A Bronze Star-winning Vietnam Veteran and reservist, Army Sergeant First Class James Lauderdale Jr. of Tuscon, Ariz., was activated to serve in Iraq in January 2005 and was deployed to Camps Doha and Arijhan in Kuwait, where oil refineries released clouds of brown smoke from their stacks.

“I knew what the pollutants in the air meant, and what I would be exposed to - as well as the brown water I bathed and washed my clothes in,” he told a reporter.

In March 2005, Lauderdale developed a sore throat and began having difficulty sleeping on his right side because his jaw hurt. After seeing two medics, one prescribed a root canal, but rather than alleviating the pain, it only worsened, he said.

At the end of the month, Lauderdale saw a dentist in Kuwait City, who lifted his tongue and found a lesion. Biopsy results came back as Stage II squamous cell cancer of the mouth floor and tongue.

On April 1, 2005, Lauderdale was sent to Walter Reed, where a doctor said, “The sergeant is in a unique group. We don’t know what would stimulate him to have this type of cancer since he isn’t a smoker.” Another doctor added, “I saw a 21-year-old here who just came back from Iraq with the same type of cancer.”

When his family asked if the cause could have been something Lauderdale was exposed to in Kuwait - the air pollutants, contaminated brown water, or depleted uranium, for which he was never tested - the doctors said they couldn’t be certain of the cause, family members said.

By June 2006, the cancer had spread to his neck and jaw, lungs, ribs, and spinal column, and Lauderdale had undergone five surgeries, including a tongue reconstruction, right and left radical neck resections and a tracheotomy, two rounds of chemo, and 39 rounds of radiation. Within a month, “hundreds and thousands of lesions appeared, canvassing the entire part of his upper body,” his wife of 34 years, Dixie Lauderdale, said. The doctors were dumbfounded by how aggressive his cancer was, she added.

After a valiant fight, Lauderdale, 59, died at Walter Reed on July 14, 2006. His final wish was to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

In April 2005, Army Sergeant Charles Lewis, who saw combat in Iraq with the 101st Airborne, was diagnosed with Stage II testicular cancer.

“There was no family history. We asked the doctors if being in Iraq had anything to do with it, but most weren’t sure,” he said. “We had been told to contact the VA to see if there were any other soldiers returning with cancer, but they would not give us any information.

“Four different people we know and who have been in combat with me have either had tumors removed or have been tested for cancer,” Sergeant Lewis continued. “So we have often questioned if Iraq or vaccinations could have played a part in this cancer.”