Jerry Ensminger – Semper Fi: Always Faithful tours Alaska
Breast Cancer Awareness Tour May 29th – June 3rd
Teleconference Call: Alaska Collaborative on Health and the Environment (CHE-AK) 5/29 Anchorage – 5/29 Media Advisory: 5/17/13 – Breast Cancer Awareness Tour brings the film Semper Fi: Always Faithful to Alaska; Film exposes the military cover-up of one of the largest drinking water contamination incidents in American history and the uncovering of rare male breast cancer cluster |
5/29, 9-10 am – The Story of Camp Lejeune: Contaminated Drinking Water, Cancer Clusters, and the Struggle for Justice
A free one hour teleconference call hosted by ACAT’s Alaska Collaborative on Health and the Environment (CHE-AK) with special guest Jerry Ensminger, a retired Marine Master Sergeant of 24 years. Jerry’s family is one of hundreds of thousands who bathed, drank, and cooked with water contaminated with cancer-causing chemicals at the North Carolina Marine Corps base Camp Lejeune. He lost his nine year old daughter, Janey, to leukemia in 1985. Jerry has dedicated his life to helping other victims of the contamination at Camp Lejeune, many of whom are men who developed breast cancer. In his pursuit of justice, Jerry illuminates how current policies contribute to disease clusters and works for policies that will prevent contamination and protect community health. His story, along with others who suffered tragedy from the water at Camp Lejeune, has been documented in the film, “Semper Fi: Always Faithful.” Visit the call web page to sign up or call 907-222-7714 or email diana at akaction dot org. |
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5/29, 6:30-9 pm – Film & Talk at Anchorage Museum Auditorium – Semper Fi: Always Faithful film showing and discussion with Jerry Ensminger Please save the date for a very special visit with Jerry Ensminger who brought to national attention the Marine Corps cover up of groundwater contamination at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina and exposing a large cancer cluster. Join us for this special event at the Anchorage Museum. Free parking for the first 90 cars during the event is available in the Museum’s underground garage. Location: 625 C Street, Anchorage (Map). Semper Fi: Always Faithful takes a personal look at a public health and environmental crisis. The documentary follows Jerry Ensminger, a retired Marine Corps drill instructor, who lost his daughter to leukemia in 1985. After he learns of the water contamination at Camp Lejeune, twelve years later, Ensminger embarked on a journey to expose one of the largest water contamination incidents in U.S. history. Map | Poster | Invite your friends on Facebook This event is co-sponsored with a generous grant by the Alaska Run For Women. |
Thursday, May 30th Interior Alaska Events
FREE LUNCH & DISCUSSION 5/30 Noon-1:30 pm – Lunch with Jerry Ensminger, at the Grange Hall, North Pole, Alaska This event is co-sponsored with a generous grant by the Alaska Run For Women. |
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Pioneer Park Theater, Fairbanks, AK (Map) Map| Poster | Invite your friends on Facebook This event is co-sponsored with a generous grant by the Alaska Run For Women. |
PRIVATE CATERED LUNCH WITH JERRY ENSMINGERFriday, May 31st Anchorage, Alaska Events5/31, 11:30-1:3o pm – Invitation only lunch with Jerry Ensminger, Location TBA, Anchorage, Alaska Jerry will be available for interviews in Anchorage on 5/31, 2-3 pm. |
Norton Sound Area Events
Saturday, June 1st St. Lawrence Island, Village of GambellFREE FILM & TALK 6/1, 8-10:30 pm – Semper Fi: Always Faithful film showing and discussion with Jerry Ensminger Join us at the John Apangalook School (Multi-Purpose Room) in Gambell, St. Lawrence Island, Alaska Poster | Invite your friends on Facebook This event is co-sponsored with a generous grant by the Alaska Run For Women. |
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This tour is co-sponsored with a generous grant by the 
FREE FILM & DISCUSSION
Short Bio and Film Synopsis
Semper Fi: Always Faithful takes a personal look at a public health and environmental crisis. The documentary follows Jerry Ensminger, a retired Marine Corps drill instructor, who lost his daughter to leukemia in 1985. After he learns of the water contamination at Camp Lejeune, twelve years later, Ensminger embarked on a journey to expose one of the largest water contamination incidents in U.S. history.
It is estimated that nearly one million Marines and their families were exposed to high levels of carcinogens while they lived and worked at Camp Lejeune. The Marine Corps eventually closed the toxic wells, but never made the contamination public. Today, only a fraction of former residents know about their exposure. The film follows Ensminger’s personal and political campaign to uncover the truth, improve health care for those exposed, and change the environmental policies that threaten air and water quality in the United States.
Semper Fi: Always Faithful, directed by Rachel Libert and Tony Hardmon, premiered in 2011 at the Tribeca Film Festival and has won several Best Documentary and Audience Awards at festivals across the U.S.
Semper Fi: Always Faithful Film Info
Short Video-Interview with Jerry Ensminger/New York Times
Resources:
- The Few, The Proud, The Forgotten: a Military Toxic Water Advocacy Group co-founded by Jerry Ensminger, FAQ about Camp Lejeune.
- How a Bunch of Scrappy Marines Could Help Vanquish Breast Cancer – Exposed to poisoned water at Camp Lejeune, these vets may hold the key to a scourge that kills some 40,000 American women—and a few hundred men—per year. By Florence Williams, Mother Jones, May 2012.
- Honoring America’s Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act of 2012 was signed by President Obama on August 6, 2012. The final law HR 1627 began as the Jamey Ensminger Act HB 1742 introduced May 5th, 2011.
- Camp Lejeune Web Page at the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). The most recent report (3/15/2013) of Water Contamination at Camp Lejeune by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) is the Hadnot Point Report.
- US Department of Veterans Affairs: Exposure to Contaminated Drinking Water at Camp Lejeune
Recent Articles:
- Marine daughter seeks dignity for ‘Devil Dog pups.’ Many of those buried in a lonely section of Onslow Memorial Park near Jacksonville, NC, known as “Babyland” were the children of Marines stationed down the road at Camp Lejeune. How many of these fellow “Devil Dog pups,” she wondered, died because they or their pregnant mothers had swallowed or bathed in the base’s toxic water? Associated Press
http://yhoo.it/17M40tp - After nearly 30 years, Camp Lejeune coming clean. The former Hadnot Point fuel farm, Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune’s main fuel depot until it was ordered closed in the 1980s, is the site of what’s considered the worst case of drinking-water contamination in the nation’s history. But the Marines stress that that’s just what it is – history. Associated Press http://bit.ly/13DOlJb
- Marine who dumped toxicants felt illness was payback. Ron Poirier couldn’t escape the feeling that his cancer was somehow a punishment. As a young Marine electronics technician at Camp Lejeune in the mid-1970s, the Massachusetts man figured he’d dumped hundreds of gallons of toxic solvents onto the ground. Associated Press http://bit.ly/11OlVhZ