A Trust Betrayed: The Untold Story of Camp Lejeune and the Poisoning of Generations of Marines and Their Families

by Mike Magner

While the big bad corporation has often been the offender in many of the world's greatest environmental disasters, in the case of the mass poisoning at Camp Lejeune the culprit is a revered institution: the US Marine Corps. For two decades now, revelations have steadily emerged about pervasive contamination, associated clusters of illness and death among the Marine families stationed there, and military stonewalling and failure to act. Mike Magner's chilling investigation creates a suspenseful narrative from the individual stories, scientific evidence, and smoldering sense of betrayal among those whose motto is undying fidelity. He also raises far-reaching and ominous questions about widespread contamination on US military bases worldwide.

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime

301 pages, Hardcover

First published March 11, 2014

About the author

Mike Magner has been a journalist for more than 35 years, including 10 years as a reporter at the Kalamazoo (Michigan) Gazette, 15 years in the Washington Bureau for Newhouse Newspapers, and four years as an editor and writer at the National Journal. He was born and raised in South Bend, Indiana, graduated from Georgetown University, and lives outside Washington, D.C., with his wife, son and daughter. He began reporting on BP’s refinery pollution in Neodesha, Kansas, in 2002 and continues to follow the community’s efforts to require a cleanup of the contaminated site.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/mikema...

Reviews

[Lou Freshwater · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having spent a great deal of time living and researching this subject, I still found this book to be an enlightening experience. Having the story of what happened (is still happening) at Camp Lejeune put into a narrative with context was beyond helpful in the task of understanding the country's largest water contamination case in our history. Mike Magner is right to start this book with a personal story of a Marine's family. It is through these stories the readers will begin to understand the human cost of what happened at Camp Lejeune. However, this book is far from an outpouring of emotion about the many victims who were poisoned on base. Instead it is a book of evidence. It is a book that puts the Marine Corps and the Navy on trial. It calls witnesses, both victims and those who were charged with preventing what happened to them, or with making sure at the very least they had someone taking responsibility for what happened to them. For all of us who have lost our health or our loved ones, or both, due to the government's refusal to do what was right for its veterans and their families, this book is a cathartic indictment of those who allowed the water to keep flowing after it was known to be toxic and subsequently covered it up in order to protect the powerful and damn the innocent. In order to speak truth to power, first you need to know the truth. Thanks to Mike Magner, we all have an outstanding record of that truth now.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Defense Department is supposed to defend the nation, not defile it."

Beyond the obviously horrifying, harrowing events that this book chronicles, what almost frightened me more about the subject of Camp Lejeune was simply that I had never heard of these events prior to picking up this book. Perhaps it is due to my age that I was ignorant, but a betrayal of this scale that impacted so many military and civilian families and destroyed so many lives should be known and remembered by all. "A Trust Betrayed" does an excellent job of outlining the history of the camp, the political machinations that lead to a disgraceful obstruction of justice, and the heart-wrenching personal stories of individuals and families impacted by the toxic contamination at Camp Lejeune.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like most American military, Camp Lejeune has contaminated ground water. This issue is personal to me as I was stationed up the road at MCAS Cherry Point for most of my career in thee Marines and have health issues today. The authors examine many personal stories of illness related to the contamination and the history of government inaction. A excellent read for anyone interested in government abuse of power and relatives of active duty, veterans, and their families.

[Nancy French · Rating 4 out of 5]

As President Biden is about to sign a bill that empowers victims to seek justice, I read Mike Magner's excellent, detailed book about what exactly happened at Camp Lejeune.

So very very tragic, sad, and infuriating.

[Koren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This books should scare the heck out of everyone. From the 60's to the 80's chemicals were being poured, stored in the ground, flushed down the drain at Camp Lejeune. The aftermath wasn't seen until the mid-80's. For me it raises the question: How can people keep on disposing chemicals and think they are just going to disappear and never be seen or heard from again. It makes me wonder how many other places have been contaminated that we don't know about.

[michele a phelps · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I didn’t know…

68-72 Marine stationed briefly at Camp LeJeune. If the Water doesn’t get you or the Enemy you were sent to fight, then maybe the the Agent Orange or the Burn Pits will. It’s like four against one and three are supposed to on your side. I wonder how many more unknowns are out there for those of us who server Our Country. Thank You for putting it in plan english.

[Ashley Lanigan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a struggle for me, I expected to learn more than I already know. I didn’t, I was born on camp lejuene in 1986, I found the facts and research of this book to be more of a synopsis of the 1 hour tv special that aired a few years ago. I expected to learn more about the families, their way of getting through the red tape and how their diseases were diagnosed.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some chapters were more interesting. Nothing like drinking cancer water for years and the government covering it up. North Carolina is good for that.

[Kathi Hibner · Rating 5 out of 5]

My husband died of cancer form the water at Camp Lejeune.

[Jlucas · Rating 3 out of 5]

So to read about the Michigan water crisis.

