Page 7 - Mariner-Summer-2023 Volume-66-Issue-2

n A disposal area at Courthouse Bay was used for that caused their deaths within hours, at most days, after
dumping 400,000 gallons of waste oil and 20,000 being born. Throughout the next 30 years, hundreds of
gallons of battery acid. these babies were buried in a city of Jacksonville cemetery
in what became known as “Baby Heaven.” Many children
n ABC One-Hour cleaners, which opened in the who survived beyond days of their birth developed leuke-
1950s, was releasing dozens of gallons of the highly mia, neurological issues, and cardiac issues, just to name a
toxic solvent Perchloroethylene (PCE) into the few, and did not make it to adulthood. I have walked this
groundwater on an almost daily basis. In 1989, the ground and it is a place that will always be with me. As
EPA formally added ABC to the list of the nation's the father of 3 young children, I cannot imagine the pain
worst hazardous-waste sites. these Marines & their spouses went through. I saw one set
of headstones that showed THREE baby girls, Suzy, Lucy,
n As early as the 1970’s, base commanders were aware and Judy, who were born and died same day, in a span of
that over time, 800,000 gallons of fuel leaked into only 7 years. ALL to the same Marine and his wife…..
the water, polluting it with benzene.
In 2009, claims stemming from groundwater contam-
n Strontium-90, an isotope known to cause leukemia ination at Camp Lejeune were filed, but ultimately
and other cancers entered the water supply from a rejected due to federal government immunity and North
radioactive dump site located near the Rifle Range. Carolina's 10-year statute of limitations on bringing per-
sonal injury claims.
Beginning in the late 1950s babies born on the base were
dying the same day, or within days of delivery. Some born On August 10, 2022, thanks to Congressional advocacy
without craniums, parts of their brain, open spinal col- efforts led by the VFW, the PACT Act was signed into
umns, missing lungs, irreversible heart defects. Conditions law. A section within known as the Camp Lejeune Justice
continued on page 8

The Naval Enlisted Reserve Association 7

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Mariner Summer 2023 Volume 66 Issue 2 091923.indd 7 9/19/23 9:31 AM