A Heads Up Alert
GDContractor sent this exposé of contamination at a base (K-2) in Uzbekistan that was awash in everything from rocket fuels to depleted uranium. https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/national-security/article238510218.html
A large percentage of the troops based there after 9/11/2001 are coming down with debilitating cancers and other illnesses.
If you were there in Uzbekistan, get tested. Don’t delay. And please pass this on to anyone you know who may have been stationed there.
Category: Veteran Health Care
I really had a hard time believing that after all the NBC training we went through during the Cold War, people would actually be taking selfies next to signs that said “DANGER! OFF LIMITS! RADIATION HAZARD!” in multiple languages and NOT be in full MOPP-4 gear.
Because that’s where they lived. They’re saying “the military cares so much that this is where they billeted us”. Besides, didn’t happen if there weren’t pictures.
I was at K-2 in 2003-04 and someone in our command, might have been our master sgt, suggested that we take those pictures to verify that we were there and the signs were there too. We drove past them all the time.
Of the guys I was there with, nothing bad has happened to any of us at this point. Hope it stays that way.
Passed through there in 2003…thankfully did not stay more than a few days.
Like in this video:
Thanks, Ex and GD Contractor.
So far, the Soldiers I sent to K2 in 2002 in support of OEF are Healthy and doing OK.
Glad to hear it. While I’m not “all in” on the claims made in this article (Depleted uranium? Like A10 Avenger cannon shoots?), I think it’s worth a skeptical read at a minimum. My distrust of our benevolent government grows daily.
Most of the shit at K2 was old Soviet equipment and supplies abandoned with the collapse of the USSR. So it was Commie DU.
Probably had an endemic black mold problem too… double-up on your anti-malarial (doxycycline antibiotic) and you stop repetitively getting the creeping crud and sh*ts, sure sign.
You would of thought that before we sent multitudes of personnel to a former Soviet Base, that someone, somewhere in the CoC would have made sure that it was at least semi safe to be there. I understand that in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks the desire to strike hard and fast was there, but still? Multi colored water? Oily ooze coming from the ground? Noxious odors? I’d of keyed in on that getting off the aircraft and woulda put me some mopp gear on.
Why does this denial of contamination medical conditions by the VA sound like deja vu all over again?
Unfortunately, there will be those who abuse the System to collect VA Disability benefits that in reality, they should not be collecting.
Sadly, I too see this in the cards.
I think that now if you were anywhere East of the International Date Line between 1960 and 1975 you’re presumed to’ve been been exposed to AO and eligible for compensation. /s/
Or will the VA go the other way and say you only qualify for treatment if you were at K2 for at least 5 years and have grown a third ear on your forehead and have eyes that glow in the dark?
This was the same stuff we were seeing at bases in Iraq. We tried to keep our sleeping tents away from it, and limited what you did near it. The problem is in knowing how this stuff gets in your system. Do you breath it in, does it get ingested by eating food near it, does it seep through clothes or have to be in contact with skin (for how long)? And people wondered why I took so many pictures of crappy architecture and parking lots!
Was this Manas Air Base?
No, this is Uzbekistan (K2). Manas is northeast of there in Kyrgyzstan. Been to Manas but not K2 fortunately.
Manas is on the other side of the civilian airport at Bishkake with the tanker parked on the civilian side. Worked an election on the Uzbekistan border and noted the Uzbek women were attractive. Tall and slender with more gold work in their mouths than my F-150 was worth. When I returned home I noticed their mouths were closed in every photo. Nice people ill treated in Kyrgyzstan Republic. Killed about 300 and chased another 300,000 across the border three months before the election. For a Muslim country, they had plenty of beer and brew pubs.
