right in front of my face

Funny how that works, it was right in front of my face and I missed it.

We wondered for years what was the cause of my lung cancer.  I had smoked in college and in the Army but gave it up when I returned to the United States in 1977.  The oncologist says the standard statistic they use is 15 years, after 15 years the lungs are considered to be healed and the risk of lung cancer is reduced to almost nothing, not zero but almost.

So one evening this past spring I was watching TV and a commercial for a law firm specializing in cases involving asbestos exposure during the military and lung cancer were seeking clients.  That big old "dah" and the slap to the forehead followed.  I had forgotten that I have received significant exposure to asbestos while I was serving in the Army in Japan.

I got involved in the overhaul of the US Army Power Barge Impedance in the summer of 1973 as an engineer, my official title was "ship surveyor".  The power barge was as big as a football field, oil fired steam turbin generator capable of 33 megawatts output.  It had been loaned to the Okinawa government after WWII and was being turned back, overhauled and loaned to the governement of Saipan.

The low bidder was the Subic Bay Naval Shipyard in the Philippines.  The bid was $1.5 million, which was a lot of money back then. We towed her there in January of 1974 and the work began.  The barge was loaded with asbestos insulation and as the dangers were unrecognized by the public at that time there were very little safety procedures in place for handing it.  As the hundreds of valves, pumps and other equipment was repaired the asbestos insulation was ripped off and fell to the floor.  I remember there was a white dust on everything for the better part of a year.  My office was on the barge, I breathed that stuff on a daily basis.

I asked a friend who is an attorney about the validity of the law firms involved in this and he said he would check it out.  He made contact with what he thought was a good firm and we filed paperwork. We haven't heard anything for about 3 months.  I am guessing that the firm is not interested as lung cancer from asbestos is hard to prove unless it is mesothelioma.  And I don't have mesothelioma.

In the mean time I have filed a claim with the Veterans Administration.  My doctor agrees that it is "as likely as not" that I got my cancer from the asbestos exposure in the military and that is good enough for the VA.   We have an appointment with the VA officer on Tueday to continue to work on the submission.