Cancer rate among Air Force Missileers prompts questions, concerns

ABC News' Mola Lenghi reports on the mysterious threat potentially emerging for Missileers who believe there may be a link from their cancer diagnosis and their time spent working as Missileers.
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[@theAverageJoe25]

“Your cancer is not service related”

[@user-xt7wb5dh5p]

Your herpes ain’t service related. Serious though.

[@rabarlow47]

All I can say, is Bullshit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My father served for 23-years in the Air Force. I grew up in the U.K. (Lakenheath AFB) and at Holloman AFB in New Mexico. I was diagnosed with cancer at 48-years of age. Not a coincidence!

[@phil20_20]

Ridiculous. It's just another one of their irresponsible denials, like agent orange, and burn pits. They don't to risk their promotions so they lie, but they know.

[@Hmongboi228]

Is what the Department of Veteran Affairs will have in writing for your service-connected disability result letter. Meanwhile, other veterans are getting service connection for PTSD while they were in an administrative MOS/rate/AFSC or alcoholism due to your service.. 🙄

[@stephenprysock391]

Cause you know? Right tell me how you know.. you don’t and most like;y never served a day so shut the hell up idiot

[@JakeBroe]

I was a missileer who served for six years in the Air Force and I pulled 300+ alerts underground in these LCCs. The career field desperately needs more operators who can pull alert and spread out the burden of spending time in the field. When I left the Air Force in 2022 we were just being asked to spend WAY TOO MUCH time underground by our leadership because there wasn't enough of us to fully staff all the capsules.

[@Ryan_Christopher]

I was in Bioenvironmental Engineering for six tears. Same AFSC as those techs and engineers who are trying to determine what might be causing the cancers. Before I turned-out to have a permanent medical issue preventing an OTS application, my flight commander suggested I become a missileer after naturalization. Now I’m relieved my old plans couldn’t push through.

[@maritaschweizer1117]

You can study any group or profession and with a 50 % chance you find a higher risk of cancer. But nobody talks about the other 50% with lower risk than average. It is sad that people do not understand statistics and make such videos to get publicity.

[@AdamEdward]

yeah thats just unhealthy, period. there has to be a better way of "manning" these sort of jobs. being in any one place like that for so long is just not good for you, then you add in the possibility of chemicals that you and the other missileers sat next to day in and day out. they gotta change the environment down there in the bunkers to make it less miserable and less dangerous in regards to cancer/mental health etc.

[@AdamEdward]

yeah, im not sure what naturalization means in regards to your situation but would you have gone through with being a missileer or did you always know it was a boring/grim job? @@Ryan_Christopher

[@uprebel5150]

@@maritaschweizer1117But the exact same type of cancer?

[@juanhaver6584]

My uncle got leukemia at age 30 never having any traces of it before then while in the military, he was discharged and his record was sealed as top secret, he died 6 months after discharge.

[@eugenekubak7857]

So sorry

[@juanhaver6584]

@eugenekubak7857 thank you, I was young myself, this was many years ago now, I really should get the family to push for his records, I think when it first got sealed and watched Joe deteriorate. He did countless bone marrow transplants and he said this is no way to live and stopped treatment. It was hard because every male in the family had severed and although their services weren't perfect they were decent and had decent lives so it was hard to believe the youngest getting such treatment, no male since his case has served in our family.

[@InfiniteTony]

Was he a missileer too?

[@juanhaver6584]

@@InfiniteTony no

[@InfiniteTony]

@@juanhaver6584 So what did he do in the military that would cause cancer?

[@foxylovelace2679]

This deserves an honest and deep investigation along with appropriate compensation

[@TymexComputing]

Better check Saraievo cancer rate between city people that were bombarded by nato flighta.

[@homeopathicfossil-fuels4789]

People with very gruesome debilitating injuries and trauma from front line combat already have a hard time getting compensated for service related injuries and disabilities.. at least in other NATO countries, good luck I say to these people

[@censoredeveryday3320]

Good luck. The govt doesn't give a crap about vets. They see the enlisted as property

[@sevenmiller9042]

Seriously think people. It's from a certain health event

[@sgtellioman]

Too busy sending that money to Ukraine and Israel, sorry.

[@Juggernaut-fg2up]

Our government is so shady, this poor guy gave his life to help protect the rest of us what he did is no different than fighting in a war somewhere. His family deserves 100% support

[@Jordan-rb28]

If you think ours is shady, look at the guys on the other side of the world -- Russia's leaders sent THOUSANDS of their own soldiers to raid, ransack, and dig trenches all over the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and Red Forest's horrifically radiation-contaminated ground. They even infiltrated the control rooms and set up camp inside and out of the contaminated nuclear power plant. Can you imagine the gruesome fates of that many men?? Crazy.

