Two Air Force veterans have launched a lawsuit against the federal government after developing health issues in their belief that they were exposed to radiation contamination at the government’s Area 51 base in the late 1980s.
Dave Crete and Pomp Braswell are both members of the security police squadron at the then-highly classified Tonopah test range in Nevada, in which the government was conducting nuclear testing.
The two veterans are claiming that their weakened health, including the development of cancer and cardiovascular disease, was caused by the Department of Energy’s secretive nuclear testing that occurred in the area decades before they were assigned there.
According to Arizona Family News, the pair allege that they have been experiencing severe health problems from living and working on contaminated soil and that the government has failed to take responsibility.
“The government said they secured the area so there would be no more spread of the contamination,” Crete, who worked at the base between 1983 and 1987, stated. “The way they secured it was with a barbed wire fence. Now I don’t have a PhD in Physics, but a barbed wire fence isn’t going to do that.”
He further noted that after attending a reunion of his old unit, he soon realized something was wrong with many of them, stating, “There are eight of us and six of us have tumors, like that just can’t be normal. One of the guys who didn’t say his kid was born with a tumor.”
Braswell, who worked at the site between 1987 and 1990, was also highly critical of the government’s response and noted that although they were “handpicked” to work in the area, they had been denied any compensation. “The government said they secured the area so there would be no more spread of the contamination,” said Braswell. “With that being said we were all at the top of our game, always… [but] The government says their aircraft was there but not us, so the aircraft flew itself, guarded itself, parked itself and repaired itself. It pisses me off.”
It appears that Nevada’s Republican Representative Mark Amodei is working on a bill to help provide restitution to US military personnel and their families who have fallen victim to toxic exposure. However, the Department of Defense declined to comment on the pending litigation.
Now officially acknowledged by the government, the Area 51 base situated at Groom Lake, a dry lake bed in the Nevada Desert is located 85 miles north of Las Vegas and is believed to be used for the development and testing of aircraft.
The lawsuit marks another chapter in the advancement toward securing justice for the veterans of the United States Armed Forces. Whether this latest example will result in any kind of successful outcome, only time will tell.
