David Gergel, a former US Marine stationed at Camp Lejeune, was poisoned to death by toxic water at the North Carolina military base, according to his son, who hopes the Trump administration will provide sick and dying veterans “ignored for years” a shot at “long overdue justice.”
The Camp Lejeune Justice Act, passed by Congress and signed into law in 2022, was expected to provide the justice long sought by veterans like Gergel, of Elmira, NY, who died in 2012 of bladder cancer. The legislation allows those affected decades ago by the base’s contaminated water to sue the federal government for damages.
The Biden administration, however, fiercely litigated claims and was slow to pay out, settling only a fraction of the 400,000 or so cases brought by victims, which have moved at a crawl.
“In 1978, my dad got orders to report to Camp Lejeune and served there proudly,” Gergel’s son, Eric, told The Post. “He never thought for a second that the water he was drinking, showering in, and cooking with was poisoning him.
“It wasn’t until more than 30 years later that we realized something was wrong.”
Eric explained the symptoms his father began suffering in 2011 and his eventual cancer diagnosis “just didn’t make sense.”
Bladder cancer was a disease “nobody in our family has ever had,” Eric said.
“My dad passed right before my 26th birthday,” he said. “I have not had him for the majority of my adult life, and he never got the chance to meet my children or to be a grandad, which I know he always wanted to be.”
Eric spoke out, ahead of a visit to the base Wednesday by first lady Melania Trump and second lady Usha Vance, because he knows “there are many other veterans who are still alive and who are suffering from debilitating illnesses and struggling to pay for their care, and thousands more who have succumbed to the injuries they got from the water, as my dad did.”
In the late 1980s, the military determined that two water wells at Camp Lejeune contained a high presence of volatile organic compounds.
Years later, testing by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) in the 1990s determined that between 1953 and 1987 an off-base dry cleaners, leaking underground storage tanks, industrial area spills and waste disposal sites had been contaminating the water on the base with several potentially dangerous chemicals.
“For years, I felt like we had been betrayed by my government,” Eric said. “My dad served his country, was poisoned on the job, and then was lied to and misled while the government tried to cover it up.
“When Congress passed the Camp Lejeune Justice Act in 2022, I finally thought justice would be served. But that didn’t happen.”
Justice for Lejeune, a new nonprofit organization, is launching this week with the goal of pressuring the Trump administration to “honor the promises outlined in the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022” by removing the “roadblocks” that were “continually erected” under Biden’s watch “to delay or deny these families their day in court,” according to the group.
“That misguided approach is not in line with President Trump’s commitment to veterans or with the intent of Congress,” reads Justice for Lejeune’s mission statement.
Eric was optimistic that “with new leadership at [the Justice Department], we finally have a real shot at seeing some accountability.”
“All we want is to see that justice is served,” he added. “Many veterans like my dad are sick or dying, and they and their families can’t afford to wait any longer for justice.”
“For the first time in a long time, I’m hopeful the federal government will finish what should’ve been done years ago.”
Melania Trump and Usha Vance are slated to spend time with military members and their families at Camp Lejeune on Wednesday and deliver remarks at a hangar on the base.
It’s unclear if they will address the concerns of veterans afflicted by the base’s toxic waters.
Veterans exposed to toxic chemicals at Camp Lejeune urge Trump to deliver ‘long overdue justice,’ as Melania and Usha visit military base