[@thatdude3977]

They dont protect us, they protect the rich

[@sunfish4095]

It's never been that way though.

[@blakejonzu1713]

brainwashed americans joining the military for nothing atall. no reason to join, there are no bad guys in america. Going to another country and kill people of the land makes the Americans the bad guys. Its all a money skeem and land grab.

[@marcd6897]

@@sunfish4095in case the yellow clown and his friends are being elected this year, it’s getting worse. Remember how the yellow clown used to make fun of veterans, and one thing his friends love so much, is cutting public spending even further.

[@puyatecla9903]

Finally, a real news report

[@zunar_j5_933]

I know, not common for ABC at all.

[@korana6308]

don't get too excited. Pretty sure it's the only one exception to the rule...

[@danielhutchinson6604]

@@korana6308 When will they begin to question the reasons for a Military Budget? As the amount of available resources on this planet no longer appears to exist inside the USA, what are we defending? Is the $700+ military budget for defense or just an offensive tool? We exported our industrial capacity by the 1980's. We used up mineral resources before that. Now the US appears to be attempting to take from other Nations? As the money runs short to take care of Troops, what is next? Where are the profits going? Pentagon Audits indicate some big time corruption.

[@80s_Boombox_Collector]

@@korana6308 Right, because the sources you use are so much more truthful and unbiased

[@centurione6489]

They need to present the data of congruous control populations (Non-missileers from the same area), AND a comparison between the Montana site and OTHER sites. Like this, it is heartbreaking but it doesn't mean anything.

[@ceuser3555]

This should be disclosed by air force recruiters.

[@redcapote4760]

Yea, that'll happen.

[@jon.bo_]

especially when they go into schools to groom kiddos

[@Passions]

LOL you do understand the meaning of a "recruiter", right?

[@bucknaked2733]

You realize that Missileers are Officers not Enlisted and therefore most likely not recruited!

[@keypeng4164]

there's the internet. recruits can do their own research. a recruiter will outright lie to you to get you to sign to enlist. their prospect for promotions depends on it.

[@kenna9310]

My dad got lung cancer (doesn’t smoke rarely drinks) and died from it. He was a merchant seaman who worked for the navy and they would transfer fuel even with masks they could still smell it and they worked in old ships. I know two other men who got lung cancer who also worked roughly the same jobs. Now we have financial problems and they aren’t helping us at all. I wish I could do something but I don’t know where to start.

[@AlphaConde-qy7vi]

Look for scientific papers linking fuel to cancer, and try having a meeting with an occupational physician (specialised in seefaring jobs). These will provide you with potential evidence to mount a lawsuit against your father's employer.

[@matthewsheeran]

Asbestos aboard the ships has various uses in various places. Many older ships are so full of the stuff it's hazardous to dismantle and decommissioned and one reason they wind up doing so in Bangladesh! It's far more likely to be asbestos than the fuel.

[@osamasyed5271]

Any ship built between 1930s-1980s contains asbestos in the US military, it was around the mid 1980s where they stopped using asbestos. Like Matt said, asbestos is known to cause lung cancer without any tobacco/cigarette exposure. Usually people think it only causes mesothelioma but its more common for asbestos exposure to cause lung cancer than mesothelioma

[@misred28]

Same thing happened with my seaman cousin got lung cancer and died few months ago at a very young age.

[@thomasgarbe8354]

@@matthewsheeran Household knowledge considers fuel causing, if at all, leukemia, and asbestos causing lung cancer.

[@darlene2662]

This family deserves the support from their government. This man has given his life for his country! Do the right thing people.

[@thomasalden6263]

It seems like the government screws over veterans on their benefits after service

[@richard646]

Classic US gov, a "thank you for your service" will do just fine.

[@thatdude3977]

Canadians have no room to talk 😂

[@cosmickitteh]

Your stance and comment on this is very confusing. You should try speaking more clearly and precise because I feel like I could go left or right with your comment and end up with the opposite of what you are saying.@ceciliacole5098

[@calvinhobbes7504]

You had me at the Canadian flag and the point about "doing the right thing" ..... but sadly, they don't know how. We'd be a much better USA if they did.

[@donwyoming1936]

Historically speaking, the VA does not compensate for common conditions suffered by Air Force personnel. Various types of chronic pain, radiation damage and cancers. The VA approved my claims as being service related as I had extensive medical records, but there is no compensation for them.

[@jamesbeemer7855]

That goes for all the other branches of the armed services . But it helps if you know the cook .

[@BR525]

Saying it was ignored historically doesn’t help the issue that remains: we must reevaluate the responsibility of the government (we are suppose to be the government). However, globalists that control the left don’t care about the well-being of your republic of America. It’s not by the people for the people like you think!!!!

