Lori Freshwater

“The baby’s not coming home.” “What do you mean, not coming home?” “The baby was born sick, and he needs to stay at the hospital.” “For how long?” “We don’t know, honey.” The Priest was there, in our living room. I looked at him, and at the other strange people from the church that had been coming and going for days. I figured this is what happened when a new baby was born. There were people from the church who tended to these things.

Image courtesy of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) By Lori Freshwater The story of the chemicals at Camp Lejeune began almost as soon as the base did. World War II changed, everything. In May of 1941, construction began on a tent city using a commandeered family’s summer cottage as headquarters. This kind of transformation was going on across America. By the end of 1943, there were 345 main bases around the country. Most in rural areas. In Nebraska, 12 new Army air bases.

By: Lori L. Freshwater In a case heard before the Supreme Court of the United States on April 24, 2014, the Obama Justice Department (DOJ) filed an amicus brief specifically designed to prevent Marines and their families from recovering damages for the disease and death caused by decades of exposure to toxic chemicals in their drinking water at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina—one of the most massive groundwater contaminations in U.S. history.