Ex-Guard commander: Chemical caused cancer
Posted : Thursday Dec 11, 2008 6:29:53 EST
WILLIAMS, Ind. — A former Indiana National Guard commander diagnosed with terminal cancer believes his illness was caused by exposure to toxic chemicals at a water pumping plant in Iraq.
Retired Lt. Col. James Gentry, 51, is under hospice care and has been told he has only weeks to live, The Times-Mail of Bedford reported Wednesday in its online edition. But his concern isn’t just for himself.
“I’m very concerned about the ... other soldiers,” said Gentry, who requires assistance to move from a living room chair to the dining room table in his home about 70 miles southwest of Indianapolis.
Gentry was commander of the 1st Battalion, 152nd Infantry, which was assigned to guard the Qarmat Ali water pumping plant in Basrah, Iraq, shortly after the U.S. invasion in 2003. Sixteen soldiers from the unit filed a federal lawsuit last week against defense contractor KBR Inc., saying its employees knowingly allowed them to be exposed to sodium dichromate, a known carcinogen, while guarding the water plant.
Gentry is not a party to the suit, but he believes he was exposed to the chemical.
The chemical, used to remove pipe corrosion, is especially dangerous because it contains hexavalent chromium, which is known to cause birth defects and cancer, particularly lung cancer, according to the suit. The cancer can take years to develop.
The Guard began notifying Gentry and other soldiers in the unit in July that they might have been exposed to the chemical.
Gentry had begun having breathing problems before he returned to Iraq for a second tour of duty. He was diagnosed with cancer in 2006, the newspaper said, and has spent time in and out of Veterans Administration hospitals in Louisville, Ky., and Indianapolis.
“I guess our concern ... is that these soldiers get checked out in a timely fashion,” said his wife, Lou Ann.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Ex-Guard commander: Chemical caused cancer
