Death is the only winner in the Camp Lejeune dispute

The victims of Camp Lejeune are transformed into spirits that pursue the federal judges and lawyers who have to struggle with a flood of claims and complaints from contaminated drinking water on the Marine Corps Base in North Carolina from the 1950s to 1980s.

One of them is Dan Mason, a Navy from September 1975 to September 1979, who spent more than a year in Camp Lejeune, were at a highlight as toxic chemicals in the water supply to the coastal base. Mason was diagnosed in 2012 with several health problems, including a mass in his kidney and a kind of lymphoma, and died in 2023 after a heart attack at the age of 67.

His 43 -year -old woman, Jeanie Mason from Corvallis, Ore.

After the Congress 2022, Dan Mason sued the law that that spent more than 30 days in Camp Lejeune between 1953 and 1987 the right to enter the right to enter the marine and a lawsuit before the Federal Supreme Court if the Navy did not answer in six months.

His widow is now continuing the case of her deceased man as an illegal complaint – not for monetary reasons, but for monetary reasons, but to be held accountable, but the US military.

“The code of the Marines is honor, courage and commitment,” said Jeanie Mason online in an interview. “Dan lived in this code, and he and his with Marines should expect nothing less than what the Marine Corps expected from them: honor of the lives of those who would give their with marines, and to protect us here at home, give the courage to help and the commitment, the marines and their families to help with this fight.”

Since the adoption of Camp Lejeune Justice Act in August 2022, the Navy has been submitted more than 400,000 claims for two years, and 2,635 lawsuits were submitted to the Eastern district of North Carolina in the US district court.

The government expects that more than 21 billion US dollars will ultimately be paid out, but so far only a few settlements have been reached, and only about 400 offers have been made, according to the plaintiffs. The complaints also move at a snail's pace, with the first exams in so-called Bellwether cases for certain diseases only to be expected next year, the lawyers say.

While the cases are complicated, with lawyers for both sides argue on evidence that combine contamination with later health problems, the long process increases the entire Camp Lejeune saga.

“The basic sadness of this case is that there are real people here who suffer and die every day,” said Eric Flynn, partner of the bell rights group.

Another lawyer who takes over several cases for the victims of Camp Lejeune, Andrew van Arsdale from the Ava Law Group in San Diego, said hundreds and possibly thousands of people who were exposed to contamination, before the naval and marine corps recognized responsibility.

“So it goes back to this old saying: justice can be delayed or is refused justice. And that happened here,” said Van Arsdale.

“We organize these meetings every Friday,” he said. “Men and women who were at the beginning are no longer there. And their spouses wear the torch for them instead.”

The legislation that aims to accelerate the process has so far only two supporters. Thom Tillis, Rn.C., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. – and did not see any action.

“I think the congress also has to take care of it,” said Jeanie Mason. “I mean, the complaints go, but they are very slow.”

“I'm going to fight dans fight”

Dan Mason did not join the Marines long after graduating from high school in Redondo Beach, California because “he wanted to be the best,” said Jeanie. Her parents met Dan when he was on a tour in England, and he and Jeanie were a family in 1979 from the University of Florida during a break.

“We fell in love and went home – he back to California, back to Florida – and he suggested me by phone as soon as I came home,” she said. They were married in 1980.

After his time in the Marines, Mason registered as a flight officer in the navy and spent more than 11 years with various tasks, including a stay of the USS Nimitz. But in the last half of his naval service, from 1989, there were warning signs for the upcoming problems: every body found traces of blood in his urine.

Mason left the navy in 1994, and the couple moved through the northwest to follow his career path: as 911 supervisor and owner of a security business in Bend, Ore.; as the developer of a 911 center in Idaho; And as an airport manager in Corvallis.

The serious problems began in 2011 and 2012 when doctors found a mass about Dan's kidney, and during an eight-hour operation it was found that he also had a form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Years of treatments and hospital visits followed.

Dan decided to retire in 2016 at the age of 60, “so that he has time with me, our family, two dogs and time and travel time in the USA in our caravan outside of treatments,” said Jeanie. “I appreciate this time.”

It was roughly the time of his retirement that the bricklayers connected health problems with the water pollution from Camp Lejeune, and after a medical examination in 2017, he received 100 percent disability payments from the Department of Veterans Affairs – in the eyes of the Masons, recognition that their suspicion was correct.

After the law was issued in 2022, a lawsuit submitted a lawsuit to the Navy and then a lawsuit before the Federal Supreme Court that his lymphoma was caused by contamination in Camp Lejeune. It could have been one of the Bellwether cases for this disease that are among the first to be brought to court, but intervened fate.

Between September 2022 and July 2023, Dan had a heart attack and a double bypass, he learned that the cancer had spread in his liver, and then he had caused a further case of heart arrest, which prompted his doctor to recommend him for a hospice.

“Dan was a navy. He fought with courage and dignity, strength and humor. He sent the doctor out of the room.” No, I will not talk to you, “said Jeanie. She took him home, where he died on August 14, 2023,” surrounded by his wildlife in his fields, “she said.

A year after his death, the Navy proposed a settlement based on his lymphoma. “But they could not take his death into account, which affected the amount offered,” said Jeanie. “I rejected it because money will not bring back. I do it to continue fighting.”

A line of the settlement offer was also repulsive, she said: “This determination of the compromises and release is in no way intended and should not be interpreted, since an approval or fault by the United States, its agents, servants or employees who must be expressly made that you have committed to describing yourself in writing (see).

“It doesn't look like justice, although I have no idea what justice looks like,” she said. “At least they were able to admit that it made a mistake and assumed responsibility. I continue Dans fight.”

Even after all the pain, Jeanie said that then was not angry with the marine corps he loved. “I want you to know that Dan, even though Dan's water from Camp Lejeune died, was proud to be a navy,” she said. “He would do it again.”

She added: “I will say that we were extremely lucky that Dan was able to continue almost a complete life until last year”, including the opportunity to have his two daughters for their weddings: Heather's 2013 and Collen's in 2016.

“But there are families who have suffered terrible, financially, emotionally, emotional, physically and painful due to the Camp Lejeune.” We are grateful that Dan was so lucky. “

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