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.