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| Mike Partain Photo © The Few, The Proud, The Forgotten |
Marines who have been fighting a battle against cancer and a possible cover-up of water contamination now have a documentary movie to show to the US Senate and House of Representatives. "Semper Fi: Always Faithful" shows the long fight to get justice for Marines and their families who developed cancer after consuming water aboard Camp Lejeune that was loaded with dry-cleaning chemicals. The film was made by Rachel Libert and Tony Hardmon, working with former Marines Jerry Ensminger and Mike Partain, both affected with cancer that might have been prevented.
Partain's mother drank the water, which was laced with Perchloroethylene and Trichloroethylene while she was pregnant with him. By the time he was 39, he developed male breast cancer. The Partains had trusted the Marine Corps to keep the base water supply clean and healthy, so when they found out that chemicals had polluted the water for years - and that the carcinogens had gone unreported to those affected - they and many other felt profoundly betrayed.
Now The Few, The Proud, The Forgotten are looking for justice and health care for anyone who was living on base during the time of the contamination. "We're in every town across America," Mike Partain says in the film. "We're in every town, in every city and every state. And every one of us has a congressman and a senator." With this movie slated to be shown to lawmakers, the survivors and their families hope to convince the government to admit their error and assist the victims. "The main thing is, don't let this issue die," Ensminger says in the film.
I use to live in Tucson,Az. I worked on the south side in a small school district of about 1000 students.As I remember it over the years the water always was a little nasty tasting,but kids drank it anyway.In about 2001, there had been an article in the paper about the buried contaminant from the air force base close by.I happen to see it the first time and the later editons were on page 39.From that point forward I never drank the water from that area.Little did I know that there had been a cancer cluster of about 5,000 on the south side.From all my years of working there, had given me something to think about health wise.
THANK YOU for discussing the documentary!! We, the victims, those who know what happened & those who still don’t, deserve to know what happened & to receive justice…. if that is even possible w/all of the suffering…