For some reason I cannot get the article up, hence cannot analyze it. As the reference to depleted uranium (DU) is in my wheelhouse, I’m going to make some general comments. 1) it is McClatchy – left leaning. Anyone who does not recognize the left as always stirring up sh*t against the military and anything nuclear is an idiot. 2) DU is not the boogieman by which it is always portrayed. – First it is a beta emitter and if you are 3′ away from it, you are entirely safe from the radiation. If on your skin, the radiation will not penetrate deeper than 7 mm, which means most of the beta particle will be absorbed by the outer dead skin layer of the dermis. I will and have handled DU bare handed, though generally will take the sensible precaution of gloves to limit the chance of cross contamination. So if the DU remains external to you, the risk is miniscule. – DU can oxidize and create a movable powder, which has the potential for ingestion. Due to its heaviness, it takes a lot to get the powder into the air (potential inhalation). The more likely internal exposure route is via handling the DU, getting powder on the hands and then ingesting the powder by handling food which is contaminated by cross contamination from the hands. – DU taken internally by either ingestion or inhalation has a very low absorption value. Our bodies have no use for uranium and will excrete it fairly quickly (longer time via the respiratory tract). – DU has a very low specific activity value. This means it takes a whole bunch of it to give any kind of an appreciable dose of radiation. You would have to ingest pounds and pounds of the stuff to get a dose that is likely to produce an effect such as cancer. I’ll check later to see if I can get the article up and do an analysis. However my guess is that McClatchy is using some anecdotal info (or making up the info) because this is what they… Read more »
Try just a Google search: “K2 veterans cancer”. Perhaps you can bring up the article that way or find a similar one.
US DU is U238 waste product of the manufacture of enriched (U235) fuels from natural Uranium. It is reduced in radiation by the processing out of the fissile stuff.
Those Soviet maniacs used a different feed-stock. They used reprocessed reactor waste. Again, they pulled out the useful fissile bits. However, the stuff started out as a hellish mix of radwaste.
They were not noted for quality control. Russian DU is presumptively hot with all sorts of exotic radionucleides.
If K2 has pulverized Russian DU, it is a shitshow of radioactive hellstuff.
Yeah, DU seems like a pretty big catch-all descriptor. Ultimately, I think, Lead (Pb) fits the description of DU as well.
Well, long term, anyway.
U238 has a half life of ~4.5 billion years. Long wait.
Typical commie crap…
I smell bullshit. K2 was the base first used as A-stan launch site. It was from whence those SF A-teams were launched that led the Northern Alliance to victory over the Taliban in a few months. I have trouble believing that depleted Uranium was lying around all over the base. If there were cancer causing chemicals to which our troops were exposed, I bet it was something the Soviets left behind and we were unaware of the risk. K2 was our first SFOB (Special Forces Operating Base) over there. It was full of field grade and above commanders. I doubt we would have knowingly subjected them to such toxic hazards.
What US base isn’t badly contaminated with stuff dumped willy-nilly?
The US Armed forces have a shitty track record of bootleg dumping. Ivan does far worse.
Yes, Ivan doesn’t even pretend to give a shit about the well being of their soldiers and sailors.
Yes, even today the Ivans consider their Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen as disposable.
That’s what we were told when I was there, that all the bad shit around the base was left over from the Soviet days.
Deadliest of all was the bootleg Uzbek “vodka”….I think it was made of paint thinner.
Borat wasn’t too thrilled about their stuff:
I’ve got pictures of me in Chem Gear retrieving our Life Support gear from the HAS after we were told it was contaminated. After we were done we went through decon procedures. All documented in pictures, wrote a statement earlier today to accompany the pictures for a package going before Congress in Jan.
If you are a K2 vet, there is a K2 exposure site on facebook with a lot good information. I personally know most of the people mentioned in the linked news article.
I was once billeted in a barracks constructed
between two 135 ft tall microwave dishes.
Directly under and in front of the two feedhorns.
No shit, 40 KW each at 2GHZ.
Many years later I was contacted by a guy that
developed some sort of vision problem and was
looking for witnesses to support his claim.
Not to make light of the seriousnes of this article but everytime I read something about
WiFi in the schools hurting our children I
just roll my eyes.
Beans, after that much RF exposure, don’t roll your eyes. You may be picking them up off the floor.
Day 1 of 31Q (Tactical Satellite/Microwave Operator-Maintainer)AIT, 1987. Instructor says “work in this job long enough, you will be bald and needing glasses.”
Truer words were never spoken.
I only spent about 48 hours at beautiful K2, enroute to Bagram, January 2002. Lovely place.