[@BR525]

My country’s security depends on America being a strong republic and not looted by the globalists while the left virtue signals your people into depression and broken spirit

[@ronzombie6541]

​@@jamesbeemer7855and a good clerk.

[@singamajigy]

I wonder if they’re also investigating the possibility of radon. It seeps out of the ground and the radiation can cause cancer.

[@maritaschweizer1117]

The radon does not come from the ground. It comes from the concrete and the source the chalck comes from when cement is produced.

[@nodularification]

​@@maritaschweizer1117That depends on local geology, radon does seep from the ground and accumulate in basements. Building codes in the US require ventilation systems in certain regions to remove it.

[@maritaschweizer1117]

Radon is a decay product of Radium. But I dabt that this underground buildings have permeable walls and the Radon cann just penetrate through the walls.

[@waterlife.1905]

Was my thought. Couldn't they just bring one those devices that lets you see the trails of radiation through supercooled alcohol vapor under a vacuum I believe. Forgot what they called. It's a tank that lets you see the trails created by different isotopes and you can see the difference in gamma and beta visually. You see the actual particle trails.

[@singamajigy]

@@waterlife.1905 a cloud chamber. Those work for cosmic rays but not all radiation.

[@generalputnam2990]

My oldest, dearest friend just died from metastatic abdominal cancers. He spent two years in a Minot pod during Vietnam. His son & I will investigate this further.

[@NurseSnow2U]

Oh beloved, I’m so sorry for his unnecessary suffering and for your and his sons grief. I pray you find answers that aid in your grieving process 🙏🏽.

[@generalputnam2990]

@@NurseSnow2U Thank you so very much. He did suffer. And adding injustice to it makes acceptance so much more difficult. A kinder, more genial soul I have never known.

[@VesperAegis]

Sleep deprivation, surrounded by 1970s electronics with PCBs, tight quarters, zero body movement, and stress. Sadly a perfect recipe for cancer. RIP Mark Holmes

[@amelkinelliott7711]

What r pcb?

[@stanpikaliri1621]

zero body movements have nothing to do with cancer

[@VesperAegis]

@@stanpikaliri1621 Higher levels of physical activity throughout the day are generally associated with lower risk of cancer. Even if we didn't link this risk factor highly with obesity more generally, at the very least, exercise helps you sleep better at night, and a better night's sleep aids with healthier and more robust Killer T cells.

[@stanpikaliri1621]

@@VesperAegis Complete nonsense

[@VesperAegis]

@@stanpikaliri1621 I welcome specifics, but nothing I said is particularly controversial in the research literature.

[@cosmickitteh]

as a kid who lost their father suddenly as well it breaks my heart and makes me cry listening to her talk about her husband with their kids. I'll never forget the day my mother woke me up and told me my father had passed. Living nightmare

[@avi486]

I'm so sorry💔

[@karlhans6678]

my condolences

[@eckjos66]

It is good that such problems can be openly discussed.

[@toolbaggers]

It is bad to even need to have these discussions in the first place.

[@RokeJulianLockhart.s13ouq]

Indeed.

[@jacobfreeland3303]

@@toolbaggersTrue, but like all new things, only time will reveal its full impact, I believe the user was more trying to appreciate the freedom of press we have.

[@copiaguezfinest]

I was a nuclear reactor operator in the Navy. I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer immediately after my deployment in 2018

[@CommandLineCowboy]

Which is suggestive of Iodine-131 contamination, shouldn't that have activated radiation warning alarms?

[@copiaguezfinest]

@@CommandLineCowboy yea but I think my cancer was caused by lower doses of daily exposure rather than a single large dose radiation event.

[@ceu160193]

@@CommandLineCowboy You can't completely block radiation, so people working with nuclear reactors have higher chance of cancer. Radiation warning is activated, if area becomes irradiated above certain amount.

[@5678plm]

you gotta love your country's response to you volunteering to die for it, when **** hits the fan, they are like, never heard of him

[@gambit_toys6554]

thank you for your service! terrible this happened!

[@lowandslow3939]

My father was sterile because of exposure to radiation after he was ordered to clean the exterior of the radomes at a Nike missile site , while it was operating,during the early 60’s. There was a surprise inspection and he was ordered to scrub the outside of the dome while it was operating. He and his fellow airmen were all tested for quite some time and deemed sterile. Well, I was born in November of 1961 at an Air Force base in Tennessee. SURPRISE!!! I guess that makes me a radar baby. No compensation ever discussed. All swept under the rug. I served in the Infantry as a young adult and can tell you that they will lie to you and don’t give a damn about your well being beyond how it affects your ability to do your job.

[@KvltKommando]

It's happening now with the electronics in our homes, they've got their study going and we're the test subjects

[@osamasyed5271]

What made you decide to join knowing the military allowed this to happen to your dad?

