Military showers had cyanide at ‘black goo’ base. New bill could help those veterans
Water in showers and latrines tested positive for cyanide and nearby bunkers tested positive for blister and nerve agents at a base used by U.S. forces in Uzbekistan, even after the Defense Department had reported that there were no worrisome toxic levels, documents obtained by McClatchy show.
The national security subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform will hold a hearing on Thursday on the contamination at Karshi-Khanabad, or “K2” as it was commonly known, and the long-term health impact on the thousands of service members who were deployed to the Uzbek base after the 9/11 attacks.
Veterans who served there and were diagnosed with cancer or other chronic illnesses are expected to testify about how they have struggled to get the Department of Veterans Affairs to recognize their illnesses as connected to their time at the base so they can receive benefits. About 7,000 U.S. forces served at K2 from 2001 to 2005 and hundreds of those veterans have reported they have been diagnosed with cancer.
In new documents obtained by McClatchy, two 1st Battalion, 20th Special Forces Group soldiers who were deployed to K2 as chemical, nuclear and biological weapons officers, tested water in the latrines, the showers and in old Soviet and Uzbek bunkers three times between Oct. 1, 2002 and Oct 18, 2002.
The readings came back positive for cyanide, nerve and blister agents the soldiers reported in sworn testimony to the Army in 2009.
Those readings appear to contradict official guidance issued by the Defense Health Clinical Center between 2001 and 2005 that was offered as information to service members who had already deployed to the Uzbek base “or were scheduled to go there soon.”
“News media in Jun 02 reported that trace amounts of nerve and blister agents were detected in some areas of the K2 complex,” the DHCC guidance said. “However testing of new samples using specialized testing equipment was completely negative for chemical warfare agents. The initial tests were using less specific equipment apparently gave false positive results most likely due to contaminants from recent painting and other refurbishing activities.”
In their sworn testimony, the soldiers tasked with detecting the chemical agents in October 2002 stated that the equipment “had predeployment and maintenance performed on them … immediately prior to deployment and were serviceable.”
The soldiers also said the results “were reported to our chain of command.”
The documents obtained by McClatchy on the cyanide contamination are the latest in a string of revelations that has caught the attention of members of Congress. Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., the chairman of the national security subcommittee, and Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., late Tuesday introduced the “K2 Veterans Toxic Exposure Accountability Act of 2020.”
The bill would create a registry of veterans who served at K2 and would require the Defense Department to conduct a study on the toxic exposure that occurred there. Possibly most important to the hundreds of K2 veterans now facing cancers or chronic illnesses, the legislation could make it easier for those veterans to get their medical costs covered by the VA.
“I am deeply troubled by reports of U.S. servicemembers and special operations forces who have been exposed to chemical and radioactive contamination at the K2 base without their knowledge,” Lynch said in a statement. “The United States has a collective duty to take care of our veterans after they serve our country and I want to make sure our men and women in uniform will have complete access to the necessary care and treatment.”
McClatchy has previously reported on and published documents showing that the Defense Department knew as early as November 2001 that the former Soviet base could be toxic to troops, with known sites of chemical weapons, enriched uranium and soil saturated with fuels and other solvents that formed a “black goo.”
One of the veterans submitting testimony at the House hearing Thursday is retired Air Force Tech. Sgt. Douglas Wilson, who deployed to K2 in December 2001 as a 21-year-old.
Wilson 39, was diagnosed with primary central nervous system lymphoma three years ago.
“I was not briefed on any hazardous conditions,” while at K2, Wilson said in his written testimony. He heard rumors about chemical and biological weapons at the base but never got an official warning.
“I never personally saw the signs identify hazardous waste. I continued to hear of these rumors for many years,” Wilson wrote.
The cancer has left him unable to work and has begun to attack his ability to stand or walk for any significant distance. Because Wilson was medically retired due to an unrelated injury that occurred after he left K2, his medical costs have been covered in part by the military’s medical system, TRICARE, but have also come out of pocket.
“The VA doesn’t cover any of this right now because it’s not service connected,” Wilson said.
He rides his electric wheelchair for more than a mile to get to his physical therapy appointments. “If it’s cold I do it, if it’s hot I do it,” Wilson said. “It’s what’s helping me maintain the mobility I have,” he said.
“I am not asking for a handout,” Wilson said. “But I am asking for the country, that I loved and served, to acknowledge the harm they placed me in and the connection that it has to my new reality post-cancer.”
Updates with new legislation introduced in Congress.
This story was originally published February 26, 2020 at 3:00 AM with the headline "Military showers had cyanide at ‘black goo’ base. New bill could help those veterans."
