Families like mine that lost babies after living at Camp Lejeune deserve justice

Between 1953 and 1987 at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina more than 1 million military and civilian staff and their families lived and worked on base and were unknowingly exposed to contaminated water.

The CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry found volatile organic compounds (VOCs) contaminated several water supplies that served Camp Lejeune and families residing on the property. These VOCs ranged from 240 to 3,400 times the legal safety levels, polluting the water our families drank, cooked with, and bathed in.

For too long, Camp Lejeune alumni like myself have suffered in silence.

Although the Veterans Administration and U.S. government have publicly acknowledged the deadly contamination, they have failed to provide support or acknowledgment for the families of enlisted personnel who continue to suffer from a myriad of health complications and fatalities.

My husband and I moved to Camp Lejeune in 1984 as part of his enlistment in the Navy. We lived there for nearly two years when I became pregnant with my first child, William James Morris III. Overjoyed and looking forward to motherhood, I experienced a thoroughly normal pregnancy. Until the end.

A few days before my due date, I started spotting and my doctor instructed me to go to the hospital. Admitted for testing, the on-call doctor said he couldn’t detect a heartbeat and that I must give birth immediately.

When I gave birth, all of my worst fears were confirmed. My son, my first born child, did not survive. We conducted an autopsy, which came back inconclusive. They simply could not identify a single reason why my son met this horrific fate.

I sunk into a deep depression, blaming myself for my son’s death. I carried that guilt and harrowing depression with me for years. I have since learned the harsh lesson that time does not alleviate this type of grief, and that I’ll have to live with it the rest of my life.

Years later while watching the news, I heard President Obama mention Camp Lejeune’s toxic water. Only then did I piece together the facts and come to the conclusion that my son’s death was related directly to the contaminated water I drank and cooked with before and throughout my pregnancy.

Tragically, my story is far from unique. A graveyard known as “Baby Heaven” currently exists at Camp Lejeune. Hundreds of graves mark the lives of babies lost, infants who did not survive more than a few days, if they survived at all. For me, the site serves as a tribute to these young lives lost — and as sickening evidence that something at Camp Lejeune had gone terribly wrong.

Inexplicably, our losses have not been recognized by the government. Today, the VA recognizes only eight presumptive conditions directly related to the toxic water, and only for enlisted personnel.

But what about all the Camp Lejeune family members and staff who lived on base and the innocent children who lost their lives possibly from exposure to toxic groundwater?

The bipartisan Camp Lejeune Justice Act was introduced in the Senate last Fall, with Sen Thom Tillis as lead sponsor. It remains on the docket for legislative approval as part of the Honoring our PACT Act.

While nothing can rectify my devastating loss, or the losses of others, this legislation will provide a measure of healing and closure for myself and other veteran families who’ve endured in silence for far too long.

This legislation is about more than politics — it represents what is right and wrong in the treatment of military families. Our government failed us at Camp Lejeune. It now has the opportunity to provide some small rectification for their actions and years of inaction.

The Camp Lejeune Justice Act offers a semblance of justice for veterans, and for all the lives lost or devastated by this tragedy.

My son would have been 36 years old this year. I believe that he and hundreds of other innocent infants were robbed of their opportunity for life. The least the government can do for families like mine is acknowledge their failure and provide some closure to these open wounds.

This story was originally published May 2, 2022 at 4:30 AM with the headline "Families like mine that lost babies after living at Camp Lejeune deserve justice."