Deloris K. “Dee” Cooper, 86, of Browntown, Virginia, passed away on Thursday, May 25, 2023, at Lynn Care Center in Front Royal.

A graveside service will be held on Friday, June 2, at 10:00 am at Panorama Memorial Gardens with Pastor Jeff Fletcher and Pastor P.G. Coverstone officiating.

Dee was born October 3, 1936, in Luray, Virginia, the daughter of the late Raymond James and Evelyn Lillard Knott.

Surviving are two sons, Chip Cooper and Barbara and R.J. Cooper and wife Toni, all of Browntown; one daughter, Bambie Compher of Front Royal; two grandsons, Shawn Cooper, and wife Lindsay and Kyle Compher and wife Brittany; and five great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents; an infant son; a son-in-law, Larry Compher; and her brother, Kennith Knott.

Pallbearers will be Chip Cooper, R.J. Cooper, Shawn Cooper, Kyle Compher, Skip Vermillion and Jamie Knott.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made in Dee’s memory to Cool Spring Church of God, 3705 Gooney Manor Loop, Bentonville, Virginia 22610.

Following the graveside service, all are welcome to join the family for a time of food and fellowship at the Front Royal Elks Club on Guard Hill Road.

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David and Adair Keller started their married life together in 1977 at Camp Lejeune, a military training base on the Atlantic Coast in Jacksonville, North Carolina. David was a Marine Corps field artillery officer then, and they lived together on the base for about six months.

But that sojourn had an outsize impact on their lives.

Forty years later, in January 2018, Adair was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. She died six months later at age 68. There’s a chance her illness was caused by toxic chemicals that seeped into the water military families at the base drank, cooked with, and washed with for decades.

When the PACT Act passed last August, David asked a neighbor who worked at a personal injury law firm in Greenville, South Carolina, if he thought he might have a case. Now Keller is filing a
wrongful death claim against the federal government under a section of that measure that allows veterans, their family members, and others who spent at least 30 days at Camp Lejeune between Aug. 1, 1953, and the end of 1987 to seek damages against the government for harm caused by exposure to the toxic water.

The Camp Lejeune Justice Act didn’t attract the spotlight like the aspects of PACT that deal with the harms soldiers experienced from burn pit fumes overseas. But for veterans who served at this North Carolina post, it is the realization of a decades-long effort to hold the government accountable.

As cases begin to proceed through the legal system, some veterans’ advocates worry that families who have already suffered from toxic exposure may get shortchanged by a process that’s supposed to provide them with a measure of closure and financial relief. They support limiting lawyers’ fees, some of which may exceed half of a veteran’s award.

The government estimates as many as a million people were exposed to Camp Lejeune’s contaminated water during the 34-year period covered by the law. Personal injury lawyers have taken notice. In recent months, TV ads trying to drum up business have been impossible to ignore: “If you or a loved one were stationed at Camp Lejeune between 1953 and 1987 and developed cancer, call now. You may be entitled to significant compensation.”

During the year that ended in March, TV ads soliciting Camp Lejeune claims reached an estimated $123 million, according to X Ante, a company that tracks mass tort litigation advertising. Camp Lejeune TV ads currently rank third among the top targets for mass tort claims since 2012, behind only asbestos and mesothelioma ($619 million) and Roundup weed killer ($132 million).

“The attorneys have calculated out that they stand to make a pot of money,” said Autrey James, chairman of the American Legion’s Veterans Affairs & Rehabilitation Commission. “We need Congress to put caps on how much these attorneys can charge.”

For Keller, a 73-year-old former workers’ compensation lawyer, it’s a matter of accountability. Because of his experience, he came out of retirement last year to represent Camp Lejeune victims. He is now working part-time at the Greenville law firm he spoke with initially, and that now represents his late wife. It currently has roughly 65 Camp Lejeune cases.

Under the law, veterans must first file an administrative claim with the Judge Advocate General of the Navy’s Tort Claims Unit. If, after six months, the Navy hasn’t settled the claim, or if it denies the claim, veterans can file suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

So far, approximately 23,000 claims have been filed with the Navy, none of which have been fully adjudicated, said Patricia Babb, a spokesperson for the Judge Advocate General’s office.

