Military Families the Ghost in Our Defense

By Walter Chun

The Ghosts in our defense are the military families behind the military service members. They are the backbone of our defense and not recognized. The military family housing problems are irreconcilable and have been for decades. The old housing with hazardous substances involved direct exposures to the families over the years. The new housing constructed by the Department of Defense and the public private ventures (PPV) only exacerbated the problems with hazardous substance exposures. The recognition that the construction of homes on land with organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and the health effects to the families is discussed. The truth and propaganda associated with the facts of direct exposures to the carcinogenic OCPs can be confusing. The reality of the fear of reprisal, discrimination, and retaliation is the reality of the families. The ability to speak up or to bring attention to the health effects of exposures is hampered by the demand for the burden of proof by the families. Is the spreading of contaminated topsoil in and around the homes safe? Where is the supporting information for the propaganda that it is safe? Of course, the families do not have the wherewithal to provide such evidence and we find that the scarce information and data for the direct human exposures to be unreliable or not available. The future concern for the mistreatment of the families is the impact to the readiness of the nation’s defense.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 14, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664181342

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Copyright © 2021 by Walter` Chun. 803433

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Rev. date: 07/14/2021

MILITARY FAMILIES

The Ghost in Our Defense

Table of Contents

DEDICATION

Introduction

Chapter 1 The Military Family

Chapter 2 The Reality of Fear of Reprisal, Discrimination, and Retaliation

Chapter 3 Housing Construction on Contaminated lands

Chapter 4 Is it Safe?

Chapter 5 Is it Safe? - Let’s Do the Math

Chapter 6 Truth and Propaganda

Chapter 7 Burden of Proof - License or Evidence?

Chapter 8 The Assumption of Risk

Chapter 9 Military Families Must Have A Voice

Chapter 10 The Department of Health and EPA

Chapter 11 HDOH

Chapter 12 Willful Blindness - Does Anyone Care?

Chapter 13 Readiness of Our Defense

Acronyms

Bibliography

DEDICATION

The motivation to author this book is in the hopes for the future. There is little that can be done for the actions taken and the lack of accountability for failures. The hope is in the off chance that this book and information would be helpful to future leaders, lawmakers, and future generations to protect our people and land. Laws to identify responsibilities and liabilities drive our government agencies and private sector executives. Accountability for responsibilities and liabilities must be based in the laws and enforcement of such laws. Actions to hold responsible people accountable is initiated when the problems and violations to acceptable behaviors are identified and raised in the public view. We must stand up and speak up and we must pursue the truth. This is easier said than done because the fear of reprisal, discrimination, and retaliation is so strong that it has allowed the unsafe housing to exist for decades.

This book is dedicated to the raw guts and determination of a Marine family. The Barbers stood up and spoke up to fight for the truth. Cara Barber is relentless in her search for evidence and the truth. It is through countless hours of research and educating herself that a lot of the information we have today is available. The swift and powerful retaliation of a SLAPP lawsuit attempted to restrict and rob her of the right to free speech, not to mention her courage to fight. The courage and determination of this Marine family is without a doubt an outstanding example of the strength, wisdom, and courage it takes to fight for righteousness. We thank Bob and Cara Barber for their righteous spirit.

The dedication of this publication is also for the future of my grandson, ‘Aimoku and daughter Amanda. The development of this book includes over 55 years of experience in the environment, safety, and health field. The principles of prevention and protection of human health and the environment are applied throughout these chapters. The simple and rational thought processes to evaluate the human exposures related to the national and international research is demonstrated. The protection of human health and the environment is our kuleana or responsibility and it extends from person to person and generation to generation. We must be observant and diligent to ensure our people and land is protected.

The State of Hawaii motto is, Ua Mau ke Ea o ka ‘Aina I ka Pono. Translated it means, "the life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness". This book describes the contamination of land on the marine and other military bases and the intentional pesticide exposures to the military families. Justification of the contamination and exposures is based on the risk of cancer and illnesses to be in the statistics, i.e., only one in ten thousand will experience cancer or illness. Not only is the contamination and impact to the environment and future generations ignored, but the humanity of mistreatment is hidden. ‘Aimoku and Amanda are part of the future generations and part of the strength, wisdom, and courage to stand up and speak up to protect the righteousness of our land. It is my wish that they study the land and environment that they are a part of.

Introduction

In 2004 I started work on a military construction (MILCON) project with a construction contractor client. The project was on the Kaneohe Marine Base (KMB) in Hawaii for military family housing. One of the Contractor’s objectives for the staffing of this project was to give back to the military families and we hired as many military spouses as we could to support this project. They taught me so much as I was exposed to the importance of these families to our national defense. I also learned and grew an attachment to the families and their incredible patriotism and loyalty to this country. The main purpose of writing this book is to bring attention to the importance of the military families and to relay the gross mistreatment of these families.

