18.000
[music]

01:07:40.000 --> 01:07:44.999
The tumor was in your hard pallet?
Soft pallet. Soft pallet.

01:07:45.000 --> 01:07:53.000
On the right. On the right side.

01:08:00.000 --> 01:08:04.999
They state in your decision to grant you V.A. benefits
that your cancer was because of your exposure

01:08:05.000 --> 01:08:09.999
to the contaminated drinking
water while you both

01:08:10.000 --> 01:08:14.999
worked and lived the board Camp Lejeune,
right? All right. That’s right.

01:08:15.000 --> 01:08:19.999
Ah… I would like today
to get copies of your…

01:08:20.000 --> 01:08:24.999
your documents. Okay. David
Briscoe is the only person

01:08:25.000 --> 01:08:29.999
that I currently know of who had a
federal agency admit in writing

01:08:30.000 --> 01:08:34.999
that his disease was caused by the
contaminated water at Camp Lejeune.

01:08:35.000 --> 01:08:39.999
That’s gonna be like a damn bomb

01:08:40.000 --> 01:08:45.000
hitting in the senate, I’m
gonna tell you right now.

01:08:50.000 --> 01:08:54.999
[sil.]

01:08:55.000 --> 01:08:59.999
Today is a big day.

01:09:00.000 --> 01:09:04.999
The House of Representatives
is introducing a bill.

01:09:05.000 --> 01:09:09.999
I was in my study,

01:09:10.000 --> 01:09:14.999
sitting behind my… in front of
my computer when they called me.

01:09:15.000 --> 01:09:19.999
I mean, I couldn’t hardly talk about it

01:09:20.000 --> 01:09:24.999
without my voice breaking,
you know, at first.

01:09:25.000 --> 01:09:29.999
Few times that I told people about it.

01:09:30.000 --> 01:09:34.999
It is quite an honor.

01:09:35.000 --> 01:09:43.000
[music]

01:09:45.000 --> 01:09:49.999
Good morning and welcome. I’m very
proud to be here to introduce

01:09:50.000 --> 01:09:54.999
the Janey Ensminger Act. This bill
is the next step in providing

01:09:55.000 --> 01:09:59.999
justice to those who were affected by the
toxic drinking water at Camp Lejeune.

01:10:00.000 --> 01:10:04.999
The Janey Ensminger Act requires
the Department of Veterans Affairs

01:10:05.000 --> 01:10:09.999
to provide healthcare to the veterans and
their families who served at Camp Lejeune

01:10:10.000 --> 01:10:14.999
during the period of water contamination.
This will make it easier for Marines

01:10:15.000 --> 01:10:19.999
and their families to receive disability
compensation for the illness.

01:10:20.000 --> 01:10:24.999
It was suggested last week that the V.A.
isn’t equipped to do this

01:10:25.000 --> 01:10:29.999
until you realize that we already do it it’s
called the family members of Agent Orange.

01:10:30.000 --> 01:10:34.999
We handle those individuals. We
do it through the V.A. today.

01:10:35.000 --> 01:10:39.999
And we can do it as it relates to
those family members of Camp Lejeune.

01:10:40.000 --> 01:10:44.999
Jerry, to you and your family, thank you for the years
of perseverance that you have shown in getting us

01:10:45.000 --> 01:10:49.999
to where we are today. I am now
pleased to introduce Jerry Ensminger.

01:10:50.000 --> 01:10:54.999
Jerry’s been more relentless, more
powerful than any paid lobbyist

01:10:55.000 --> 01:10:59.999
could ever be. He is a powerful
advocate and it is a righteous power.

01:11:00.000 --> 01:11:04.999
Good afternoon.

01:11:05.000 --> 01:11:09.999
I am the father of Janey Ensminger,

01:11:10.000 --> 01:11:14.999
the nine-year-old little girl for whom
this bill is named. I can only surmise

01:11:15.000 --> 01:11:19.999
that had this conduct been
demonstrated by a private industry

01:11:20.000 --> 01:11:24.999
and not a Department of Defense entity,

01:11:25.000 --> 01:11:29.999
they would have most certainly found
themselves in a federal courtroom long ago.

01:11:30.000 --> 01:11:34.999
It is my hope that someday, soon,

01:11:35.000 --> 01:11:39.999
all of us will finally be allowed to achieve
some much needed closure and justice.

01:11:40.000 --> 01:11:44.999
May God bless Janey. And may God bless you

01:11:45.000 --> 01:11:49.999
for bestowing this honor upon her.
Thank you.

01:11:50.000 --> 01:11:54.999
[sil.]

01:11:55.000 --> 01:12:03.000
[music]

01:12:05.000 --> 01:12:09.999
[sil.]

01:12:10.000 --> 01:12:14.999
I carried the torch for this organization.

01:12:15.000 --> 01:12:19.999
And I instilled in those kids our motto -

01:12:20.000 --> 01:12:24.999
Semper fidelis, which
means “always faithful”.

01:12:25.000 --> 01:12:29.999
That meant something to me
that we take care of our own.

01:12:30.000 --> 01:12:34.999
And it meant something to
those kids that I trained.

01:12:35.000 --> 01:12:39.999
[music]

01:12:40.000 --> 01:12:44.999
I want this situation
here to live in history

01:12:45.000 --> 01:12:49.999
and in science so that it never
happens to anybody else again.

01:12:50.000 --> 01:12:58.000
[music]

01:16:10.000 --> 01:16:18.000
[sil.]