Salem-News.com El Toro articles

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.

The Marines had contracted the scientists from The National Research Council to be their consultants on Camp Lejeune before the same group published their Camp Lejeune report in June of this year, which was highly favorable for the Marine Corps.

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.

Irvine`s Great Park Corporation Overlooks El Toro`s Deadly Toxicity

Man, the stuff people are still trying to get away with in this country; it is more than amazing, but not the kind of daring I admire.

(IRVINE, Calif.) - Poor environmental stewardship over more than half a century of use, left the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Irvine a toxic waste zone, seething with chemicals that have already killed and sickened more Marines that we will probably ever accurately know.

Irvine and the "Great Park Corporation" are pushing forward with plans to build a park on El Toro, even though it is clearly established that the place is the equivalent of an environmental disaster zone.

A Few Good Men and Bladder Cancer

Veterans of EPA Superfund sites are at risk for bladder cancer from organic solvent exposure. A simple and non-evasive test is available to detect bladder cancer. This information has not been passed to veterans at risk for disease.

(SOMERDALE, N.J.) - Those that served and were exposed to toxic chemicals have a critical need to know what chemicals they were exposed to and access to medical screening to stay healthy.

No reasonable person would disagree with this.

Fear and Loathing at MCAS El Toro: Report From the Restoration Advisory Board

“There’s something happening here, what it is ain’t exactly clear.” - For What It’s Worth Buffalo Springfield

(LAGUNA BEACH) - After attending the preliminary tech Sub-Committee (SC) meeting, followed by the general stakeholders congregation last week, here are my personal observations and perceptions, for what THEY’RE worth. The leaders proved the adage about power corrupting absolutely.

Into the heart of darkness, ending up feeling like Martin Sheen (The horror, the horror) in Apocalypse Now. Jean Paul

Satre claimed that Hell wasn’t fire and brimstone, just being stuck for eternity with incompatible or boring people. This obscene partnership of governmental and private development green-washing group epitomizes those people.

`Larry Agran, Great Park Gangbanger: Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire?`

Or "Larry (What, me worry) Agran: The Lesser of Feebles?"

(LAGUNA BEACH) - Larry Agran's dream is turning out to be Orange County's nightmare. Costs soaring, the promised pollyanna tax revenue for the County diving, it just gets worse by the day. The contaminant cleanup budget soars, removal progressing slowly and ineffective for water-borne pollutants migrating region-wide. Little or no preemptive risk assessment, no contingency or fallback strategy. No Plan B, Just Plan A(gran).

We need an OC Grand Jury intervention, and like Watergate, let's have the OC District Attorney's Office follow the money.

Irvine's chosen developer, Lennar Homes, has a decades long reputation and fiscal nationwide history rife with horror stories, vendor mischief and LLC bankruptcies, yet it continues to do business in spite of its ineptitude and lapses.

TCE Expert Talks With Former El Toro Marine About Toxic Waste (VIDEO)

This is the fifth video in a continuing series about a deadly chemical dumped into the groundwater by Marines at El Toro that is moving in the water tables beneath neighborhoods in Irvine, California.

(IRVINE, Calif.) - Lethally toxic chemicals were dumped into the groundwater over the decades at the now closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Irvine, California. Marines and their family members have become sick over the years and the health problems can be passed on generationally. TCE, (Trichloroethylene) is known to cause liver failure, several types of cancer, mutations and intestinal disorders.

In this interview, Dr. Phil Leveque, a highly regarded toxicologist in Oregon, talks about this chemical manufactured by Dow Chemical, TCE, that was used to clean jet fighters at the El Toro Marine Air Station, and ultimately dumped into the water system.

Contaminated Marine Base in Irvine Slated for Public Park and Community Development (VIDEO REPORT)

This is part four in a continuing video news report series on TCE chemical waste stemming from the now-closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

(IRVINE, Calif.) - A veil of secrecy seems to cloud and obscure the real facts behind the closure of the El Toro Marine air base. Documents from the Navy confirm that El Toro is a hazardous waste zone. It is not new information, an environmental cleanup project has been underway for some time, but the extent of the problem and the distance the toxic contamination has traveled from the base is a serious issue, particularly for the Irvine community of Woodbridge.

For years, aviation crews at the base used a chemical degreaser on jet fighters called TCE that was disposed of hap hazardously, often poured straight onto the ground after use. In spite of this public information, city officials in Irvine, California, say the air station that was closed in 1999, will be a great location for a new park and housing development.