Veterans who were assigned to a remote installation in Uzbekistan early in the Global War on Terrorism and now have cancer in their urinary or reproductive systems may soon be eligible for fast-tracked benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
VA Secretary Denis McDonough announced Tuesday that the department will start the federal process for adding bladder, urethra and other genitourinary cancers to a list of diseases presumed to be caused by serving at Karshi Khanabad Air Base, also known as K2 or Camp Stronghold Freedom, in the Central Asia nation.
The installation, located on a former Soviet military station, was used by U.S. forces as a command-and-control and logistics support facility from 2001 to 2005.
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According to media reports by McClatchy, The Associated Press and CBS, the installation was contaminated with numerous toxic substances, including solvents, fuel, lubricants, trace amounts of chemical weapons and depleted uranium, and many veterans have reported cases of brain, colon, thyroid, pancreatic and other cancers after serving there.
“Veterans often describe [it] as a toxic soup of exposures … a place that jeopardized their immediate [and] long-term health,” said McDonough, speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. “[Army] Col. Gordon Peters, a doc who was deployed with those early units, vividly described what he saw, what he says was, quote, ‘chemical odor so intense that it seemed as if someone could light a match [and] the entire area would ignite.'”
Any veteran who thinks they have an illness caused by their military service can file a compensation claim with the VA; filings are decided on a case-by-case basis.
However, those with a condition designated as “presumptive” don’t have a requirement to prove that their illness is service-connected, a change that can expedite their claim.
According to the VA, 13,002 of the 16,000 veterans who served at K2 have enrolled in VA health care, and nearly 12,000 already have received a disability rating for a linked condition.
The move follows an announcement earlier this year that K2 veterans with chronic illnesses that aren’t easily defined — those with symptoms similar to Persian Gulf War veterans with medically unexplained conditions — are eligible for the expedited benefits process.
In the past several years, the VA has launched its own internal process to determine whether health conditions may be presumed to be related to military service. Previously, the department relied on input from the National Academies of Sciences, Medicine and Engineering and had no way of determining on its own whether a condition was service connected.
That changed in the lead-up to passage of the PACT Act, which broadened the VA’s ability to consider its own claims data, along with scientific research, to grant presumptive status. Since then, it has added a number of conditions, including several rare cancers and respiratory illnesses, to its list of diseases considered related to combat and support duties in the Persian Gulf region, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
The K2 decision is a result of that process.
Last year, the VA announced it would review whether to add certain types of blood cancer, including acute and chronic leukemias and multiple myeloma to the list covered by the PACT Act, the landmark legislation that broadened benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits and other battlefield pollution overseas.
McDonough said Tuesday that the review will be completed next week for those conditions, adding that the “preliminary findings are promising.”
“In 2022, we established service connection for asthma, sinusitis, rhinitis and rare respiratory cancers; again today, with [genitourinary] cancers; and soon for multiple myeloma and blood cancers,” McDonough said.
Advocates called the announcement about genitourinary cancers among K2 veterans a “clear win,” noting McDonough’s announcement that he also is committed to continuing research on illnesses among those who served at the base.
The Stronghold Freedom Foundation, which represents veterans who served at K2 as well as surviving families, said the group is grateful that the VA continues to acknowledge the long-term health effects caused by the installation’s toxic environment.
“We look forward to continuing working with the VA to ensure all gaps are closed so all veterans and their families are ensured the care and recognition they deserve,” Matt Erpelding, the group’s executive director, said in a statement.
“We were very encouraged that he said VA is not only working on establishing presumptives for K2 veterans who develop bladder cancer, multiple myeloma, leukemia, and Gulf War Illness, but also laid out his intention to establish a presumption of service connection for every condition associated with deployment to K2,” said Randy Reese, executive director of the Disabled American Veterans’ Washington headquarters, in a statement.
The VA also announced Tuesday that it set records for providing medical care and benefits to veterans in fiscal 2024, including 127.5 million medical appointments, up 6% from fiscal 2023, and processed 2.5 million disability claims, up 27% from last year.
According to the VA, 6.7 million U.S. veterans or their families now receive benefits from the department.
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