"I'm here today
because my husband, Lt. Col. Timothy Brooks, can't be," she said,
testifying to the House Subcommittee on National Security -- only two weeks
after her first visit to Washington, where she was part of a group that
demanded a hearing before Congress to ultimately get recognition of the health
effects that resulted from their exposure at an Uzbek military base.
Tim Brooks served at
Karshi-Khanabad, otherwise known as K2, from November 2001 through Spring 2002.
The U.S. had leased the former Soviet base from the Uzbek government following
the 9/11 attacks -- largely because of its convenient location near al-Qaida
and Taliban targets in northern Afghanistan.
In May 2003, Tim Brooks
was at a pre-deployment meeting with his wife when he collapsed and had a grand
mal seizure. A year later he died at age 36.
According to previous
ABC News reporting, a November 2001 report by the Army Public Health Center
found areas of the base "contaminated with asbestos and low-level
radioactive depleted uranium," which were caused by the destruction of
Soviet missiles.
Kim Brooks told
lawmakers Thursday that she believes her husband's cancer was caused by these
toxic exposures at the base, and now she's pleading for recognition from the
government.
"K2 families and
veterans deserve to know the full extent of what they were exposed to so that
they can focus on their health and plan for their futures," she said.
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