Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise to speak in support of the ``Military Aviators Cancer Incidence Study Act,'' which I introduced today. This legislation would require the Department of Defense to conduct a study to determine if there is a higher incidence of cancers occurring in military aviators as compared to similar age groups in the general population. It has been reported that the prevalence of cancer is particularly high among military aviators, particularly among fighter pilots in the United States Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps. There have been several alarming clusters of cancer diagnoses at military installations, including at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in California and Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina. Four commanding officers who served at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake have died of cancer. Each officer had completed thousands of flight hours in advanced jets. According to a study by the U.S. Air Force in 2008 titled ``Cancer in Fighters,'' six pilots and weapons systems officers for the F-15E Strike Eagle at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, aged 33 to 43, were diagnosed with cancer between 2002 and 2005. Each officer had completed at least 2,100 flight hours. A study by the U.S. Air Force in 2010 reported on a cluster of seven members of the Air Force Special Operations Command diagnosed with brain cancer among crew members of the C-130 between 2006 and 2009.…”