U.S. Marine Corps veteran John Swartz is tired of being ignored.
“I’m tired of being forgotten,” Swartz said. “I’m disabled, I’m sick and I’m dying, and nobody does nothing about it.”
As an engine mechanic stationed at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune from 1977 to 1982, Swartz worked at an engine shop on Marine Corps Air Station New River. The former sergeant cleaned helicopter engines with Trichloroethylene (TCE), a toxin that seeped into the base water supply and contributed to the contamination that spanned from 1953 to 1987.
“We never wore gloves,” Swartz said, who turns 65 in July. “We wore goggles to keep it from getting in our eyes, but we never knew nothing about this . We didn’t know any better. We just washed it down the drains.”