[@lowandslow3939]

@@osamasyed5271 Testosterone man. I was young, dumb and full of, uh, testosterone. Not injected or ingested, just an ornery 19 year old.

[@User-jr7vf]

Are you aware of this happening to higher rank officers? Like starting from Lieutenant, or is this a problem that affects only the low rank (From Sargeant down to Private) I'm asking this because I guess only the low ranks are sent to do this type of job

[@lowandslow3939]

@@User-jr7vf My father was a radar technician. I don’t know his rank at the time but it was likely no higher than E-5. Officers would never be sent to do something so menial. It was against all safety regs, I’m sure.

[@dohc1067]

He, along with others, should be getting 100% disability status, no questions asked, but that's 😢 the issue. Right now, it's just damage control and the blame game. Omg, her husband passed at 37, and he looked like 57. My condolences 🙏. My dad also died from cancer.

[@cyrusramsey4741]

%500

[@ethanfairweather8736]

Cancer survivor here. I lost half of my nose when I was 24. After undergoing two different resections and reconstruction that was a six week process. During that time I had a piece of my forehead skin cut in a way as to where it would become my new nose. six weeks later, the tag was removed. I later learned that this transplant procedure has been around for over 500 years. it first appeared in India.

[@ThroughTheHaze]

I am sorry that happened to you. My grandmother had that same surgery. The dr pretty much took off her entire nose until there was nothing but a hole and reconstructed it.

[@jani7166]

🙏 Great news. Wishing a long healthy life.

[@User-jr7vf]

I have been a victim of bullying my entire adolescence because my nose is big , but reading comments like this makes me grateful for what God/nature has given me, my entire body works perfectly and I never needed to see a doctor in my 28 years of age.

[@jrm371]

Given the absurd military budget, we can afford to cover all medical expenses for military personnel.

[@thecriscokidd290]

Not with the officials in charge of that spending...

[@marcd6897]

@@thecriscokidd290wait if the rich friends around the yellow clown get back into power, further tax cuts for the ultra rich. But maybe it’s trickling down to the cancer victims…

[@keypeng4164]

stop sending money to Ukraine.

[@HunnidTheTrapper02]

Not how it works, ​@@keypeng4164

[@P3RF3CTD3ATH]

You clowns don't understand how America and its financing works. They never had the money for the budget to begin with. Why do you think America wages color revolutions and coups against third world countries? So they can put puppets in power and then export all of their money printing to said countries so that the inflation isn't felt back in America as that money isn't circulating the economy in America.

[@mellow-jello]

Exposure is serious. I am surprise they don't conduct routine testing for cancer diagnosis with those highly radioactive environments.

[@tealshift2090]

Why would you think its radioactive environment? do you think they have these people sit on top the warheads or something? They dont sit anywhere near the warheads, they sit underground in control centers that are detached from the missiles. The environment they are in is probably less radioactive then the gas station near your house. The ground would shield them from a decent amount of the background radiation. The only source of radiation i can think of would be Radon seeping up from the ground, this is natural and happens all over the earth. The more likely thing is chemical exposure / EMF radiation (radiowaves), or something like that. They were talking about PCB exposure in this video, if this isnt just a weird coincidence my bet would be something in the air system or water system in the stations. Many of these systems are old and chemicals or even bacteria might be leeching into the air/water.

[@tiberianexcalibur]

“Your injury is not service related”

[@keypeng4164]

but my recruiter said VA coverage lasted after service and was comprehensive

[@user-xw4hn7lb3x]

When I worked on F-22s in the Air Force in 2010 -2015, several maintainers got appendicitis and had to have surgery. Happened to all of them within a year.

[@Gmcitizen]

On behalf of all americans, thank you for your service sir!❤ Praying for your healing and recovery soon!🙏🏼

[@ValenceFlux]

We were still finding old leaky pcb ballasts in some buildings when I started an electrical career in 2007. They were one of the very first hazards I suspected made me too sick to continue to help the clean up and upgrade efforts. I remember taking two showers after some jobs just to try and get the sticky dry feeling off my skin. I'm surprised the health care wasn't really there for us in the end after all that. They made me wait two years but that's another story.

[@GoonyMclinux]

PCB contamination ends in quarantine these days.

[@RokeJulianLockhart.s13ouq]

PCB? I expect you don't refer to circuit boards?

[@joedirt1965]

@@RokeJulianLockhart.s13ouqNo he means the chemicals PCBs they have been used in transformers. The ABC report shows a printed circuit board they must did a keyword search for PCB for stock footage and got the wrong PCB.

[@RokeJulianLockhart.s13ouq]

@@joedirt1965Yeah, I commented before I'd watched the video. Thanks.

[@ValenceFlux]

@@RokeJulianLockhart.s13ouq The fact that someone can learn of one and not the other befuddles me.

