WASHINGTON U.S. special operations forces who deployed to a military
site in Uzbekistan shortly after the 9/11 attacks found pond water that glowed
green, black goo oozing from the ground and signs warning “radiation hazard.”
Karshi-Khanabad, known as K2, was an old Soviet base leased
by the United States from the Uzbek government just weeks after the Sept. 11,
2001, attacks because it was a few hundred miles from al Qaeda and Taliban
targets in northern Afghanistan.
The base became a critical hub in the early days of the war
to provide airdrops, medical evacuation and airstrike support to U.S. ground
forces in Afghanistan.
But K2 was contaminated with chemical weapons remnants,
radioactive processed uranium and other hazards, according to documents
obtained by McClatchy.
At least 61 of the men and women who served at K2 had been
diagnosed with cancer or died from the disease, according to a 2015 Army study
on the base. But that number may not include the special operations forces
deployed to K2, who were likely not counted due to the secrecy of their
missions, the study reported.
As part of McClatchy’s continued investigation into the
rising rates of cancers among veterans, members of those special operations
forces units who were based at K2 are speaking out for the first time because
of the difficulty they have faced in getting the Department of Veterans Affairs
to cover their medical costs.
“After returning from
combat years later, we are all coming down with various forms of cancer that
the [Department of Veterans Affairs] is refusing to acknowledge,” said retired
Army Chief Warrant Officer Scott Welsch, a special operations military
intelligence officer who deployed to K2 in October 2001. He was diagnosed with
thyroid cancer in 2014.
No comments:
Post a Comment