Street roots., December 05, 2014, Page 5, Image 5

Street roots
TOXIC, from page 4
first month back in California. Her parents
attributed it to depression - and she was
depressed - her newfound physical
limitations coupled with her sudden ejection
from the military were taking its toll. But
she told herself, “I’m Roll-with-it Roland,
damn it!” And she carried on.
A toxic legacy
In 2012, veterans o f Camp Lejeune
were awarded compensation for
contracting cancer after drinking
contaminated tap water at the North
Carolina base. The decision was the
result of a long battle fought by the
affected veterans and came more than
he years that followed were rocky. In
30 years after the first evidence of
1987 she married and moved north to
harmful chemicals in the base’s
Portland with her husband and daughter
drinking water was discovered. The
from a previous relationship. In 1989 Roland
big chemical culprits a t Cam p Lejeune
gave birth to a second baby girl, but soon
were TCE, PCE, PCBs and DDT ~~
after divorced. Her marriage had only lasted
many of the same chemicals Ft.
two years.
McClellan soldiers were exposed to
As a single mother, she supported her
during their training in Alabama.
daughters by working various administrative
jobs around Portland. All the while her
F t McClellan and Camp Lejeune
iMynte Roland (left) at age 20 in 1982 during basic training at Ft. McClellan in Anniston,
health was disintegrating further. She had a
'e not isolated situations. More than
Ala., and Roland today. Since training at Ft. McClellan, she’s been riddled with illnesses that
partial hysterectomy at 28 and another at
W military-owned properties in the
she believes are the direct result o f her exposure to toxic chemicals on the base.
32, suffered from tinnitus, vision loss,
•S. are so contaminated they’ve been
insomnia, depression, stomach problems
p
a
ce d on the Environmental
and other ailments that she says just
No Soldier Left Behind, greeting veterans
declared the area a Superfund site (the
Protection Agency’s list of high-priority
weren’t explainable. She called in sick
returning from deployment and volunteering agency’s designation for the country’s most
Superfund sites, making them eligible
frequently, unable to get out of bed, making
where she could. Some days are better than
toxic sites in need of cleanup). Chemicals
it difficult to hold on to steady employment
for federal grant money to assist with
others, and when she’s feeling well, she’s
employed during training exercises, such as
Temporary staffing agencies seemed to be
much needed cleanup, ft’s estimated
quite capable. She worked as an executive
depleted uranium, Agent Orange, Agent
the best solution. She liked that she could
that it would cost taxpayers nearly $27
assistant, in payroll and as an office
Blue, nerve gas and mustard gas, have
come in and work a job where she was
billion to clean up all of the Department
administrator. “I’m really good at what I
contaminated the soil, groundwater and
needed and then move on to the next
of Defense’s pollution.
do,” she says. She even started her own
streams
on
the
premises.
The
same
assignment before being told she was no
online business making “cube roofs” that
Oregon hosts only one of the DoD
waterways that soldiers like Roland bathed
longer needed.
filter the flourescent lighting that hangs
in and drank from while stationed at the
Superfund sites: Umatilla Army Depot
After her daughters were grown, she
above cubicles. Last year she traveled to
fort
in Hermiston. The depot was placed
continued working temporary jobs and her
California to audition for a pitch on Shark
But soldiers at F t McClellan were
on the list in the m id 1980s, and
health continued its downward spiral.
Tank. But there are many days when she
exposed to much more than just the toxins
cleanup was completed earlier this
“On Cinco de Mayo,
feels groggy and
found in chemical weapons and pesticides
2009,1 found myself
year. It will be removed from the fist
confused, and when
employed by the Army — in the neighboring
in the hospital for an
once paperwork is completed.
the stomach and
town
of Anniston, Monsanto had been
Belaud
recalls
what
lie
told
emergency gall
According to Oregon Department o f
body pains resurface,
poisoning
the
environment
for
decades.
bladder removal. The
her next as 11 he'd altered the it’s difficult to get
Environmental Quality, the process of
In its 2002 segment, “Toxic Secret” 60
doctor said it was like words o n ly a m om ent age.
destroying
chemical agents and
much done.
Minutes called Anniston th e most toxic city
pulling out a black pile
closing the depot took decades due to
Roland was living
in America. PCBs were not only invented in
Be
said,
"W
e're
going
te
file
- ofmush, and after
in the cab of her
-the massive s iz e d the cleanup, which
a cla im to r a ll o f it, because truck, parked at a 76 Anniston, Monsanto produced them there
—tbat,.thesjckncsscs
for decades. According to CBS News,
was one of the largest in Oregon’s
just kept getting
— I hate te te ll yon th is
hut gas station in
Monsanto dumped tons of raw PCBs
history.
worse,” she says.
Southeast Portland,
a t Fort M cC lellan In
directly into a creek that ran by its facility
While temporary
when she sought the
and buried another 5,000 tons nearby.