The contents of this book include facts and references to support opinions and conclusions. My opinions are made with the recognition that I have the first amendment right to speak freely. On the other hand, I am always fearful and fully aware of the horrific and extreme actions that can be taken against me by the Department of Defense (DoD), the Department of the Navy (Navy), the State of Hawaii government officials, the multi-million dollar private-public venture (PPV) companies, politicians, and other agencies. One of the obstacles for fair treatment of military families is the ability to freely exercise the first amendment right of free speech. The fear of reprisal, retaliation, and discrimination is a reality for them and others. This book is an attempt to bring some of these issues out in the open.

The military families are ghosts and we do not appreciate them enough. The sacrifices they endure in silence is without recognition. I worked on this MILCON for 4 years at KMB and dealt with the intentional pesticide contamination of the land around the military family housing. This book reports the facts associated with these issues as an example of the mistreatment of the military families. The contamination of the topsoil with organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) results in direct exposures to the military families. The intentional increased risk to cancer and illnesses from these exposures to the families is used as the justification to save money for the military family housing projects in Hawaii.

References to housing projects are provided for examples although the housing projects for the bases in Hawaii are included. Specific information and data for specific bases are available through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. The references to the landlords applies to the Department of Defense (DoD) agencies, i.e., the Departments of the Navy and Army and the private public ventures (PPVs). The PPVs were established between the DoD and the private sector housing and builder management. The projects to demolish old housing and construct replacements included the excavation and exposing of the OCP contaminated soils. The OCP contaminated soil is used for topsoil or surface soil causing the direct exposures to the families.

The response to the question of safety for neighborhoods contaminated with OCP topsoil is provided in Chapter 4. The information is based on the best available information from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Agency for Toxic Substance Disease Registry (ATSDR), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the

Department of Navy’s research and study by Toxicologists. This information is in opposition to the propaganda and the inadequate justifications, it is not a difference of opinion. It is a direct conflict between their unsupported statements vs the scientific and technical information by other agencies. For example, the 1982 assessment of health risks of seven pesticides used for termite control concluded that it could not determine a level of exposure to Chlordane below which there would be no biologic effect under prolonged exposures to families in military housing. This assessment alone negates and refutes any of the arguments that spreading OCP contaminated topsoil with Chlordane and other pesticides in and around the neighborhoods is safe.

We discuss the necessity of propaganda to declare the housing to be safe and point out the discrepancies and the internal conflicts with the propaganda. The basic question is why we need propaganda to tell us it is safe if it was safe? The propaganda serves another purpose and that is to put the families on notice, to promote fear of reprisal, and to protect the liabilities. Military families bear the impossible burden of proof to show the housing is not safe and they have to prove the propaganda is not true. The failure and refusal to collect data and evidence that the housing is safe becomes a defense. Military families cannot prove or provide any evidence because the data is not available or was not collected or is not produced. The system works against the military families.

Where are the Hawaii Department of Health (HDOH) and EPA? These are the enforcing agencies for compliance with the environmental protection laws. These laws are designed to protect people and the environment; however, we are concerned that the politics and influence of the DoD in Hawaii is too strong. The voice of the military families when they do speak out and complain is ignored and retaliation is their reality. The standard practices to ignore the complaints, or to defer by informing them that they are the only ones complaining or promising actions that are not taken and stopping communications or instill the fear of reprisal.

The backbone of our volunteer defense is the military families. They are mistreated, ignored, and concern for their safety and health are disregarded. There is no excuse or justification for purposely contaminating the topsoil of the residential neighborhoods knowing that illnesses will occur. Forecasting these illnesses and expressing them in terms of an increased risk by factors of 10 to 100 times greater than the general population demonstrates the disregard for their health and suffering.

The reduction of human life to numerical values and odds of occurrence to save money is inhumane and intolerable. The silencing of these families and the blatant disregard for compliance with environmental protection laws will impact the future readiness of the volunteer defense. Why would future generations volunteer to be treated this way?

We can fix these problems if we focus on the root causes of these occurrences. How is it that the government officials and the corporate managers of the private companies get away for violations of laws and disregard for the families? We let them get away with it and we fail to provide effective oversight and monitoring of their activities. These are not new problems the military housing issues are the same ones that occurred in the 1950s when privatization was attempted and failed. The main causes are the failures to provide safe housing in favor of windfall profits by the private sector. Sound familiar? We will get what we measure. If the production of unsafe housing and mismanagement of the military housing continues and we do not wisely monitor their performance, we will get what we have now. The establishment of proactive and preventive performance measures to ensure safe, healthy, and quality housing is provided and compliance with the environmental protection laws are the means to good stewardship of the taxpayer monies.

