For decades, hundreds of thousands of U.S. service members who trained at Fort McClellan have faced a healthcare crisis, battling aggressive cancers and chronic diseases rooted in one of the most severe toxic exposure events in military history. For veterans stationed at the base, particularly those undergoing intensive field training, the realization that their severe health issues, like squamous cell skin cancer, are tied to their military service is met with frustration as they fight an uphill battle for recognition. Despite clear evidence of widespread environmental poisoning, affected veterans are left carrying the physical and financial burden alone because the VA continues to deny them the blanket presumptive status given to other toxic sites. It is a devastating toxic legacy, having been trapped in a "toxic cocktail" caused by both advanced warfare training on the base and massive chemical dumping from the neighboring Monsanto plant in Anniston, Alabama. During its generations of active operations, from 1917 until its permanent closure in 1999, nearly half a million troops passed through Fort McClellan’s training programs, and unknowingly, through a heavily contaminated environment. For decades, Monsanto saturated the local air, soil, and water with millions of pounds of toxic Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), while the base itself, home to the U.S. Army Chemical Corps and Military Police schools, routinely exposed troops to live mustard gas, nerve agents, Agent Orange, radiation, asbestos, and tactical fog oil or HC smoke. Decades of research have linked this severe exposure to devastating malignancies among those who served, including squamous cell carcinoma, melanoma, lung, liver, bladder, and blood cancers like leukemia and Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, alongside chronic conditions such as Parkinson's disease, severe chloracne, Type 2 diabetes, and respiratory illnesses. It is beyond time for the VA to do better for the men and women who served at Fort McClellan. For far too long, our nation's heroes have been forced to act as their own scientists and lawyers, jumping through impossible bureaucratic hoops just to prove their illnesses were caused by one of the most thoroughly documented toxic sites on American soil. youtu.be/ElnaO3WQkZc?is=SuZo…