​Special Forces Association Chapter 51
The Sully De Fontaine Memorial Chapter
Las Vegas, NV

     In December 2012, a good friend who happened to be the Command Sergeant Major (senior enlisted man) for the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) lost his battle with glioblastoma at age 48. Frank was an extremely popular and well-known man, with a great family. In the nine months following his death, several other Soldiers from the 10th SFG(A) also died at young ages (40s and early 50s) from glioblastoma. Looking for answers, a small group of folks began to capture a listing of all the men and women from the 10th SFG(A) who had been diagnosed with or died from cancer in that recent period. The initial number of folks was 34 including a couple of wives of servicemen from the unit. This led to the establishment of a Facebook page where we captured the names of folks who had been diagnosed and discussed the topic.

 

     Wives’ cases were captured as the 10th SFG(A) had been stationed at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, with a portion of the unit in Stuttgart, Germany. Both locations had pollution issues that effected family members in addition to servicemembers; Fort Devens was designated an EPA Super-Fund site in the 1990s shortly after its closure as a active duty base and it still has toxins in the water, Stuttgart had major issues with methane exhaust from the Stuttgart City landfill and groundwater pollution.

 

     Having served in both the 10th Special Forces Group and the 1st Special Forces Group for many of my 29 years in the Army, I knew of many SF Soldiers who were actively fighting cancer or who had lost their battles. I advocated building a list that included folks from both those groups and perhaps all the groups. By 2016, our listing grew to over 150 folks and we decided to ask the National leadership of the Special Forces Association for assistance to help gather names from the other active duty and National Guard SF groups (3rd, 5th, 7th, 19th, 20th) and our list began growing rapidly. In 2016, we wrote letters to the Commander of the United States Army Special Operations Command (USASOC)who commands all the SF, and Ranger units and the Commander of the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) who oversees all Special Operations Forces in the military. We asked sought to inform both commanders of the growing numbers of SF Soldiers being diagnosed with cancers and to look at using better diagnostic tools or screening practices to identify cancer at earlier stages.

 

     Both USASOC and USSOCOM responded with action to better treat personnel diagnosed with cancer at a constellation of world class cancer treatment facilities, and both evaluated health record data to see if there was an increased risk of cancer amongst our personnel. Neither study could definitively say that among the active duty personnel, that there was an increased risk of cancer. But, among the populations of SF Soldiers still serving in the force and recent retirees, the numbers of cases continue to grow, and it continues to claim the lives of younger and younger otherwise healthy people.

 

     Many of our Soldiers have served a large portion of their military careers overseas in places where environmental issues including burn pits and bad water are severe, they have trained at US bases where they have been exposed to heavy metals, they have been exposed to micro-traumas to the brain caused by explosions in training and in combat. When they retire, it is often very difficult for medical providers to see the internal damage these physically fit men have suffered.  These men are not complainers and in fact, are prone to delaying trips to the doctor. So, some sort of means to calculate their increased level of risk would certainly help medical providers who have a difficult enough job. (I wish there was a radiation type badge for cancer).

 

     So our FB page – SOF Cancer Fighters has multiple purposes. We use the page at a platform to support and encourage those fighting cancer, we share information on treatment options, best practices for how to deal with everything from radiations burning effects to nutrition, and we also help caregivers with knowledge on treatment options. The data we collect there goes onto a listing of SOF Cancer patients, and we use that periodically to inform those folks at the military HQ or in interested medical communities about our concerns. We worked with Mount Sinai on a brain cancer and TBI study a few years ago and we have aided a Univ of Washington professor who is working to study brain tumors in our force.

 

     After 10 years of working with SF active Soldiers, veterans and retirees, I have come up with three significant areas where emphasis could save lives.

 

• First is through communication of risk to the service members. The Soldiers are not properly informed of the increased level of risk that they are under due to environmental exposures, and other factors.

 

• Second is through delayed diagnosis. Far too frequently our people are having huge delays in the diagnosis of serious illness. These delays are far too common, with some folks having patients’ symptoms which point to significant illness being diminished by healthcare providers, where diagnostic tests are not being conducted, PSA, Colonosccopy, EGD, X-Rays, CT Scans etc.

 

• Third is through imaging shortfalls. Congress passed the SFC Rich Stayskal Military Malpractice Act which gives recourse to Soldiers who suffer from malpractice from military doctors. His case was striking because of problems where multiple radiologists repeatedly missed clearly visible tumors in his lungs. Radiology departments are critical players is diagnosis and follow-up treatment for our cancer patients. Too many of our folks have been diagnosed late due to problems in that specialty area. Next week, we will bury a 48-year-old Army officer who died after a battle with throat cancer, he was initially treated and during follow-up scans, the radiologist failed to properly locate multiple tumors growing in his lung. Those tumors grew and several months later led him to the ER where they were discovered, however it was too late to effectively treat.

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