[@tacolover5000]

ty for your service. rip to the lost ones

[@rockpadstudios]

Many of the A-Bomb machinists working with beryllium died an awful death. People didn't know it was so toxic at the time.

[@andreasstuermer4946]

Nowadays we know that asbestos will definitely give you cancer , and still houses and buildings have it

[@vikingsoftpaw]

Yes, White Lung Disease. A number of case from my city in N.E. Ohio.

[@atgn-0088]

Not service related? The same thing was said about Agent Orange at one point in time too.

[@Dan-yk6sy]

Air Force: You must have been playing in agent orange and rocket propellants on your free time.

[@jsonstea]

complicated equipment laced with chemicals and emitting volatiles into the air, cramped spaces, many occupations face these hazards, at least they study it

[@mikemassino]

I just lost a friend who served on three different US Navy nuclear subs over a course of 6+ years. He developed Parkinson's disease at an early age. Now I wonder if his Parkinson's was due to his being in the exact circumstances that you mention above. I would like to see the records for submariners where their medical histories show early onset cancer and neurological diseases but that's probably classified information.

[@davidallison5204]

Because “the solution to pollution is dilution” I would think that anyone living and working in cramped conditions is being pickled in carcinogens most of us are only briefly exposed to.

[@tealshift2090]

Could be, I would think its less that and higher likelyhood of environmental systems, the water / air systems.

[@gureno19]

"We've determined that despite every single man and women in your unit has cancer, that YOUR cancer is not service related."

[@ceuser3555]

Thank you for your service.

[@joekerr8037]

SUCKER !

[@DotADBX]

They should do pfas testing as well pretty well known issue these days especially military related facilities. Could also be small radiation leaks from nuclear materials that the ancient sensors in those facilities my not be detecting depending on how old the icbms are.

[@jamalwilburn228]

What sucks is he gets paid the same and has the same benefits as someone preforming an adminsitrative role. You rarely get paid more for much more dangerous tasks.

[@cryora]

That would be acknowledging it's dangerous. They prefer the way of keeping things hush.

[@jamalwilburn228]

@cryora That's also with any inherently dangerous position such as infantry. Unless you're Airborne, SOC, or deployed; you're getting paid the same as admin who won't have a lifetime of damage.

[@TitanFlare]

To be fair, that’s just how the military works. Missileers might get flight pay which isn’t much, but I’m not sure. At the end of the day, regardless if they have a desk job or not, if ordered to pick up a rifle and go fight on the front lines, no one in the military really has an option to say no

[@cavepilot]

We burned code strips and classified every alert in a small enclosed poorly ventilated space. Maybe start with finding out if any of those fumes are carcinogenic.

[@tealshift2090]

This right here

[@Sptn051]

I was SecFor at Nellis AFB where we housed our nations oldest nuclear bombs. The final weapons we moved out of there in the late 2000's were the oldest, with one dating back to 1945. When we opened the structure containing that oldest bomb we found that it was not in its original condition. Unfortunately for us there were no documents or manuals concerning the upkeep of the weapon, nor did we have proper protection from anything that could've been leaking from it; but we had orders to move it nonetheless. Whether it's personnel, expertise, or documentation, the AF lacks in all departments and servicemembers are left to pay the price.

[@sillybilly8028]

I have an idea..take care of all vets regardless of when and where they served or what ailments they have.

[@johnmclane4115]

If you took care of this country, this country should take care of you.

[@matthewmcgee]

It is easy to say "just take care of all vets". Actually paying for it is the challenge. How much extra tax are you willing to pay to fund lifetime medical care of all vets, for any issue they might develop, even if there is no proven link to their military service? Just trying to be realistic about the costs of good intentions. I served over 20 years in the military, as did my father, so I am not anti-vet. I just know that not every ailment a vet develops after leaving the service was related to their service. Keep in mind that proven "service related" issues are rightly being payed for by the VA, including many "presumptive" ailments, and the VA continues to research and add ailments to what is already covered.

[@peterd9698]

@@matthewmcgee Essentially EVERY OTHER NATION has universal healthcare, and proves it SAVES MONEY. At some point you HAVE to catch on that the politicians who cry about the need to cut social security and worker protections are the EXACT SAME POLITICIANS that SLASH TAXES on corporations and billionaires thus gutting govt... and guess who funded their campaigns? Corporations and billionaires.

[@loafoffloof3420]

if more people payed their taxes and especially the high class, perhaps vets would have had the insurance and benefits they needed from veteran affairs other than being turned down and being left to fate

[@peterd9698]

hmm.. Im going to comment again to see if youtube literally ghosted my comment for mentioning every other country having universal healthcare.

[@philliplopez8745]

I am so glad that I got my ass out of the air force as soon as I could .

[@that_heretic]

"We're sorry, it's been determined your condition is not service related."

[@mottie85]

Please share with your friends in Minot.