Mnniston, Mia., yon were
ectopic pregnancies and other health
employment seemed
help of Rick
Fumes from the buried poison continued to
le xically, chem ically
disorders similar to Roland’s.
ideal, it wasn’t a
Rutherford, a
seep into the air for years. In 2003,
perfect solution. In
poisoned yon are lite ra lly
Veterans Service
Monsanto settled with the citizens of
2010 she became
Officer at Clackamas
Anniston for $700 million, but veterans of
being
eaten
fro
m
the
inside
homeless because she
County. Rutherford
F t McClellan were excluded.
isa Jo Sarro was stationed at F t
was unable to afford a o u t/'
encouraged her to
In addition to the area’s PCB
McClellan for training in 1984, and her
place on her own,
appeal her denied
contamination from Monsanto and the toxic
medical history is strikingly similar to
even though she was
disability claim with
chemical leakage on the base, nearby
Roland’s with a hysterectomy in her 20s,
employed at the time.
the VA - after all, it
Pelham Range, which many Ft. McClellan
depression, a gall bladder removal, vision
Prior to that, she had been living with her
was an injury she got in training and it was
veterans trained on, was radioactive.
and memory loss and insomnia. She says
youngest daughter who, then in her early
still bothering her. As the two went through
According to the Army’s own assessment
she also suffers from liver problems, chronic
20s, had already moved out on her own.
her extensive health history: two
of Pelham Range in 1999, the level of
fatigue, heart arrhythmias, rheumatoid
Stories she’d heard from other women
hysterectomies, a gallbladder removal,
radioactive cesium and cobalt found present
arthritis, skin conditions and many other
made her fearful of staying in homeless
intestinal problems, tinnitus, vision loss,
indicated radiological health hazards. The
health problems including a thyroid removal.
shelters alone, so Roland slept where she
several miscarriages and an ectopic
level of cesium — a byproduct of nuclear
Her younger brother was also a F t
could for the next two and a half years. She
pregnancy, Rutherford suggested she file
fission — was 7 million times the acceptable McClellan soldier and suffered from many of
bounced between couches, old trailers and
compensation claims with the VA for every
limit Veterans who trained at F t McClellan
the same illnesses.
garages, and often slept in her 2006 Toyota
single item on the list
up until 1999 were literally slopping around
In 1989, at the age of 18, Ted Methvin Jr.
Tundra.
Roland recalls what he told her next as if
in chemical soup during their training.
was sent from Redding, Calif., to train at F t
“The one place I never went was under
he’d uttered the words only a moment ago.
Drinking it, bathing in i t washing their
McClellan. Like so many others, he too
He said, “We’re going to file a claim for all
the bridge,” she says.
clothes in i t cooking with it and breathing it drank from the toxic streams frequently
of it, because — I hate to tell you this — but
Most mornings Roland would use gas
in. The long list of toxins they were exposed during training.
at Port McClellan in Anniston, Ala., you
station bathrooms to wash up, apply her
to comes with an equally long list of physical
“We used it for our coffee every
were toxically, chemically poisoned — you
makeup and get ready for her day at the
ailments and disorders that studies have
morning,” he says.
are literally being eaten from the inside
office. Gas stations also served as a good
linked to those same toxins.
It wasn’t until February of this year when
place to park. She would get acquainted with o u t”
While the VA acknowledges that F t
he searched online for some old Army
the graveyard shift so they would watch her
McClellan is a poisonous wasteland, it does
buddies and stumbled upon the Facebook
truck while she slept in it with her tabby
not extend medical coverage to what are
group that he became aware of his own
cat, Missy, and her .38 revolver, which she
likely to be exposure-related illnesses
exposure to toxic chemicals.
uilt in 1917, F t McClellan sits
kept loaded with hollow points. Throughout
brought on from training on the base. Nor
Now a filmmaker and screenplay writer,
adjacent to the small town of
her bout with homelessness, her health
has it reached out to let the veterans who
Methvin Jr. and his business partner, Jason
Anniston, nestled in the Appalachian
made it nearly impossible to escape her
trained there know they were training in a
Loring, were determined to make a film
Mountains of Alabama. Directly to its east,
toxic environment Because of this, many
situation.
about the toxic soldiers. They dropped what
the Talladega National Forest known for its
“I would get really sick, and I didn’t
military personnel and civilians who worked
they were working on and within weeks
picturesque
scenic
byways
and
mountain
understand why. I would have problems with
and lived on the base are still unaware of
were in production of a documentary called
streams cascading into waterfalls, served as
my stomach and just attribute it to stress. It
the potential health risks associated with
“Toxic Service: The Soldier’s Story,” which
additional
land
for
military
training
their time spent at F t McClellan.
was really hard to keep a job because I was
is slated for release by the end of this year.
maneuvers.
During
World
War
II,
the
fort
Roland found similarities between her
sick so much. I just couldn’t understand why
Methvin Jr. and Loring went to
was expanded to become one of the largest
health problems and the health problems of
my body was shutting down,” she says.
Washington D.C. in July to meet with five
training
bases
in
the
country
at
40,000
other F t McClellan veterans when she
But regardless of her own situation,
members of Congress who had agreed to be
acres. During the Vietnam War, it was used
joined a Facebook page whose following
Roland maintained her lifelong position as
interviewed for their film. In all five cases,
primarily
for
chemical
weapons
training.
comprises thousands of F t McClellan
the caretaker to her family. She took care of
the filmmakers were met by staff members
Throughout most of the 20th century, it was veterans calling themselves “toxic soldiers.”
her sick brother and ran errands for her
instead of the representatives they had
home to the U.S. Army’s Military Police
It was through this online group that Roland traveled from California to speak with.
aging mother. Her parents had moved to
Corps, Chemical Corps and Women’s Army
discovered she wasn’t the only F t
Portland shortly before Roland’s father
Additionally, they were told that no part of
Corps.
McClellan veteran whose gall bladder had
passed away in ’92. She watched over her
their conversations with staff members
The
fort
closed
in
1999
—
nine
years
after
turned to “black mush,” she says. Many
daughters and two grandchildren and joined
the Environmental Protection Agency
See TOXIC, page 7
others also told of multiple miscarriages,
up with groups such as Soldiers’ Angels and
T
I
L
B