WASHINGTON — Comedian Jon Stewart and soldiers sickened by uranium were angry Friday after a meeting at the Department of Veterans Affairs, as they are again convinced they must wait and see whether the VA links their illnesses to the toxic base where they were stationed shortly after 9/11.
The denied claims would have been resolved by the PACT Act, a landmark veterans aid bill that President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022 and called one of his proudest achievements in office. For many veterans, it has made access to care much easier.
But the bill left out uranium exposure, a problem that still affects some of the very first troops deployed in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Just weeks after the attacks, special forces were sent to Karshi-Khanabad in Uzbekistan, also known as K2, a heavily contaminated former Soviet base that was a strategic location for operations against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
But K2 was a former chemical weapons site, and was littered with yellow, powdered uranium, blown around by the dust and moved through the base as the military built a protective earthen wall. Radiation levels were as much as 40,000 times higher than what would have been found naturally, according to a nuclear fusion expert who reviewed the data.
Two decades later, troops who served there are still fighting to get VA-recognized illnesses from radiation exposure, and many have died young.
The fact that the VA continues to tell K2 veterans that they have not yet decided whether their illnesses should be covered has infuriated Stewart, a staunch advocate for all 9/11 responders.
Stewart and the veterans went to the VA this spring to plead their case, and were told that the VA was working with the Pentagon to identify what radiation was on the base. Friday’s meeting was with VA Secretary Denis McDonough, which had raised hopes for a solution. But they heard otherwise.
“The secretary said today that he has the legal authority to make the change, to make sure that the K2 veterans are presumptively covered,” Stewart said. But McDonough instead told them they were still waiting for additional information. “I believe punting is the correct term for what happened.”
In a statement, VA spokesman Terrence Hayes said there are already more than 300 conditions covered by the PACT Act and that the agency is working on the specific K2 illnesses and radiation exposure.
“We continue to urgently consider every option to further assist these veterans and survivors, and we will keep them informed every step of the way,” Hayes said.
“It felt like Groundhog Day,” said Kim Brooks, whose late husband was one of the first soldiers to serve and die at K2.
Lieutenant Colonel Tim Brooks was one of the first soldiers deployed to K2 in 2001, serving with the 10th Mountain Division during Operation Anaconda against the Taliban in early 2002.
When his unit returned to Fort Drum, N.Y., in the spring of 2002, Brooks was not himself. He suffered from debilitating headaches and became unexpectedly irritable, his wife said. Then his unit was called in for a briefing, to sign paperwork about the toxins they had been exposed to, she said.
“He came home from that briefing and told me in our kitchen,” said Kim Brooks, who accompanied Stewart to the VA meeting. “He was incredibly upset and worried and was becoming increasingly exhausted and not feeling well and not looking well, which led to his collapse.”
Kim Brooks has tried to obtain the form Her husband signed from his military records, but was unable to do so and believes it was deleted. Other K2 veterans who served in special operations units also had difficulty getting documents from their medical records because their missions and roles were classified.
In 2003, Tim Brooks collapsed during a Fort Drum ceremony as his unit prepared to deploy to Iraq. Doctors diagnosed him with a brain tumor, and he died a year later at age 36.
The fact that she still has to fight to get the Pentagon and VA to acknowledge the uranium exposure at the base has left Kim Brooks “angry, appalled and sad,” she said. “Denial in 2003, denial in 2024. When are they going to admit it and take care of these men and women?”
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was commanding general of the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum in 2004 when Brooks died there.
Sabrina Singh, a deputy Pentagon spokeswoman, said in a statement Friday that the Defense Department “is aware of the health concerns and related claims of veterans” who served at K2 and is “working with the Department of Veterans Affairs on a path forward.”
The presence of uranium on the base has been known since November 2001 — just a month after troops arrived — and has been documented on multiple Army maps, in memos and VA briefings. But it has been labeled variously — as enriched, low-level processed or depleted uranium. The base and the radiation and other contaminants there were the subject of congressional hearings in 2020.
Confusion over what kind of uranium was available was one of the problems that hampered care for veterans.
But the radiation levels documented at K2 in November 2001 were so high — up to 40,000 times higher than what would have been recorded if the uranium were simply naturally occurring — that the specific type doesn’t matter because exposure would have been harmful, said Arjun Makhijani, a nuclear fusion specialist and president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, who reviewed the K2 radiation data.
Exposure to radiation from uranium can damage the kidneys, pose a risk of bone cancer and also affect pregnancies because it crosses the placenta, among other harmful effects, said Makhijani, who previously worked with “nuclear veterans” who became ill from radiation after working on Bikini Atoll during nuclear weapons testing in the 1940s.
More than 15,000 troops were stationed at K2 between 2001 and 2005. Although the VA does not have statistics on how many have fallen ill, the veterans organization has contacted about 5,000 of them, and more than 1,500 are reporting serious medical conditions, including cancer, kidney and bone problems, reproductive problems and birth defects.
Getting the VA to recognize their radiation-related illnesses involves more than just medical coverage, said retired Army Staff Sgt. Mark Jackson, a K2 veteran who sought treatment for severe osteoporosis, had to have a testicle removed and his entire thyroid removed — none of which is covered by the VA.
“It’s the recognition of the exposure,” Jackson said.
Austin was the Combined Joint Task Force commander for Afghanistan when Jackson was deployed to K2. His unit would use K2 to get in and out of Afghanistan for missions. It has not escaped Jackson and Kim Brooks’ notice that Austin now leads the agency they need to finally acknowledge the radiation exposure at K2.
“He was there when I was there,” Jackson said. “Heck, Austin signed my Bronze Star. I look at his signature almost every day.”