Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune ( or ) is a United States military training facility in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Its of beaches make the base a major area for amphibious assault training, and its location between two deep-water ports (Wilmington and Morehead City) allows for fast deployments. The main base is supplemented by six satellite facilities: Marine Corps Air Station New River, Camp Geiger, Stone Bay, Courthouse Bay, Camp Johnson, and the Greater Sandy Run Training Area. The Marine Corps port facility is in Beaufort, at the southern tip of Radio Island (between the NC State Port in Morehead City, and the marine science laboratories on Pivers Island in Beaufort). It is occupied only during military port operations.
Facilities Camp Lejeune encompasses 156,000 acres, with 18 kilometers of beach capable of supporting amphibious operations, 32 gun positions, 48 tactical landing zones, three state-of-the-art training facilities for Military Operations in Urban Terrain and 80 live fire ranges to include the Greater Sandy Run Training Area. Military forces from around the world come to Camp Lejeune regularly for bilateral and NATO-sponsored exercises.
Resident commands at Camp Lejeune include:
II Marine Expeditionary Force Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command 2nd Marine Division 2nd Marine Logistics Group 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion 2nd Intelligence Battalion Marine Corps Installations East 10th Marine Regiment United States Marine Corps School of Infantry Marine Corps Engineer School Marine Corps Combat Service Support Schools Marine Raider Regiment Marine Special Operations Support Group Special Missions Training Center (USCG) Reserve Support Unit Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune Field Medical Training Battalion (FMTB)
Recreation & Fitness:
Auto Skills Center, Bowling, Community Centers, Golf Course, Inline Hockey, Marinas, Paintball, Movie Theater, Onslow Beach Facilities, Outdoor Adventures Center, Pools, Fishing, Hunting, Beach Camping, Recreational Shooting, E-sports Center, Recreational Equipment Checkout & Rentals, Skate Park, and a large number of Sports and Gym facilities.
Portions of Camp Lejeune are in the Jacksonville city limits while other parts are in unincorporated areas.
History
In April 1941, construction was approved on an tract in Onslow County, North Carolina. On May 1 of that year, Lieutenant Colonel William P. T. Hill began construction on Marine Barracks New River. The first base headquarters was in a summer cottage on Montford Point and then moved to Hadnot Point in 1942. The base was known as Marine Barracks New River, N.C. Later that year it was renamed in honor of the 13th Commandant of the Marine Corps, John A. Lejeune, upon his death.
One of the satellite facilities of Camp Lejeune served for a while as a third boot camp for the Marines, in addition to Parris Island and San Diego. That facility, Montford Point, was established after Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802. Between 1942 and 1949, a brief era of segregated training for black Marines, the camp at Montford Point trained 20,000 African Americans. After the military was ordered to fully integrate, Montford Point was renamed Camp Gilbert H. Johnson and became the home of the Marine Corps Combat Service Support Schools.
On May 10, 1996, two helicopters performing a joint United States/British training exercise collided and crashed into a swampy wooded area, killing fourteen and injuring two.
In mid-September 2018, Hurricane Florence damaged IT systems and over 900 buildings in the camp, leading to a $3.6 billion repair cost. Seventy percent of base housing was damaged, and 84,000 gallons of sewage were released.
Camp Lejeune is a seven-time recipient of the Commander-in-Chiefs Award for Installation Excellence.
Drinking water contamination
From at least 1953 through 1987, Marines and their families at Lejeune drank and bathed in water contaminated with toxicants at concentrations 240 to 3,400 times greater than permitted by safety standards. A 1974 base order required safe disposal of solvents and warned that improper handling could cause drinking water contamination, yet solvents were dumped or buried near base wells for years.Camp Lejeune residents blame rare cancer cluster on the water For three decades, dry-cleaning chemicals and industrial solvents laced the water used by local Marines and their families. Mike Partain and at least 19 others developed male breast cancer. The base's wells were shut off in the mid-1980s but were placed back online in violation of the law. In 1982, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were found in Camp Lejeune's drinking water supply. VOC contamination of groundwater can cause birth defects and other ill health effects in pregnant and nursing mothers. This information was not made public for nearly two decades, when the government attempted to identify those who may have been exposed. In 1989, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) placed Camp Lejeune on the Superfund program's National Priorities List (NPL) because of the contamination of soil, surface water, and groundwater.
An advocacy group called The Few, The Proud, The Forgotten was created to inform possible victims of the contamination at Lejeune. The group's website includes an introduction with some basic information about the contamination at Lejeune, including that many health problems such as various types of cancer, leukemia, miscarriages, and birth defects, have been noted in people who drank the contaminated water. According to the site, numerous base housing areas were affected by the contamination, including Tarawa Terrace, Midway Park, Berkeley Manor, Paradise Point, Hadnot Point, Hospital Point, and Watkins Village. As many as 500,000 people may have been exposed to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune over a period of 30 years.
Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022 Efforts to create a Camp Lejeune Justice Act in 2021 failed, but the effort was renewed in 2022 when Camp Lejeune Justice Act became Section 706 of the SFC Heath Robinson Honoring Our PACT Act, H.R. 3967. The U.S. House passed H.R. 3967 on March 3, 2022, by a vote of 256–174. The U.S. Senate passed H.R. 3967 with some minor amendments on June 16, 2022, by a vote of 84–14. Following the bill's passage in the U.S. Senate, President Biden's White House made a celebratory statement that included mention of Camp Lejeune victims. There were constitutional taxation problems with the amended version and a "blue slip" was issued causing the matter to return to the U.S. House. The U.S. House made the changes necessary to avoid the constitutional issue and passed the PACT Act on July 13, 2022, by a vote of 342–88. This new PACT Act was repackaged as S. 3373 with the Camp LeJeune Justice Act set as Section 804. Some Republican senators changed their votes and refused cloture on July 27, 2022, by a vote of 55–42. After several days of veterans protesting at the Capitol, there was another vote on S. 3373 and this time it passed by a vote of 86–11 on August 2, 2022. The bill was signed into law by President Biden on August 10, 2022.
The language of Section 804 provides for monetary relief for those injured by exposure to the Camp Lejeune base and its toxic water. Thirty days of "living" or "working" or "otherwise" being exposed between 1953 and 1987 is the prerequisite for compensation. This includes in-utero exposure. Harms must be demonstrated and must be associated with some condition caused by the base toxicants. Some possible conditions may include those listed for the Janey Ensminger Act of 2012. 38 C.F.R. 17.400(b).
Litigation At least 850 former residents filed claims for nearly $4 billion from the military. The multi-district litigation, MDL-2218, was dismissed on North Carolina statute of repose grounds on December 5, 2016, and the appeal to the 11th Circuit failed (Straw, et al. v. United States, 16–17573). The U.S. Supreme Court refused certiorari. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June 2014 potentially curbed groundwater contamination lawsuits by families at Camp Lejeune. Federal law, which imposes a two-year statute of limitations after the harm is discovered, preempts North Carolina's 10-year statute of repose law, but this was not followed by the 11th Circuit. State lawmakers tried to eliminate the state prohibition on lawsuits being filed 10 years after the last pollution occurred or from the time a polluted property was sold. The Camp LeJeune Justice Act of 2022, Section 804(b) of the PACT Act, S. 3373, provides an entirely new means for justice to the victims and removes normal tort defenses. Public Law 117-168, SEC. 804(b), 136 Stat. 1802–1804.
Disability activist, lawyer, columnist, and politician, Andrew U. D. Straw, has appealed his cases unsuccessfully. He has also pursued claims at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, stating that the U.S. Marine Corps' UCMJ responsibilities imply a contract to protect U.S. Marine Corps family members (Straw v. United States, 1:17-cv-00560, U.S. COFC). This case was dismissed and denied on appeal. Straw has advocated for legislative reform to avoid the legal arguments of the Department of Justice. The main chemicals involved were trichloroethylene (TCE, a degreaser), perchloroethylene (PCE, a dry cleaning solvent), vinyl chloride, and benzene; however, more than 70 chemicals have been identified as contaminants at Lejeune. Andrew Straw is pursuing his own infant brain injury pro se and as estate executor for the wrongful death of his mother from a Camp LeJeune cancer. Straw v. United States, 7:23-cv-1475-FL (E.D.N.C.)
Straw has sought not only compensation, but he also has sought health care under the Janey Ensminger Act of 2012. He litigated for that benefit for seven years. He was rejected at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the BVA, the U.S. Court of Veterans Claims, and finally in 2021 at the Federal Circuit. Despite Straw being born at Camp Lejeune in 1969, his having 19 months of base access while his father worked there as a U.S. Marine, the language of the Janey Ensminger Act was interpreted narrowly so as to deny Straw this benefit. Straw's parents had a home off base at the time of his birth and this is where they slept, even while using and working at the base during the day from 1968–1970. The fact that Straw's mother died from one of the cancers listed in the Act and Straw having neurobehavioral effects listed in the Act was irrelevant to the Federal Circuit. The Federal Circuit also refused to consider the misapplication of the North Carolina Statute of Repose as being a taking of private property. Straw v. Wilkie, 843 F. App’x 263 (Fed. Cir. 1/15/2021); Straw v. United States, 4 F.4th 1358 (Fed. Cir. 2021). The narrow construction of the Janey Ensminger Act of 2012 in Straw's case led to the Camp LeJeune Justice Act of 2022 having no such on-base limitation. Straw suggested that change to Attorney Ed Bell, the author of the CLJA, and Bell agreed. The new 2022 law provides a catch-all "otherwise exposed" inclusive provision so such exclusion for sleeping off base cannot be used to deny the relief.
On March 8, 2010, Paul Buckley of Hanover, Massachusetts, received a 100 percent, service-connected disability from the Department of Veterans Affairs for cancer (multiple myeloma), which was linked to toxic water exposure on Camp Lejeune. This is believed to be the first time the government has admitted the link between the contamination and illnesses.Sawyer, Diane, and Steve Osunsami, "Toxic Water", ABC World News, March 19, 2010.