This legal remedy has been a long time coming. In the early 1980s, the Marine Corps learned that three of Camp Lejeune’s water distribution systems were contaminated with industrial chemicals that had seeped into the water from leaking underground storage tanks, industrial spills, and waste disposal sites. The Corps shut them down in the mid-1980s, and the area was declared a hazardous waste site in 1989 under the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund law.

Federal studies later showed that toxic chemicals in the water — benzene, vinyl chloride, and TCE, among others — were present at levels that could have caused a range of cancers and other serious illnesses. In 2012, after an intense lobbying campaign by veterans, Congress passed a law that gave veterans and their families free medical care if they got sick with any of more than a dozen diseases associated with the toxic water.

But thousands of veterans who felt the Navy had stonewalled and delayed addressing the contamination filed civil suits seeking damages. In 2019, the federal government denied all the claims, citing state and federal statutes that shielded the government.

The Camp Lejeune Justice Act opened a two-year window for veterans and their families to pursue cases against the federal government.

And Liz Hartman, the commander of American Legion Post 539 in nearby New Bern, now sees new reason for alarm. Some veterans are signing contingency fee contracts in which they agree to pay lawyers representing them 40% to 60% of any money they receive, Hartman said.

“Many of these people are elderly and very vulnerable, and they’re being preyed upon,” she said.

Personal injury lawyers generally work on a contingency basis. If they win the case, they receive a portion of the award, often one-third. If they lose, they get nothing. The firm Keller is working
with charges 40% for Camp Lejeune cases.

If anything, fees for the Camp Lejeune cases should be lower than usual, not higher, said Matt Webb, senior vice president for legal reform policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform.

“The PACT Act changed the burden of proof and made it so much easier for claimants to win their cases,” he said. Under the law, the evidence must show that the exposure was as likely as not to have caused the harm, rather than having to prove that there’s a greater than 50% chance that the claim is true, called a “preponderance” standard.

In addition, the law requires that any award a veteran receives be offset by any amount they received in a disability payment or health benefit related to their condition. This could substantially reduce the amount of their award.

Veterans “could end up owing money,” Webb said. “I’m not saying it’s going to happen, but particularly if a lawyer is taking a huge chunk in fees, it could happen.”

Trial lawyers say a marginally lower burden of proof doesn’t mean the cases will be easy to win.

It’s a new law with no case law or judicial opinions to refer to, said Mike Cox, a Livonia, Michigan, lawyer and former Marine infantryman who was stationed at Camp Lejeune in the early 1980s. He’s now representing more than 200 veterans in such cases.

Many of the diseases and conditions people developed are not among those the government acknowledges may be linked to the contaminated water, Cox said. Even for veterans whose illnesses are recognized by the government, lawyers will have to show where they were based, what kind of cancer they have, and their level of toxic exposure, he said. His fee for representing these veterans is 33% of any award they receive.

In addition to proving they were stationed at Camp Lejeune during the years covered by the law, “the claimant also must demonstrate to the Navy he/she is suffering from an injury that is related to the exposure to (or ingestion of) contaminated water,” said Babb, the Judge Advocate General spokesperson.

With stories circulating of attorney contingency fees that could potentially eat up more than half of veterans’ awards, some lawmakers have stepped in.

Under a bill proposed by Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Mark Takano (D-Calif.), Camp Lejeune attorney fees would be capped at 20% in cases settled as administrative claims and 33.3% in those filed as civil lawsuits in court.

Another House proposal, introduced by Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Mike Bost (R-Ill.) is identical to one introduced in the Senate by Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), which would cap fees at 12% and 17% under similar circumstances.

According to David Keller, based on his conversations with other lawyers, “nobody is objecting to something that is reasonable,” such as caps at 20% and 33%.

Many of Keller’s clients are older men who are really sick and probably won’t live long, he said. Some tell him they’re reluctant to sue the government.

“What I say to them is, ‘When we signed the contract with Uncle Sam, we gave Uncle Sam a blank check for our arms, our legs, and maybe even our lives. But we didn’t sign a blank check to get a serious disease from contaminated water, either them or their spouses or children.”

By Michelle Andrews | KFF Health News

KFF Health News , formerly known as Kaiser Health News (KHN), is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.

Virginia Mercury is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sarah Vogelsong for questions: info@virginiamercury.com. Follow Virginia Mercury on Facebook and Twitter.

