Why did Sgt. Thomas die?
This article, balancing the personal & tragic story of one soldier along with a story about KBR and the burn pits in Iraq spanning the length of the war, is too long to post in full. Posted below are experts, please see source for full context and details.
Matthew Hansen
Omaha World Herald
February 25, 2010
This much is known: Thomas succumbed to an unstoppable lung cancer that crushed his vertebrae, blitzed his bones and invaded his brain, dumbfounding doctors who had spent their entire careers treating the disease.
- A d v e r t i s e m e n t
Have you been exposed to something toxic, Klayton?
Thomas sat silently for a moment and then told the doctor and his shocked parents about the burn pit near where he lived and worked at al-Taqaddum Air Base in Iraq. He told them about the hazardous materials burned there. He told them the smoke sometimes darkened the sky and grew so thick it choked him.
In 2006, [Air Force bioenvironmental engineer Lt. Col. Darrin Curtis] wrote a memo warning his superiors that a potpourri of poisons — arsenic, cyanide, Freon, formaldehyde and benzene, an aircraft fuel known to cause cancer — had likely burned in the Balad pit, causing an “acute health hazard for individuals.”
Since then, more than 300 service members and contractors in 42 states have joined a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, which alleges that burn pits run by the military contractor KBR (formerly Kellogg Brown and Root) caused their health problems.
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