The areas of focus of this book are the disregard for consequences for military families, use of propaganda and the abuse of the burden of proof requirements, and the fear of reprisal, discrimination, and retaliation by the families. The disregard for consequences to the military families for exposing them to unsafe levels of OCPs is based on several factors. Some of the predominant factors are; (1) their exposures at one location and length of time in the military services is limited; (2) they cannot afford litigation or any other legal proceedings; and (3) the fear of reprisal, discrimination, and retaliation are their reality and synergistic effects with the other factors. For example, exposing them to carcinogens can result in short-term and long-term health effects. The short-term effects are dealt by explaining away symptoms. Long term effects, e.g., miscarriages, cancer, etc. are ignored by an out of sight, out of mind philosophy.

The human suffering and the toll on the families cannot be adequately placed in the proper perspective. My dealings with some of the families provided me with the conscience and concern for the humanity that is lacking in their treatment. How can anyone justify the suffering from losses from miscarriages, or life? How can the years of suffering from cancer or other debilitating illnesses be explained in a book? I ask the question in one of the chapters, does anyone care?

The fear of reprisal, discrimination, and retaliation is a given reality for the families. Their support and dependence on the military authorities to provide safe and healthy housing is an obligation that they must accept. In other words, they must accept what they are given. They cannot speak up, stand up, or complain in any way. The retaliation can be seen in failing to maintain the house in a safe manner, or sudden changes in their military careers, etc. Those who speak up may be assigned worse housing, or not be given maintenance or repair services, or may not receive promotions, etc. A senator once said something like, "… the intelligence agencies have six ways from Sunday to retaliate against a President." This saying is somewhat true of military families because retaliatory actions can and will take many forms.

Our volunteer service for our national defense has been successful for decades. However, continued mistreatment of the families can affect the future readiness of our defense. Actions for accountability and problem resolution, especially for the families and our veterans are critical. Actions now and not waiting for the consequences of no action is critical.

Chapter 1

The Military Family

Our military families are the backbone of our military and our nation’s defense. We have the luxury of a volunteer military where citizens enter the military service on their own. They understand the sacrifices they are making, including their lives. The American Soldier lyrics by Toby Keith sums up their commitment:

"And I will always do my duty

No matter what the price

I’ve counted up the cost

I know the sacrifice

Oh, and I don’t want to die for you

But if dyin’s asked of me

I’ll bear that cross with honor

‘Cause freedom don’t come free…"

Our gratitude to our military members and their families should be unwavering and forever. In the 1960s, our military consisted of voluntary and selected service and draft board members. Veterans coming home from the Viet Nam war were treated with horrific disdain and shame. We spat on them, burned the flag they fought for, and we embarrassed and disgraced them. We ignored them, and we left them on our streets without medical care and human dignity. Many of our veterans are still on the streets and ignored today. Our shame and disregard are in the cold and visible shadows when we walk among the homeless.

I believe we can never forget our disloyalty and our disregard for those who fought for our country. We should always remember the shameful betrayal of Jane Fonda’s denial of U.S. Soldiers at her prisoner of war visit in Viet Nam. There is no doubt that our treatment of our military members in the past was disgraceful. Our military service members served this country, right or wrong, whether you agree or disagree. Our soldiers were fighting our war with loyalty, honor, duty in their minds and in their hearts, and on their lips.

We disregard and ignore them when they come home broken, and we have no idea of their suffering. Our veterans are exposed to untold horrors, including known and unknown exposures to hazardous substances during their service. We fail to provide medical care and treatment for exposure to hazardous substances. Our system demands that they meet the impossible burden of proof so they can get medical care. The dates, hazardous substances exposures, and illness related to the exposures are impossible burdens to meet. This system is unfair, demanding, without humanity, and we see it every day. Not one of our military service members should be living on our streets without a home, medical care, and treatment. In recent years, the level of respect for our veterans by the communities has improved. However, our government and businesses continue to fail our military service members and veterans. We have a long way to go to care for our veterans.

We see our voluntary military members serve our country and protect our rights and freedoms. We know the lack of care for our veterans and the unwillingness of our lawmakers and government leaders to address their issues. The politicizing of the care for our veterans and our military service members and their families is the most flagrant and willful disregard of basic human needs and humanity. This history and our disregard for our veterans and military service members are decades and decades old. If there is any doubt about the previous comments, then look at the Veterans Administration (VA) and the dollars spent in mishandling our veterans. The cost of war and our defense in human suffering lasts long past the war itself. The human suffering of our veterans and their families continue, and too often, they are alone and forgotten.

One of our commitments to the military service member is our promise to keep and care for their families. The idea that their families are in good hands prevents them from worrying about them when they are on the battlefield. We OWE our soldiers to meet the basic needs of safe and healthy facilities, services, and support for their families. We OWE them, and we must ensure we meet our commitment to them. We continue to fail these families by not meeting our duty to care for our military service members and veterans. Our military families are part of the overall military service commitment and we fail to protect them. They reside in isolated communities, and they are part of the military structure. They are ghosts within the military service structure and without a clear voice.