[@inigomontoya8929]

Kind of off the point but somewhat related: As an x-ray tech in Ft Carson, CO in the late 90's, We had an unusual number of babies being born with 6 fingers. We would x-ray the hand, and if no bone in the 6th digit they would remove it (I think). These parent were from the Armor unit and I heard it was from depleted Uranium rounds but also not sure about that either. Anyone else hear of something like that?

[@AlphaConde-qy7vi]

Depleted uranium ? It's known to have caused illness amongst soldiers taking part in operation Desert Storm.

[@ThroughTheHaze]

I was born with an extra finger. My dad wasn't in the Air Force but he had been a millwright. Maybe that could have done something?

[@lunam7249]

6 fingers is recessive in the mother side, relative related, URIANIUM SHELL ARE DANGEROUS THOUGH😊

[@priyanshtirkey1487]

This is what i call Telling stories thanks abc Rip Mark and all the Missileers who have passed On God bless their families.... Government Do the right thing

[@okcomputer0101]

Thank you.

[@motomatt4266]

And they wonder why recruitment is taking a nosedive.

[@callingouttrump]

@abcNEWS My father's 20 career in the Air Force began as a Minute Man Missile transporter and to install them. I was born in 1965 we lived on St. Patrick's Air Force Base. I know he was doing this work then. Back in maybe 2008 (I'm guessing), the service men were informed that they were exposed to high levels of heavy metals and to have the rest of their family's check for the heavy metals. My brother and I have normal levels. My father did die of lung cancer and chf, I'm not sure if the cancer was related to this issue. My father went through chelation. Hopefully anyone that has been exposed can get treatments done as soon as possible. As always ... Ty for your service.

[@I2AT]

This is a good news article, I had a good friend, who died in his early 40s from melanoma, after having been a missile in the Air Force.

[@badassoptic]

I left Minot back in 2019 not sure if I got something. PCB that oxygen regeneration unit in the LCC, we immediately evacuate if yellow fluid is detected during LCC inspection

[@scottycatman]

"Nearly a third of them are from Malmstrom" Yeah. You said there are 3 bases that do this job, kinda makes sense for it to be split in thirds.

[@goldgeologist5320]

There were originally 6 minuteman bases.

[@Calvin_Coolage]

The fact that most of the self-reported cancers are from Malmstrom suggest there might be something particularly dangerous about Malmstrom. Like maybe they have more carcinogen materials there than the other two Minuteman bases.

[@AlphaConde-qy7vi]

No, there could be only 1 base where the equipment is faulty.

[@PWlangford1]

I believe it.

[@filibustergaming3848]

Thank you for your service, people ❤. The investigations need to continue and solutions implemented 🇺🇸

[@prototype_0xD1]

@JakeBroe, hope you keep an eye out on your health and you stay well.

[@Frank_08banner19]

VA - "Where anything is non service related"

[@orcahang21]

BIG ❤ PRAYERS 💪🙏

[@dix_pack_of_sixie]

I served in the Air Force during the same time frames and was NOT a missileer but was diagnosed with non Hodgkins lymphoma...lymphoma.rates are up for airmen. I was 27 when diagnosed.

[@benjie2x2]

this is a good research to do for OHS in this area of work.

[@phil20_20]

They're not even in the silos! Are we talking about Radon? And why do they always show the discontinued MX Peacekeeper nose-cone?

[@JoeSmith-nu8oo]

I was in those silos in the 80's in missile security subjected to the same conditions. But the VA denies you everything.

[@jagv12m]

The link is obvious similar problem with Strike eagle. Crews that end up with odd cancers are not a coincidence .Im Air Force Radiology and just diagnosed with prostate cancer .Its in the environment on a large amount of Air force bases .

[@gamereditor59ner22]

What OSHA and MSDS protocol do they use in the military? If not, what safety protocol do they use?

[@Stargazzer811]

You assuming they have any of that. Safety in the US Military is literally, "wing it till someone buys it."

[@mellie4174]

My father was a missilier. He died of cancer. He never was given va benefits and my parents ended up with mountains of debt. After his death we were finally able to get survivors benefits. You don't have to prove the link. You just have to prove that it is more likely than not the cause. Get a va benefits advocate to help you. Just so everyone knows, it's not just lymphoma, my dad has small cell non squamous lung cancer. He had permanent injuries from his time as missilier, but the VA denied him benefits at every turn. He was supposed to be followed his whole life because of his injuries, but they ignored him and put up obstacles everywhere and straight up denied him. The VA is disgusting and the USA actively works not to care for people who proudly sacrificed thier life for their nation. Disgusting.

[@creative_mindsrus1541]

Well I work in a warehouse making plumbing parts with stickers with cancer warnings. Should we be getting more pay considering we could get cancer from handling these parts?