[patrick Lorelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book begins with a history of the name of Camp Lejeune, and the man it is named after. Then it goes into the beginning of when it was activated and how it is set up. There are maps showing the housing for families, barracks, motor pools, other repair areas, and where the water storage tanks are and where the run off from the different repair areas are. Then the story begins and the story from my point of view does not have a happy ending. It begins in the 1930s when two cleaning solvents known as TCE & PCE. PCE, was used mainly in laundry operations, like dry cleaning. TCE, was a commonly used as a degreaser, cleaning solvent & paint thinner. The military was the major purchaser of both but mainly TCE. TCE, was used from removing grit and grime from planes, tanks, jeeps, other vehicles and weapons. For the longest time the belief was that these chemicals caused no harm to the environment or to humans, of course this was the 30s & 40s, the government thought DDT was safe also. This is where the story becomes for me almost criminal but you can’t sue the government. By the early 1960s women who became pregnant at Camp Lejeune, and remained on base throughout their pregnancy the babies were still born, and if they transferred to another base pass their second trimester their child was usually either born with a birth defect or still born. One of the mothers said that she did not notice the grave makers until she went back to put flowers on her babies grave that all of the makers were 1962 and all were babies. She also knew some of the names but no one talked to anyone. That was in Hawaii, and when they started to investigate there were other cemeteries with the thing sadly rose of makers of children all passed away because of the water at Camp Lejeune. The Dep OR THE NAVY, who actually is in charge of the operation of the regulations and how they are carried out said there are no problems with the water. This was in the 60s, they said they had their own water regulations and there for everything is fine. All of these deaths are a shame but are not because of the water. By the 70s the Federal government came out with water act and this required that all bases have their water tested. What ended up happening was Lejeune hired a chemist but they were not testing all of the dumping areas, and when some of the test that were required they could not do them on base because they did not have the equipment. The request for testing and for equipment sat in another box in Washington in the Dep of the Navy. You see where this is going. Now there law suites starting to be filled be service personal due to birth defects caused by the water at the camp when they were stationed there. Their evidence was that their other children were born without any problems and they were stationed at other Marine Camps. Some these atrocities were happening while the husbands were in Vietnam fighting. By 1982 when the government came in to start checking on the water they found 72 sites on the camp that was being used as form of waste deposal. A civilian equipment operator took camp officials to an area where he had buried at least 55 drums of mustard gas or nerve gas in 1953. He said, “That the Marine Corps officials’ who hired him for the job told him to wear extensive protective gear including a gas mask.” There was also another site where drums of chemicals were buried and a basketball court covered it. New test were ordered in 1984 when they realized they had a problem. Once they realized there was a problem a new commandant was put in place and basically told to write a cya memo. When asked in 1999 for documents from 1984 and for a water test called (cce) that was requested by the federal government, the response was that a ware house fire destroyed all of the records. As former marine personal and the spouses sued for the cost of care for their disabled child, the government attorneys used the Feres Doctrine, says that a military personnel could not sue the government fir injuries sustained while on active duty. “Gross “alleged injury occurred in his home on military property during – off duty hours. This is from a case from the 1940s when a soldier was killed during a fire in the barracks and the courts said the parents could not sue for damages. These attorneys were or are still using this same defense here in the 2000s. This book made me sick because it goes against everything that is the Corps, Semper Fidelis; Always, Faithful. In this case there not and this book goes into much more detail than I can give in a review. Very well written and a lot of reverences to go with the information he has put out. A very sad story of a proud Corps and they have done a disservice to Gen. Lejeune. I got this book from net galley.

[Kari]

I picked up this book because my mom did her student teaching at Camp Lejeune in the 70s and was diagnosed with cancer just two years later (in her early 20s). So I am fully biased in my beliefs that there was literally some toxic stuff going on there. I thought the first half of the book explained that pretty well, but the second half was less interesting to me as it discussed the various survivor groups and their infighting. This was not the best-written book I have ever encountered, but if you are interested in the topic, it’s a pretty easy read. Recommended for: my mom, anyone who worked at Camp Lejeune, people who like stories about government coverups.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was average. I read the book A Civic Action, which I thought was better written. It was an interesting read, but I was left feeling that no one took the proper responsibility. I was also left feeling that NO one reported the high number of still births, infant deaths, etc, and people knew it has happening.

[Teresa Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! If you want to know the "short and skinny" of what went on, you can also watch the movie "semper Fi" on Netflix.

[Sheri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent story that needed telling. Not the most well written book but if you can get past that, it's well worth your time to read it!

[Tangolynch · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must-read for any Marine, Marine family, or civilian that has spent time onboard Camp LeJeune. If the situation is half as bad as the book implies, it's twice as bad as I thought.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took some time to get through the well-researched facts covering decades.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Many of the victims of Lejeune's pollution have been as heroic in these instances as any warriors wounded in battle." This is a shocking account of negligence, dissembling, and arrogance.