Terminally Ill Camp Lejeune Marine Receives 100% Disability

Full Article at: VA ruling on former Marine's illness may affect thousands
By Sandra Jontz, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Saturday, March 27, 2010

"Paul Buckley, a former Marine, has been granted full disability benefits by the Veterans Affairs Department after it was determined that his years living and working at Camp Lejeune, N.C., led to him contracting multiple myeloma, an incurable bone cancer.

A government decision to give disability benefits to a former Marine sickened by toxins at Camp Lejeune, N.C., could have far-reaching effects for thousands of other families who lived and worked at the military base over the years.

Paul Buckley, who was diagnosed with multiple myeloma four years ago, received a letter from the Department of Veterans Affairs earlier this month stating that “all reasonable doubt has been resolved in your favor.” Buckley’s incurable bone marrow cancer “was directly related to military service,” the letter continued.

“This is not the type of cancer you get from smoking or eating French fries,” said Buckley, 46, who now lives in Hanover, Mass. “I was too young to get this illness and I didn’t have any of the risk factors.”

But in the 1980s, Buckley was assigned to Camp Lejeune, where scientists found the presence of the degreaser trichloroethylene, or TCE, the dry-cleaning solvent tetrachloroethylene, or PCE, and the carcinogen benzene in the drinking water.

His doctors believe exposure to those chemicals was the likely cause of his cancer − a claim the U.S. government repeatedly denied until he received his letter from the VA on March 8.

For Buckley, the sudden reversal means that he can start collecting VA benefits, which will extend to his wife when he dies.

The VA’s ruling could have much broader ramifications: By some estimates, up to 1 million people lived or worked at the base between 1957 and 1987."