Authored by Jonathan Draeger via RealClearDefense,
In June 2003, Mark Jackson, an Army CID at the time, landed on Karshi-Khanabad (K2) Air Base in Uzbekistan. After signing into the base, the first words another soldier greeted him with were, “I hope you're done having kids, because this place is tough.”
After spending a few days on the base, he realized why the welcoming soldier felt the need to warn Mark. “Within a couple of days, I started to get a cough and my throat was very sore, my skin started getting messed up, my stomach started getting messed up, and then I got lethargic and had headaches,” Mark told RealClearPolitics. Almost all soldiers at the base had a similar experience due to a variety of toxins present at K2, including yellowcake uranium, chemical weapons, exploded ordnance, and a variety of other chemicals left over from the Soviets, who had previously owned the base.
Why the United States decided to continue using K2 as a base of operations for the invasion of Afghanistan despite evidence of this toxic mixture of chemicals is the subject of the latest letter from Rep. Mark Green to Acting Inspector General Steven Stebbins, RealClearPolitics is first to report.
The 15-page letter includes a series of questions about the decision-making that led to the base being used after toxins were documented by the Department of Defense. “Why were servicemembers at Camp Stronghold Freedom allowed to continue operations despite reports of radiation and toxic chemicals on page 2 of the 2001 Final Environmental Site Characterization and Operational Health Risk Assessment and page 4 of the 2004 Visual Inspection of Karshi-Khanabad (K2) Airbase, Karshi, Uzbekistan?” the first question reads.
Other questions posed to the Acting Inspector General's office include queries about how aware the Department of Defense was of the toxins present at the base, and why problems reported by soldiers at the time weren’t addressed. “Former VA Secretary Denis McDonough stated, ‘Some of the deployed personnel described an all-pervasive chemical odor so intense that it seemed the entire base would ignite if someone lit a match.’ Do you have any official documentation of this type of account from servicemembers?” another question reads.
Similar investigations have already been conducted into the toxic consequences of burn pits used in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Uzbekistan, impelling the passage of the Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act in 2022.
However, soldiers stationed at K2 were not given the same acknowledgment by the Department of Defense and VA, meaning that many of the conditions, including cancers, aren’t being covered, and soldiers’ illnesses are not being given disability. “Despite the disproportionate incidence of cancer cases among K2 veterans, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has denied care to many of these veterans for years. Some of them have already lost their lives,” the letter states.
This includes Mark, who, even after advocating on behalf of K2 veterans and experiencing various illnesses after returning from K2, including thyroid failure shortly after leaving the Army in 2005, has continued to be denied disability benefits. Since then, he has also experienced rashes, gastrointestinal issues, osteoporosis, and was diagnosed with prostate cancer two months ago, at age 47. Despite his history of illness and young diagnosis of prostate cancer, the VA denied his claim for benefits for prostate cancer.
Mark isn’t alone among K2 veterans experiencing premature illness.
The Stronghold Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit focused on building awareness for those exposed to toxic conditions at K2, conducted a self-report survey of 3,000 veterans who served at K2. In those surveys, 70% said they suffered from chronic illness of some sort, the most common being cancer. The base was open from 1997 to 2005, with a majority of those serving in their 20s and 30s, meaning most of these soldiers are suffering from these illnesses in their 40s and 50s. Though official studies haven’t been publicly released by the Department of Veterans Affairs or Department of Defense about the total number of K2 veterans suffering from chronic disease, this would imply that around 10,000 of the 15,000 military men and women who were at one point stationed at K2 suffer from some form of chronic disease. Part of the frustration with the lack of acknowledgment by the VA and DoD of the specific problems with K2 is the abundance of evidence showing the presence of various toxic materials at the base. Nick Nicholls, a team leader of the military unit that tested the air and soil for hazardous materials at military bases, documented multiple health hazards from October to December 2001—including what they estimated to be 30 million to 300 million gallons of jet fuel that had soaked into the ground as a result of a pipe leak at the Soviet airbase. This jet fuel saturated the soil so that anytime soldiers dug more than a meter into the ground, they encountered a toxic sludge of fuel and dirt.
At the time, his team also documented yellowcake—leftover, yellow-colored enriched uranium from when the Soviets controlled the base—that was found in multiple areas of the ground at K2. His team also found evidence of chemical weapons residue around the base, though he noted in an interview with RealClearPolitics that the tests often had false positives, as other industrial solvents could trigger the results.
“K2 was significantly more contaminated than any of the other places I've been,” which included bases in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and two tours of Iraq, Nicholls told RCP.
To aid veterans who suffered exposure to various toxins at K2, Rep. Green and Rep. Stephen Lynch introduced the K2 Veterans Total Coverage Act of 2025 in May. This bill would create a presumption of service connection for certain diseases, such as cancer, thyroid disease, bone disease, and others, for those stationed at K2. This is similar to provisions in the PACT Act, which created presumptions of service connection for certain diseases for those exposed to burn pits. On May 15, the bill was introduced and referred to the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, but no progress has been made on the bill since.
Rep. Green’s letter comes after previous letters to Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary Doug Collins, urging them to conduct investigations into the toxic exposure present at K2. An investigation into toxic exposure by the Department of Defense is required by federal law under the K2 Veterans Toxic Exposure Accountability Act, part of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, though it has yet to be completed, as far as Congress and the general public are aware. “The Secretary of Defense shall conduct a study on exposure to toxic substances by members of the Armed Forces deployed to Karshi-Khanabad Air Base, Uzbekistan, at any time during the period beginning on October 1, 2001, and ending on December 31, 2005,” the amendment states.
Further legislation and acknowledgment from the VA and DoD are ultimately what these K2 veterans are searching for, Mark said.
“No one was surprised when I got cancer, not even me, but I swore an oath as a soldier. When I swore an oath as federal law enforcement, I swore to uphold the Constitution and that I would do so up to my own death,” Mark said.
“I upheld my end of the bargain, and it's going to kill me. So, the least they can do is uphold theirs.”
Jonathan Draeger is a national political reporter for RealClearPolitics.