[@makerspace533]

I was stationed at Minot in the 1970-1972 period. I worked in the LCCs on communications equipment. It sounds like most of these problems occured in the 1980s or later. There were quite a bit of hydraulics used in the LCC for various purposes such as suspending and cushioning the boxcar in the LCC. I wonder if they had spills and leaks of the old hydraulic fluid during those later years. The older fluids probably had PCB for stabilization.

[@sizhan]

My father, ret AirForce had the same thing. such a shame the military does this.

[@theblondeone8426]

my bf is a former marine who was overseas a lot and he had prostate cancer and has a urostomy. He has no VA benefits for this and its ridiculous. Im a nurse, and Ive noticed many former marines have prostate cancer - I wonder why no study has been done to find out the added risk for each type of service . What makes me the maddest tho is someone who never fought (a coworkers husband) overseas getting lifetime disability for neck pain…

[@Punisher6791]

glad i didnt go into the chair force. as someone who has lost a parent to cancer i pray for Mark's family. so sad.

[@matthewmcgee]

Sorry about your loss and Mark's family's too. The video stated that the most recent data showed the missileer's non Hogkin's lymphoma rate was the same as the national average. That means, your chance of getting non Hodgkin's lymphoma is the same as it is for missileers like Mark, unless you happen to be in an environment that makes your risk above (or below) average.

[@aliveandwellinisrael2507]

The "chair" in Chair Force is apparently the one you sit in as they infuse the chemotherapy...

[@rossr6616]

I have a buddy who developed cancer and was a Missilier in the '70's; Arkansas base I think; He's still kicking as of today.

[@floydlholt9829]

Same thing for my situation. A lot of people who were deployed to Iraq 2005 are battling cancer, a lot of veterans died from it.

[@lewisdoherty7621]

I suspect there are substances which individually tested do not generate carcinogenic effects, but in combinations, they do. Working out the reactions of the chemicals on each other and then interacting with the human biology and the human biology being exposed to a sequence of particular chemicals, becomes hard to recognize and statistically not obvious.

[@brainslugs8866]

I'm assuming they're exposed to an insane amount of it, EMF that is... potentially even as a means of blocking outside interference

[@Ryan_Christopher]

@@brainslugs8866The EMF-radiating equipment have not changed in decades. If the EMF was the cause, the elder missileers would have been having the same cancers as today’s generation. I have colleagues looking into this and EMF is not a main suspect.

[@brainslugs8866]

@@Ryan_Christopher I'd have to disagree. While you may be 100% correct, you are not considering outside factors that are unavoidable that only exascerbate any potential the EMF had already, adding another layer to endure altogether. At some point, the frogs in a frying pan analogy takes places as EMF is ever increasing in density throughout our environment. It might not have been a big deal back in the 70's when outside EMF was lesser... then again I'd have to say I don't buy the claim that the tech we use now was as harmless as it was back then also 😬🤐

[@brainslugs8866]

@@Ryan_Christopher hell in todays world you even need EMF jacked up to block outside EMF interference. The areas where voting took place to protect machines that allegedly had no means to connect to the internet is a good example lol. Now I have no doubts the military uses the same technology for protection...

[@brainslugs8866]

@@Ryan_Christopher Lol they removed my comment because it became sensitive smfh. Well in todays world you even need EMF jacked up to block outside EMF interference, like where voting takes place, and I have no doint the military has adopted the same tech for protection

[@deathtoy101]

You don't need to Einstein to figure this one out lmao

[@lesliethomas7234]

That is so, so sad.

[@sirken2]

As a son of a missileer former commander my heart goes out to all the missileer community. You do the hidden work most don't see.

[@d3vilman69]

Not an American. There are times I wonder if it is really worth one's time and effort to "serve your country" when government usually tries to deny and refuse any form of compensation due to these injuries that are obviously caused by the work performed by the service personnel. At the end of the day all servicemen/women are just a small gear pieces of a much larger system. When the gear piece fails, it just gets replaced - no one is indispensable. High ranking officers will try to cover up as much as possible to minimize damage to their own careers while the ones at the bottom continue to suffer. Trying to violate the chain of command usually means getting blacklisted for no promotion or even court martial, so they suffer in silence. Each year US boasts billions in military spending but not enough goes to the vets and infrastructure to ensure proper healthcare and safety to servicemen/women in potentially hazardous careers. Such incidents need to be publicized to create awareness so that young folks who think of serving the country would really consider before committing. Dying of cancer before age 50 is way too young and way to cruel for a person to leave this world.

[@ThroughTheHaze]

Sadly the US government doesn't care. Look at Okinawa and what the US has done there. They don't care about their own people or others either. Contractors make too much money.

[@JulieLeonard-ik2zq]

Lord have mercy! 😢🙏🏽✝️🙏🏽

[@putinscat1208]

How close are they to the actual missiles? And what is in the ground with them?