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Vietnam Memorial on Memorial Day. Deliberately setting aside the controversies of the war, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial honors the men and women who served when their Nation called upon them. The designer, Maya Lin, felt that politics had eclipsed the veterans, their service, and their lives. She kept the design elegantly simple to allow everyone to respond and remember.

Beginning with the Revolutionary War, almost 1.4 million Americans have died in our nation’s wars, including about 667,000 killed in combat. We remember, honor, and mourn those gallant souls every year on Memorial Day – May 29 this year. Those Americans who have served in or near war zones carry their memories throughout the year. It should not be just a once-a-year observance for everyone else.

The country’s more recent conflicts, starting with Vietnam, have seen a blurring of the battle lines, where American service personnel have teamed up with local forces to fight a common enemy. For those who have worked hand-in-hand with local forces – South Vietnamese, Iraqis, or Afghans – it is hard to forget those local troops who died for the common cause. Although our Memorial Day is for a commemoration of our war dead, I think it would also be appropriate to honor those foreign partners on this special day.

For most of my tour in Vietnam, I lived and worked beside South Vietnamese soldiers (ARVNs), mostly Roman Catholics or members of the Cao Dai Church. As human beings, they had the same hopes and aspirations as most Americans. I trusted them with my life, and I believe most of them felt the same. I can’t think of America’s fallen without thinking of them. Almost 300,000 ARVNs died in the war, and we left many more of them to a horrible fate. They deserve remembrance and respect. I know that many Americans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan feel the same about their foreign partners. When you form trusting bonds in wartime, it is hard to break them.

Although our bonds with the people of Ukraine are at a different level, where we are mostly non-combat partners providing moral support and weaponry from the sidelines, I have that same feeling about those valiant humans. The Ukrainians are fighting and dying in a war that serves the vital national interests of the United States and NATO, as well as our allies on the other side of the planet. Ukraine is the proverbial point of the spear that protects freedom and democracy from the despotic regimes in Russia, China, and Iran.

If we allow Russia to prevail, it will give great encouragement to the autocrats, quite possibly leading to a spread of hostilities to Taiwan and any number of Asian, African, and South American nations in the sights of Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.

Although I rarely find issues upon which I totally agree with U.S. Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, Ukraine is one such issue – an exceedingly important one. The senator realizes that it is essential to America’s strategic interests that Ukraine prevail in Putin’s genocidal war. I agree with his view that the U.S. needs to increase and expedite the supply of war materiel to Ukraine. Sen. Risch has observed that “the Ukrainians are fighting today for what our founding fathers fought for in 1776.”

Incidentally, that observation was made when the senator recently recalled his meeting in Ukraine with a former Green Beret from Boise, Nick Maimer, who had been volunteering to train Ukrainian civilians on how to defend their country. Maimer was reported to have been killed by Russian artillery fire earlier this month. God rest his soul. He joins thousands of Ukrainians who have died in the fight.

Ukraine has reportedly suffered 124,500-131,000 total casualties, including 15,500-17,500 killed in action and 109,000-113,500 wounded. Because their fight is largely our fight, it would be most appropriate to remember and mourn them, along with our war dead and our foreign partners who died in supporting American troops. On Memorial Day, I’ll be remembering my 58,220 brothers and sisters who died serving their country in Vietnam. I’ll also be thinking of Lieutenants Dinh and Tanh, Captain Thanh and interpreter Tom, who were with us all the way until we abandoned them to their ugly fate in 1975.

By Jim Jones

Jim Jones served as Idaho attorney general for eight years (1983-1991) and as a justice of the Idaho Supreme Court for 12 years (2005-2017). He also served in the Vietnam War. His weekly columns are collected at JJCommonTater.com.

Virginia Mercury is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sarah Vogelsong for questions: info@virginiamercury.com. Follow Virginia Mercury on Facebook and Twitter.

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In a remarkable feat that resonates with his lifelong dedication and passion for his work, Robert A. Clark, a Senior Extension Agent with a focus on Agriculture and Natural Resources, has recently received the 2023 Alumni Award for Extension Excellence from the Virginia Tech Alumni Association.

Bobby Clark

Better known as Bobby, Clark expressed his delight and gratitude for this well-deserved recognition. “My desire to become an Extension agent started when I was in high school. My Extension career spans two states — North Carolina and Virginia — and 35 years,” he said, reflecting on his journey that has taken him through three and a half decades of service. He added, “Throughout my career, I have always enjoyed helping both individuals and communities succeed through the knowledge shared as an Extension agent.”

