Military Environmental Contamination

Don’s Introduction:

Today, in Dec. 2018, I’m aware of four ex-USAF Air Police (APs) , ex-waste pit guards, who were stationed with me at Ramey AFB, Puerto Rico. Two of them have died from bladder cancer and the two remaining have been diagnosed with the same malady. While the base has not been designated as an environmental clean-up zone, toxic waste was being indiscriminately discarded, but requiring AP guards before the base was decommissioned. Without superfund identification, the VA doesn’t recognize the commonality of the situations, an Agent Orange situation all over again, one in which neither these victims nor survivors have the resources or victim life expectancy to take the situation to court.

Ramey AFB hazardous waste that I personally know of includes hundreds of used trichlorethelene and toluene wipes. Many of these would also have had particles of Plutonium from cleaning Plutonium spheres used in nuclear weapons of the day.

In Kansas (McConnell Air Force Base) I cleaned a spalling sphere from a “training” Mk 6 Mod 6 weapon, which means a LOT of Plutonium particles in the waste because I KNOW the people in charge had NO IDEA how poisonous it was.

The bottom line is that ANY military base leaves a contaminated waste area behind~ Don Chapin, Capt. USAF, Ret’d, ex-nuclear weapons electronics technician/team chief… ref. my bio.

• I personally know of four claimants to waste pit contamination that left ex-waste pit guards to combat bladder cancer later in life. ~ Don Chapin
• This external article is a very important read: The Military Is Poisoning America’s Groundwater, by Pat Elder, Director, the National Coalition to Protect Student Privacy
• This reposted article on our site provides a current assessment of the Superfund backlog: EPA’s Superfund Program In Shambles