Salem-News.com El Toro articles Page 19

Orange County Grand Jury Investigates Irvine`s `Great Park`

The controversial project would place a park and homes on deadly contaminated ground.

(IRVINE, Calif.) - We have been exploring the toxic mystery known as the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station for two and a half years at Salem-News.com with a team of writers, mostly comprised of former El Toro Marines including myself.

The base was very active from the time it was built and commissioned during WWII, until its controversial closure in 1999.

How To Build An Environmental Activist

The first installment in a continuing series.

1998: In The Beginning...

(LAGUNA BEACH, Calif.) - In early 1998, my introduction into the world of environmental issues began with two seemingly unrelated subjects that eventually merged to both outrage me and set a match to my eco-zeal.

I had never been involved with, nor interested in any community problems let alone ecological ones. Never spoken at a public hearing, never written a letter to the editor either.

Marine Drill Instructor Remembered

Marine veteran remembers a senior drill instructor who was awarded the Navy Cross with the 1st Battalion, 9th Marines (the “Walking Dead”) in Vietnam and later killed at Con Thien, RVN, in September 1967.

(SOMERDALE, N.J.) - Racial prejudice was the norm when I arrived at Paris Island as a new Marine recruit 48 years ago. To this day, it’s hard to believe that Jettie Rivers wasn't affected by the abuse he experienced growing up in Alabama and Tennessee.

Jettie Rivers was an extremely fair, disciplined man in an environment where others often stepped across the line. In 1962, this was exceptional behavior for a Marine Corps drill instructor.

El Toro and Lejeune: It`s All About `The Green`

Why on earth would the U.S. government throw Marines under the train?

(SOMERDALE, N.J.) - The Navy and Marine Corps have denied any connection between Camp Lejeune’s contaminated wells and the cancer and other serious illnesses reported by Lejeune veterans and their dependents.

CNN reported that Camp Lejeune dependents filed $35 billion in tort claims for injuries associated with the toxic well water. The Navy suspended any action on the tort claims, pending the results of water studies by the Federal government.

U.S. EPA Releases Annual Enforcement Results and Mapping Tool

A new mapping tool will help increase transparency and also improve access to data.

(WASHINGTON D.C.) - The EPA has released enforcement results for fiscal year 2009, and has developed a new Web-based tool and interactive map that allows the public to get detailed information by location about the enforcement actions taken at approximately 4,600 facilities.

Lejeune and El Toro: `A Tale of Two Bases`

Both Marine bases are EPA Superfunds sites. The govt. spent millions in remediation without disclosing the contaminants and health effects; there is no medical monitoring or health care for those injured, and hundreds of federal tort claims for Lejeune without going anywhere.

(SOMERDALE, NJ) - It’s no secret that Marines are a band of brothers. It doesn’t matter if you were in the Corps yesterday or 40 years ago. Once a Marine; always a Marine.

This news story is about Marine veterans and their dependents that were exposed to toxic chemicals at former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, California, and Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

Visit From the Ghosts of Marine Corps Birthdays Past (VIDEO)

Stories from an inescapable lifetime connection to the Marines, a message from beyond, and several Marine related videos, happy 234th birthday Marine Corps!

(SALEM, Ore.) - As the U.S. Marine Corps observes and celebrates the day it was founded, in Tun Tavern, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on November 10th 1775, I can't help but reflect on what a hard road it has been for the men and women who wear the eagle, globe and anchor for a living.

Currently embattled on numerous fronts, Marines fight the enemy in combat, then return to fight their own government for compensation. And that's not to mention the fact that the Marine Corps can eat its own for lunch.

Report Clearing Marine Corps Connection to Camp Lejeune Sickness was Purchased

It makes some of us wonder who the people are at the head of this agency and what could make their hearts become so black and cold toward their fellow Marines.

(CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C.) - The Marine Corps is in hot water. A newspaper article has exposed the fact that the Marines entered into a contract with the National Academy of Science, before paying $600,000 for a report that concludes that the Corps is not responsible for the toxic water Marines drank at Camp Lejeune for at least 30 years.

El Toro Marines, Cancer, and Irvine`s `Great Pork` Project

Salem-News.com is searching for those who spent time on the El Toro Marine Base.

(IRVINE, Calif.) - I get really fired up when I consider the Marines that I served with on the flightline at El Toro, dying and suffering from cancer. The idea of their kids and even grandkids suffering diseases borne from the toxic chemicals dumped for half a century on the Marine base and then absorbed by our bodies and passed down to theirs, is even more sinister.

Knowing that I lived and breathed this toxic contamination for over two years makes me feel dirty in a way that I never knew before, it is an inherited liability that we didn't ask for but still possess.

Congress to Navy: Assist Lejeune Veterans & Dependents

The letter questioned the Navy’s failure to develop a strategy to address the health effects of exposure to the contaminated water, the need for additional studies “in perpetuity” by the Navy, and urged the Navy act now.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - A letter of October 26st from twenty-eight Congressmen to the Secretary of the Navy expressed frustration and disappointment over the Navy’s failure to provide assistance to Camp Lejeune veterans and dependents affected by the contamination of the base water wells.

The Congressional representatives questioned the Navy’s failure to develop a strategy to address the health effects of exposure to contaminated drinking water.