Clark’s contribution to the field extends to addressing an array of economic and environmental issues. His tireless work in the northern Shenandoah Valley and beyond has encompassed a series of initiatives like improving slug management in no-till corn and soybeans, helping farmers increase profitability while practicing better environmental stewardship, addressing large animal mortality disposal issues, and devising solutions to poultry litter management issues. The success and impact of these initiatives speak volumes about Clark’s commitment to his stakeholders and his community.

In her supportive remarks, Lori Miller, Senior Staff Officer and Environmental Engineer for USDA, lauded Clark’s unique approach and dedication, saying, “Bobby’s initiative and ability to think outside the box has greatly improved our nation’s ability to respond to animal health emergencies during our times of greatest need; his leadership, professionalism, and practicality have had a major impact on the protection of American agriculture.”

As one of the most respected figures in his field, Clark’s body of work has earned him several awards, including Program Excellence Awards at the district and state levels, the National Association of County Agricultural Agents Distinguished Service Award, and the Virginia Association of Agricultural Extension Agents Distinguished Service Award. This most recent accolade from Virginia Tech further underscores his immense value to his field and his profound influence on American agriculture.

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Spring, a season synonymous with new beginnings and growth, has long captivated our imaginations with its transformative power. Beyond the blossoming flowers and vibrant landscapes, there is a phenomenon that has intrigued observers for centuries: children seem to experience a growth spurt during this time of year. Now, a groundbreaking study reported in Frontiers in Physiology has provided scientific validation to this age-old observation, shedding light on the remarkable connection between springtime and children’s accelerated growth rates.

The study, conducted in 2022, explored the growth patterns of children and sought to uncover any seasonal variations. The findings confirmed what many parents and caregivers have intuitively noticed: children’s growth rates indeed accelerate during spring and early summer. This exciting revelation adds a new layer of understanding to the complex mechanisms underlying human growth and development.

Dr. Emily Johnson, lead researcher of the study, explains, “We have long been aware of the natural cycles and changes that occur in nature during spring. It is fascinating to see that these seasonal patterns also extend to children’s growth. Spring appears to exert a unique influence, propelling their growth rates forward in a remarkable manner.”

While the exact mechanisms behind this phenomenon are still being explored, several factors may contribute to the accelerated growth observed in children during springtime. One hypothesis suggests that increased exposure to sunlight and longer daylight hours during this season may play a role in stimulating the production of growth hormones, which in turn facilitate physical development.

Furthermore, the abundance of fresh produce and nutrient-rich foods available in spring could also contribute to enhanced growth rates. A balanced diet, coupled with the bountiful seasonal offerings, may provide the necessary nutrients and vitamins that fuel children’s growth spurts during this time of year.

The implications of this research extend beyond mere curiosity, as it underscores the importance of monitoring and supporting children’s growth during different seasons. Parents and caregivers can now have a better understanding of why their little ones might seem to shoot up in height during spring and early summer, leading to potential adjustments in dietary choices and health practices to optimize growth and development.

Dr. Johnson emphasizes, “While springtime growth spurts are a natural part of a child’s development, it is crucial for parents and caregivers to ensure their children receive proper nutrition and care year-round. Understanding the unique influence of spring can guide us in providing the support children need to thrive during this season of growth.”

As we revel in the wonders of spring, witnessing nature’s transformative power, let us also marvel at the remarkable synchrony between the rejuvenation of the natural world and the growth of our little ones. Springtime becomes even more magical as we recognize its role in fostering the physical development of children, reminding us of the profound interconnections that exist between nature and human life.

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As you get older, it’s normal to start thinking about your estate and getting your affairs in order. If you don’t already have a will, you may wonder whether you need one in the event of your death. The short answer is no. Nevertheless, a will is an essential document. Here’s why.

The specifics vary depending on the state, but generally, if you don’t have a will at the time of your death, the probate court will refer to local intestate succession laws to decide who receives your property. It may not be distributed exactly how you would choose. Usually, your spouse will receive a set amount before the remainder is divided among your children and other family members if any exist.

A will is important because it allows you to decide how your assets will be divided among your heirs. Specifically, you indicate who inherits what and who’ll act as an executor.

There are four types of wills in the United States: simple, testamentary trust, joint, and living. Consult a lawyer to learn the differences and determine the best type for you.

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