Military service members must follow the chain of command, and there are protective laws that should be followed when it comes to complaints and mistreatment. The military service member families are inherently part of this same structure. In other words, they are not free to file complaints, to be treated with equality and fairness, or to bring attention to the issues associated with the support owed to them. Military families do not have a voice, and their fear of reprisal, retaliation, and discrimination is their reality. The DoD has policies, complaint systems, training, etc. to inform federal employees, military service members, and military families that they are protected by laws. These laws should prevent the fear of reprisal, retaliation, and discrimination when they speak up. These are referred to as whistleblower laws; however, the whistleblower laws do not and have not adequately protected military families.

The laws are mainly designed to create an overall policy that anyone can speak up and identify problems. They are guaranteed that the management officials are prohibited from taking any reprisal, retaliatory, or discriminatory actions against them. Managers and officials are cautioned that the disciplinary actions for violating these laws are severe. The rules and promises of protection have not been effective. Our lawmakers fail to include fair enforcement of these laws and on-going determinations to ensure that the laws are effective. The mistreatment and plight of military families is a prime example of the failure and ineffective laws to protect those who would speak up. The rules and the legal system work against those in the military and the military families from speaking up.

Military families speaking up about unsafe housing was politicized in 2019. It became apparent that even members of Congress could not get the DoD to fix the simple problem of safe housing. If you were sued by a billion-dollar company and the federal government – where would you be? A blatant example of the violation of the exercising of free speech is the lawsuit¹ filed by the federal government through the private partner in the PPV. Although protected from lawsuits that prevent the exercise of free speech, the strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) laws in Hawaii are ineffective. An excerpt from a media article² describes the SLAPP against an ex-military spouse for sharing information on social media:

"SLAPPed Around

"The lawsuit, which pits a multi-billion-dollar real estate and development conglomerate and its partner, the U.S. Navy, against the wife of a retired Marine officer, appears to be a classic SLAPP, a strategic lawsuit against public participation.

SLAPPs are retaliatory lawsuits intended to silence, intimidate, or punish those who have used public forums to speak, petition, or otherwise move for government action on an issue, according to an online legal dictionary. SLAPPs have been directed against individuals and groups that have spoken in public forums on a wide variety of issues, particularly against real estate development, the actions of public officials, environmental damage or pollution, and unwanted land use.

SLAPP filers don’t go to court to seek justice, according to the Public Participation Project. Rather, SLAPPS are intended to intimidate those who disagree with them or their activities by draining the target’s financial resources.

Like other SLAPPs, OMC’s defamation case appears aimed at silencing Barber’s voice on matters of public safety and health in military housing facilities. It’s a tactic that’s been used many times by corporations to stifle public opposition to their products or projects.

What’s unusual here, it seems, is that a federal government agency is a partner in the company that has filed the SLAPP. It isn’t clear whether the Navy had to approve or sign off on the lawsuit before it was filed.

However, by attacking a prominent advocate for the health and safety of military families, the lawsuit necessarily puts the Navy in an uncomfortable and politically awkward position."

As members of the public, we have no idea what it is like for military families to live under substandard housing conditions. Military service members take an oath to this country. This oath becomes their commitment, and it includes their families. Every military family member assumes this oath, and they are held to the military structure. The vow for military enlistment is:

I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.

Military families complaining about their unhealthy living conditions place the service members under the risks of reprisal, retaliation, and discrimination. Military families must demonstrate explicit trust for and obedience to military commands if they want to survive military life, culture, and combat. If the families hesitate to trust or obey or even question a command about their housing, they risk the service member’s military career and retaliation.

For many decades military families had to live in houses that were dilapidated and substandard. These old homes contained hazardous substances like asbestos, lead-based paint, mercury, radon, harmful and banned pesticides, and other stressors. For the most part, these families are not informed, and they trust that the military organizations are taking care of them. Houses constructed in the 1920s were occupied well into the 1960s and on. Military families experience unexplained illnesses from long term exposures to hazardous substances even after they left the military service. Families who were exposed to hazardous materials decades later found out after they were sick and dying. There is no acceptable excuse that homes with hazardous substances deteriorating over decades of poor maintenance were still occupied by the families. In 2006 an email from an ex-military member’s spouse described her experience in a short and concise message:

"I have a story to tell you about my family and DDT that was used during the time my husband was stationed at Kaneohe in 1948 through 1950. The military furnished housing at Kaneohe, the housing was called termite village. During these two years, the military sprayed the base daily with DDT, that a had a mechanical device that was hitched to a jeep to (s)pray with, in addition to spraying the island the housing unit issued DDT can sprays for the families to used inside the apartments to kill the cockroaches.

Is this the same area that the military approved the ground