If you lived on base at Camp Lejeune during the period 1953-1987, a suspect time frame, and drank or bathed in tap water, you were Exposed to dangerous chemicals and qualify for “benefits”. Whatever the fuck that means.
As this article states, a number of harmful chemicals were found in the water. I knew a Marine who died of a heart attack around 1982. He had previously suffered an attack, had bypass surgery, and it only bought him about 8 years. His ischemic heart disease was only one of several problems he suffered. Ischemic heart disease is linked to Agent Orange, a plant defoliant used during the Vietnam War. It got its name by the orange band of paint around the center of the black 55 gallon drums it came in. But Agent Orange is responsible for a lot of dead soldiers and Marines, and long before anyone in Washington dared admit it, men were dying of various cancers. Then the chemical was linked to a host of other maladies, most being costly to treat, causing terrible suffering and, in the end, death. I knew men who passed away because of it, just as I knew men who had serious problems holding a job or working a fixed schedule, issues with sudden anger, hostility in general, or conversely were glib and cavalier. In other words, victims of PTSD. They all had one thing in common: they fought in the bush in Vietnam. Sometimes there was another common element: they had spent a lot of time at Lejeune.
And for what it’s worth, these described qualifications for benefits are bullshit. You have to prove a connection. And you can not have a discharge other than Honorable.
I regard honor above many traits of humanity, but let’s set one thing straight: if you are responsible for someone’s illness, and you make help available to others with the same illness, then no matter the nature of their discharge, they should get the same help. I don’t care what anyone says, liability is a fixed issue. Besides, veterans with Other Than Honorable discharges aren’t all criminals and miscreants; some are injured, hence a medical discharge, some fall outside of weight requirements, others made bad choices they never thought would get them kicked out of the Corps. To have that be the reason for not being able to afford treatment–for that to be the root cause of your death, is heinous.
But it is hardly anything new. Men have been dishonorably discharged for no more reason than a superior officer simply not liking them. Some officers even make shit up, fill in forms with false information. You really believe that never happened? It has, and it will always be so. Sometimes it is the dishonorable who get to stay.
Look. Just give our veterans what they need to survive. There was a story one Vietnam vet told about a guy in his company who suddenly started to masturbate dozens of times a day. Anywhere, it didn’t matter. He’d been pushed way beyond his breaking point. Medical or psychological discharge right there. Did he get benefits, treatment? I never learned what became of the guy. I rather doubt that he got help. They kick you out for shit like that. Then they forget you. Or they lock you in a psych ward and you still get no real help. You can languish and linger in a hell hole for years.
Veteran groups like The Few, The Proud, The Forgotten should not need to exist. Men and women who have served our country should not have to suffer without help simply because they enlisted. That is my definition of dishonor.
I have heard their stories. They’re all terrible. Some were openly and visibly fucked up. Others hid it. Or they tried to. They put on a brave face. They said things like, “It was nothing to us. We’d hear a battle and say, ‘Hey, there’s firefight, let’s go see what’s happening’ and we’d go get in The Shit.” But one way or another, their trauma would always surface, and more often than not, they were scary men.
PTSD, chemical exposure, contaminated water, it doesn’t matter, and I haven’t even mentioned the Camp Lejeune imported drywall scandal. We treat our veterans shamefully and there is no excuse anyone can give that would be honest or true in any way.
It’s the reward for serving one’s country.
It’s fucking dishonorable.
Memoirs of an American Asshole 