[CPEO-MEF] PFAS, VETERANS: "Retired Army pilot testifies that daughter’s death likely linked to firefighting foam used by military"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Retired Army pilot testifies that daughter’s death likely linked to firefighting foam used by military

By COREY DICKSTEIN 
STARS AND STRIPES 
March 12, 2020

WASHINGTON – After Jim Holmes’ daughter was born in 2002, just months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks spawned a new American war in Afghanistan, the Army pilot worried about the impact a fatherless life would leave on her if he were killed on a faraway battlefield.

Holmes said he never imagined that 17 years later it would be he who would mourn her loss. Kaela Holmes died in March 2019, just days after her 17th birthday, after fighting a 15-month battle with a rare brain cancer that her father now believes is related to drinking water contaminated by firefighting foam used for decades at Patrick Air Force Base in Florida, where his family lived on or near for 16 years.

“Kaela was a beautiful, intelligent, loving daughter who loved her Army family with all her heart. She made a positive impact on everyone she ever encountered, excelled in school and never disappointed me once in her 17 years of life,” Holmes said Wednesday during testimony before the House Appropriations Committee subpanel on military construction, veterans affairs and related agencies. “I lost my only child due to being poisoned by the same military that I faithfully served and fought for.”

…

For the entire article, see
https://www.stripes.com/news/us/retired-army-pilot-testifies-that-daughter-s-death-likely-linked-to-firefighting-foam-used-by-military-1.622219

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Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
A project of the Pacific Studies Center
LSiegel@cpeo.org
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650-961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org





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