EXPOSURE: Surviving Historical Ft. Mcclellan

Book Synopsis: This is the Second Edition of “EXPOSURE: Surviving Historical Ft. McClellan.” There have been some adjustments to the content, mostly corrections. There are some minor updates since the original publication in 2020. The Works Cited URLs have been re-validated to the extent possible. The intent was to format in a manner that is less stressful on “mature” eyes.

William “Bill” Bonk, currently a licensed private investigator, draws attention to the real possibility that veterans, their families, and civilians once assigned to the now decommissioned, formerly active-duty U.S. Army base, Fort McClellan (FMC), Alabama were subjected to toxic exposure. Former trainees, trainers, cadre, staff, and civilians were potentially unknowingly exposed to chemical weapon material, biological agents, ionizing radiation, heavy metals, PCBs, and a wide range of pesticides and herbicides and other toxic chemicals and substances starting in the early 1950s and continuing through 1999 and beyond. “I wanted to attract the attention of the 535 members of the U.S. Congress,” said Bonk, also a retired supervisory criminal investigator and former U.S. Army military police staff sergeant who trained at FMC in the early 80s. “I wanted Congress to be able to have a reason to move forward with an FMC health registry and work toward presumptive illnesses within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.”

The overwhelming majority of sources and content within “EXPOSURE” have been derived from U.S. government reports.

FMC veterans, their families, and civilians were likely adversely affected by exposure to dangerous contaminants. The sad reality according to Bonk is, “Because of latency, dosage, time, risk factors, and lack of documentation, FMC veterans have to fight individually to attempt to prove an in-service event and the service connection with a nexus between the two. However, the VA, enabled by lack of legislation by Congress has been able to engage in conscious bias directed towards FMC veterans – hiding behind this statement on the VA’s dedicated FMC webpage; “There are currently no adverse health conditions associated with service at Fort McClellan.”

Bonk establishes a detailed chronology of contamination and meticulously traces the post’s historical use of hazardous materials, such as the chemical weapons material, ionizing radiation, pesticides, solvents, and heavy metals. U.S. government reports, open source news articles, and multiple interviews with trainees and trainers stationed at FMC are the basis for this book. Ft. McClellan, almost 50,000 acres, was originally home to the Women’s Army Corps as well as the U.S. Army’s Chemical and s Military Police schools. The reports often reveal ambiguity, uncertainty, speculation, and a total lack of due diligence when rendering conclusions and recommendations regarding contaminated parcels.

At this point, Bonk says the government “seemingly has very little interest in even determining if FMC veterans are suffering from occupational illnesses due to the chemical exposure” and doesn’t presume that any adverse health conditions are associated with service at the post despite the expenditure of billions of dollars to “investigate” contaminants on, around, and under the historical FMC and cleanup of the adjacent city of Anniston and nearby Anniston Army Depot. Further exacerbating the contamination was the nearby Monsanto plant that manufactured PCBs for decades. U.S. government reports as well as the companies own available records suggest PCB waste entered the water, soil, and air for decades.

“We truly don’t know what we don’t know about the hazards on the historical FMC until we peel back the layers and connect the dots,” according to Bonk.