[@andrew2004sydney]

The B-roll at 6:18 is a mistake - someone googled the wrong type of "PCB". The image is a Printed Circuit Board.

[@TheSwayzeTrain]

Rewatch the clip. It's because PCBs were historically used in the manufacture of electronics such as circuit boards.

[@eugeniusro]

Probably the carcinogenic element that triggers cancer is stress, and I'm an NHL survivor and I worked in a completely different field, I'm an electrician and I've worked a lot in industry and lately maintenance of commercial spaces. I treated the cancer with 6 chemotherapy sessions where the main element was Rituximab and at the same time I followed a keto diet to cut off the glucose supply to the cancer cells.

[@justsumdude471]

under ground so probably Radon

[@andysvehiclehistorychannel]

Shocking

[@ijustwannabeadrummer]

They probably didn’t think to update those silos for the longest because of the secrecy and they are still functional. Glad people are putting 2 and 2 together and figuring out the cause.

[@tohopes]

so do submariners in the Navy get the same issue?

[@jamesphilip6737]

That's a great point.

[@antoniobabb1938]

If there’s leakage yes

[@markbilsborough4150]

Spent 22.5 years operating on 6 submarines. 3 fast attacks and 3 missile boats. Typical 75 day patrols. 67 years old. No cancers. So far. Our radiation exposure was very small. One patrol onboard for 124 days we would receive less dosage than a person going to the beach and getting a sunburn.

[@craigmackay4909]

The Sub stuff is classified AF .

[@aliveandwellinisrael2507]

@@markbilsborough4150 Assuming the nuclear stuff is the cause.. It's probably exposure to other chemicals

[@donaldlong9259]

I spent 10 years at Minot in the Weapon Storage area within a few feet of Nukes. At 62 I have numerous health problems??

[@Warchief187]

Don't go unheard , reach out to these people. Take advantage of everything mentioned in this video.

[@aeromtb2468]

elevated radiation exposure? or chemical released in area?

[@alien4422]

I read a story a number of years back about high cancer rates amongst US fighter aircraft crews due to radar emissions.

[@rogercoppock407]

Did they look at the Perchlorate oxidizers in the rocket propellant? Did they look at the radioactive components of the nuclear warheads? Both are known to cause cancer. Both easily spread into the environment.

[@garywatson]

The missile control capsules are a very long way away from the actual missile silos. The real cause will be something unexpected, like maybe stress combined with a darkness and a lack of exercise; or some kind of weird chemical in the air filters; or something strange about the food; or maybe it’s a very high EMI environment. I have to hope they have already ruled out radon.

[@N4CR5]

@@garywatsonor the high levels of PCBs found on surfaces in the control room. Might be old plastics used or contamination from elsewhere/earlier.

[@GamerbyDesign]

Those old missles are proably leaking radiation.

[@FloppaEnjoy]

incorrect

[@makerspace533]

The LCCs are many miles away from the LFs (launch facility).

[@acesmith7995]

Wow! 😮😮😮

[@ajs5392]

What about low-level, yet extended exposure to small amounts of hydrazine used in rocket fuel? Perhaps during maintenance?

[@zunar_j5_933]

Is this a real news report from ABC? I can hardly believe it.

[@syntaxerorr]

2024 and a major news company uploads in 720p. What a joke.

[@zacharywelch4068]

Lmfao very underrated comment here

[@luis303]

Stress?

[@marisol9660]

Investigate!!

[@drYouTuber315]

I thank the missileers and all other US military personnel for keeping so many parts of the world safe. I also thank everyone who works on keeping them safe in turn, which includes the people who made this report.

[@rabarlow47]

I can GUARANTEE all of you that the USAF doesn't care about the families of the men/women who served our country in the USAF! Everyone should take this into account when making a career decision. However, as a child, you don't have that choice! I pray for all of you, and myself! I pray that we will ALL be compensated, in some way, for serving our country and protecting it! God Bless!

[@127cmore]

Medical procedures ?😢

[@tacolover5000]

I like this anchor

[@tarassu]

Nothing special. no sunshine. no d3 vit. Bad diet (same diet). No interaction with other people, weaker immunity etc.

[@WindTurbineSyndrome]

There are light boxes that simulate sunshine people living underground could be using to keep them healthy.

[@misterbig9025]

Loneliness and isolation, do they trigger cell mutation leading to cancer?

[@YampaYak-vd1xo]

And the stress of 24 and 36 hour shifts

[@caulkins69]

6:18 Are they conflating PCBs (meaning polychlorinated biphenyls) with PCBs (meaning printed circuit boards)?

[@em34ev3r]

And I bet you the VA will deny any of these claims.

[@rizendell]

I can just tell you right now it's the shitty water on the bases.