WASHINGTON (AP) — Nine military officers who had worked a long time ago at a nuclear missile base in Montana have been diagnosed with blood cancer and there are “indications” the disease could also be linked to their service, in response to military briefing slides obtained by The Associated Press. Considered one of the officers has died.
The entire officers, often called missileers, were assigned as many as 25 years ago to Malmstrom Air Force Base, home to an unlimited field of 150 Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile silos. The nine officers were diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, in response to a January briefing by U.S. Space Force Lt. Col. Daniel Sebeck.
Missileers ride caged elevators deep underground right into a small operations bunker encased in a thick wall of concrete and steel. They continue to be there sometimes for days, able to turn the launch keys if ordered to by the president.
“There are indications of a possible association between cancer and missile combat crew service at Malmstrom AFB,” Sebeck said in slides presented to his Space Force unit this month. The “disproportionate variety of missileers presenting with cancer, specifically lymphoma” was concerning, he said.
Sebeck declined to comment when contacted by email by the AP on Saturday, saying the slides were “predecisional.” Within the slides, he said the problem was essential to the Space Force because as many as 455 former missileers are actually serving as Space Force officers, including no less than 4 of the nine identified within the slides.
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In a press release to the AP, Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said that “senior leaders are aware of the concerns raised concerning the possible association of cancer related to missile combat crew members at Malmstrom AFB.”
Stefanek added: “The data on this briefing has been shared with the Department of the Air Force surgeon general and our medical professionals are working to assemble data and understand more.”
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which in response to the American Cancer Society affects an estimated 19 out of each 100,000 people within the U.S. annually, is a blood cancer that uses the body’s infection-fighting lymph system to spread.
For comparison, only about 3,300 troops are based at Malmstrom at a time, and only about 400 of those are assigned either as missileers or as support for those operators. It’s one in every of three bases within the U.S. that operate a complete of 400 siloed Minutemen III ICBMs, including fields at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota and F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming.
The median age for adult non-Hodgkin lymphoma is 67, in response to the National Institutes of Health. The previous missileers affected are far younger. Officers are sometimes of their 20s after they are assigned duty watch; the officer who died, who was not identified, was a Space Force officer assigned to Schreiver Space Force Base in Colorado with the rank of major, a rank typically achieved in a service member’s 30s. Two of the others are in the identical Space Force unit with the rank of lieutenant colonel, which is often reached in a service member’s early 40s.
It’s not the primary time the military has been alerted to multiple cancer cases at Malmstrom. In 2001 the Air Force Institute for Operational Health investigated the bottom after 14 cancers of varied types were reported amongst missileers who had served there, including two cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
However the review found the bottom was environmentally protected and that “sometimes illnesses are inclined to occur by probability alone.” The report lamented that the list of those diagnosed had been collected since it “perpetuates the extent of concern.”
The invention of recent cases comes because the U.S. government has shown more openness to acknowledging the environmental hazards, or toxic exposures, troops may face while serving.
In her statement to the AP, Air Force spokeswoman Stefanek said, “We’re heartbroken for all who’ve lost family members or are currently facing cancer of any kind.”
It was not clear whether among the nine officers identified within the January briefing slides, whose diagnoses occurred between 1997 and 2007, overlap among the cases identified within the Air Force’s 2001 investigation. It is also not known if there have been similar reports of cancers at other nuclear silo bases or whether that’s being investigated by the Air Force.
“Missileers have at all times been concerned about known hazards, resembling exposure to chemicals, asbestos, polychlorinated biphenyls, lead and other hazardous material within the work environment,” Sebeck said within the January slides. “All missileers must be screened and tracked for the remainder of their lives.”
Last 12 months President Joe Biden signed the PACT Act, which greatly expanded the the kinds of illnesses and toxic exposures that may be considered presumptive — meaning a service member or veterans wouldn’t face an uphill battle to persuade the federal government that the injury was tied to their military service with a view to received covered care.
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