Posted on 02/28/2017 7:30:03 AM PST by BeadCounter
National Guard veteran Amie Muller believed deployments to Iraq caused the cancer that killed her.
She worked and lived next to burn pits that billowed toxic smoke night and day at an air base in northern Iraq. After returning to Minnesota, she began experiencing health problems usually not seen in a woman in her 30s.
Muller died a week ago, nine months after being diagnosed with Stage III pancreatic cancer. On Feb 24, more than 800 of her friends and family gathered at a memorial service in Woodbury to remember the life of the 36-year-old mother of three. A pastor noted her loss was both painful and seemingly incomprehensible.
"I wish there was a simple way to explain what has happened to Amie. Why Amie is gone," said Pastor Lisa Renlund. "Life truly isn't that simple. It can get messy. It can feel complicated. It can seem unfair."
(Excerpt) Read more at military.com ...
In 2005 and in 2007, Muller was deployed to Balad, Iraq, with the Minnesota Air National Guard, embedded with a military intelligence squadron. The burn pit near her living quarters there was one of the most notorious of the more than 230 that were constructed at military bases across Iraq and Afghanistan before their use was restricted in 2009. Items ranging from Styrofoam to metals and plastics to electrical equipment to human body parts were incinerated, the flames stoked with jet fuel.Covering more than 10 acres, Balad's burn pit operated at all hours and consumed an estimated 100 to 200 tons of waste a day. It was hastily constructed upwind from the base, and its plumes consistently drifted toward the 25,000 troops stationed there.
100 to 200 TONS of waste burned in open pits every day? At one site out of 230? UPWIND from the camp? If all true, this is horrible.
"I was constantly breathing that ****."
Unless you are the EPA.
Herein lies the real expense of war. Just as we had never known of agent orange until long after the war, we will not know of what the troops were exposed to during the Iraq war. Hopefully, the government won’t cover it up like they did with troops that handled depleted uranium and were exposed to WMDs launched by Saddam during the first Gulf War.
UPWIND? How stupid. How criminally negligent.
In my deepest heart of hearts I believe in our military, and know they are they good guys. And like to think that they make good decisions. But this is one of the stupidest f’ing thing i’ve ever heard of. Who thought this was a good idea????
Sounds like just one of the ways Hussein had to kill our troops. Enemy within as Savage says.
Not unlike the whole Agent Orange thing.
Sad that our veteran’s are treated this way.
I think just learning about it in 2017 smacks of coverup. There are many (MANY) commercially available incinerators that could have been installed quickly that would have properly burned the waste. I am appalled at the treatment of our forces.
Sorry but GW Bush should attend that funeral. We held Hillary accountable on FR for how she went from being broke in 2001 to being worth over $31 million in 2012 after ten years in “public service”. Perhaps GW can explain how the Bush family became to be worth over $50 million dealing with the Wahhabi protected and supported Saudis. Every time GW rants about the “religion of peace”, he should think of the grieving families of over 6,000 brave young American, those that have been forever maimed and the tens of thousands who will suffer lifetime psychological disabilities fighting to protect interests that had absolutely nothing to do with the security of the American people. Moral of the story? Never again elected the privileged , dry alcoholic scion of an elite, corrupt family as the President of the United States. Anyone surprised that this guy’s daughter actively promotes Planned Parenthood?
Unrelated, but this bugs me..
Folks if this is the first you have heard of this you need to do some research as it’s been know for at least a couple years.
http://www.crossroadschurch.cc/visit/woodbury-campus
(Just in case anyone else wonders, this must be their church)
People who were exposed need to get organized right away (in the good way, not like zippy. It has been 30 years plus since the “Camp Lejeune Water Contamination” issue was began being addressed. Registration, aligning deployment records (exposure), and testing early would probably be a good thing.
KYPD
I know a dude in PA with the exact same issue, caused by the exact same thing.
VA stonewalls it, of course.
It’s scary, I know of someone with this problem as well.
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