By Mark Vargas, Editor-in-Chief
Published originally in Newsmax
(Editor’s Note: The following opinion column does not constitute an endorsement of any political party, or candidate, on the part of Newsmax.)
On Aug. 31, Vice President Kamala Harris posted on X, “If there is one thing on which we as Americans can all agree, it is that our veterans, military families, and service members should be honored, never disparaged, and treated with nothing less than our highest respect and gratitude.
And it is my belief that someone who cannot meet this simple, sacred duty should never again stand behind the seal of the President of the United States of America.”
Ironic, considering that in November 2021, while Harris was vice president, a World War II-era U.S. government fuel storage installation hidden inside a mountain ridge overlooking Pearl Harbor began leaking poisonous jet fuel into the clean water supply in Oahu, Hawaii.
The Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility can hold up to 250 million gallons and is the largest in the U.S. that can hold up to 250 million gallons.
The spill poisoned the Navy’s water system serving 93,000 people, including thousands of military households at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and Aliamanu Military Reservation.
And unknown to the military families and residents at the time, the water that they were drinking, using for cooking, washing dishes, and showering with was literally poisoning them.
As a result of the jet fuel leak, thousands of military families began experiencing symptoms consistent with jet fuel poisoning — unbearable headaches, vomiting, rashes, nausea, and fatigue — sending them to the emergency room dozens, and sometimes hundreds, of times with sudden and severe, long lasting health issues including neurological, dermal, and mental.
In one case, Army Maj. Mandy Feindt, who recently appeared on The StoneZONE with Roger Stone, and her young family have gone to the doctor’s office over 600 times in the past three years as they deal with the long-term effects of jet fuel poisoning. Her husband, Patrick, has even had multiple abdominal surgeries since being poisoned on the military base.
So this begs the question: What have President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris done to assist the thousands of military families affected by this crisis?
Absolutely nothing.
In fact, both Biden and Harris continue to ignore the issue even three years later and refuse to meet with the affected families or even discuss the issue publicly.
So much for treating military families with the “highest respect and gratitude.” They can’t even get a meeting with Harris — even when she’s on the island vacationing with her family.
And what about the military’s response?
The initial reaction by senior military leaders was to deny that sudden illnesses were related to the jet fuel leak. A few days later in November 2021, the Navy was forced to admit that there was in fact a mixture of water and fuel, but it indicated that the water was still safe to drink, despite military families calling the local health department to report that they could smell jet fuel in their drinking water.
In March 2022, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin ordered that Red Hill be permanently closed and the remaining jet fuel be removed from the tanks. To date, no military leader has faced any real punishment. In fact, several military leaders who hid the truth have already been promoted.
What about Maj. Feindt?
She faces retaliation by her superiors and has sought whistleblower protection for going public and demanding answers and accountability as military and White House officials covered up the story.
So while Harris spends the last two weeks of the presidential election campaigning and talking about her love and respect for the military and their families, ask her about the jet fuel leak in Hawaii and what she’s done about it.
Commander in chief material? No.
Commander of the cover-up? Yes.
From 2007-2010, Mark Vargas served as a civilian in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense, traveling to Baghdad, Iraq, 14 times. Follow Mark on Twitter: @markavargas. Read Mark Vargas’ Reports — Click Here Now.
