Two Air Force veterans are suing the federal government after allegedly developing health issues as a result of working on the government’s Area 51 base in the 1980s.
Dave Crete and Pomp Braswell were employed by the Air Force’s security police squadron to guard the F-117A stealth bomber at the then-highly classified Tonopah test range in Nevada.
The pair now claim they are suffering severe health issues, including cancer and cardiovascular disease, from radiation contamination caused by the Department of Energy’s nuclear testing at the site decades earlier, Arizona Family News reported.
Braswell and Crete allege that their health problems came about after the soil they lived and worked on was contaminated with toxic materials from the government’s testing.
Area 51, an area of more than 2.9 million acres, is located next to the Nevada Test Site, where US nuclear weapons were tested from the 1950s to the 1990s.
Dave Crete and Pomp Braswell are suing the federal government after allegedly developing health issues as a result of working on the government’s Area 51 base in the 1980s.
US Air Force F-117 Stealth bombers were at the cutting edge of aircraft design in the 1980s
Area 51, an area of more than 2.9 million acres, is located next to the Nevada Test Site, where US nuclear weapons were tested from the 1950s to the 1990s
‘The thing is we were all handpicked, to be up there are get that clearance,’ Braswell, who worked at the site between 1987 and 1990, told the outlet.
‘With that being said we were all at the top of our game, always’ he added.
‘The government said they secured the area so there would be no more spread of the contamination’ Crete, who worked at the base between 1983 and 1987, said.
‘The way they secured it was with a barbed wire fence. Now I don’t have a PhD in Physics’ he added, ‘but a barbed wire fence isn’t going to do that.’
Crete, now a campaigner for injured or harmed government personnel, said he realized something was wrong after attending a reunion with those that used to work in his unit on the test range.
‘There are eight of us and six of us have tumors, like that just can’t be normal’ he explained.
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‘One of the guys who didn’t said his kid was born with a tumor’ he said.
The Department of Defense has allegedly maintained to the men that they were not in the area at the times they state.
Dave Crete and Pomp Braswell were employed by the Air Force’s security police squadron to guard the F-117A stealth bomber
The Air Force base, Area 51, at Groom Lake, a dry lake bed in the Nevada Desert, 85 miles north of Las Vegas was established in 1955 but was not officially acknowledged until 2013
This means they have not been entitled to compensation for themselves or their families.
‘They say their aircraft was there but not us, so the aircraft flew itself, guarded itself, parked itself and repaired itself. It pisses me off’ Crete said.
‘Because we’re not acknowledged as line of duty we have people dying with kids with zero benefits for those kids or that widow.
‘It’s disheartening’ Braswell, now a professional golfer, said of the government’s response.
‘Its infuriating, especially when our government and company is taking care of other countries and they won’t take care of us.’
Nevada’s Republican Representative Mark Amodei told Arizona Family News he is working on a bill to provide compensation and restitution for US military personnel and their families who have suffered from exposure to toxic materials.
The Department for Defense told DailyMail.com they do not comment on any pending or ongoing litigation.
The Air Force base, Area 51, at Groom Lake, a dry lake bed in the Nevada Desert, 85 miles north of Las Vegas was established in 1955 but was not officially acknowledged until 2013.
It was created during the Cold War as a testing and development facility for aircraft and it is believed the area is still used to develop and test aircraft.
