OGDENSBURG — The Ogdensburg and Lisbon Lions Clubs will be hosting their annual Light Up the Night Holiday Parade, an event that began in 2011, to kick off the holiday
Camp Lejeune Toxic Cocktail T-Shirt Makes a Comeback
Former Marine Russell Mantz created this tongue-in-cheek design a decade ago that is popular with veterans sickened by Camp Lejeune s water system, which was heavily contaminated from the 1950s through the 1980s. (Courtesy Samantha Via)
10 May 2021
It was one of Maynard Sinclair s favorite shirts, a yellow tee with a tongue-in-cheek recipe for a specialty cocktail hand-crafted, not-so-lovingly, at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, for more than 30 years.
A little bit of dry cleaning solvent, some engine degreaser, a hefty dash of benzene and a bit of vinyl chloride, and you ve got Cocktail #26, The Camp Lejeune, served to Marines and family members in their drinking water from 1953 to 1987.
U.S. Marine Corps veteran Russell Mantz says he is just a guy with an idea.
He’s also the man who, more than 10 years ago, designed The Camp Lejeune cocktail shirt, a uniquely comical and lighthearted take on a tragedy.
“I was just driving down the road and I threw it together in my mind,” Mantz said. “I said, ‘What a drink that it is,’ and my mind runs like that.”
What Mantz envisioned while traveling home from a meeting about the base’s toxic water crisis was an ad for a cocktail served at special locations during the contamination era from 1953 to 1987.