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At the former Soviet base-turned-CIA black site and U.S. military base in Uzbekistan, researchers knew early on danger lingered not just from the enemy but from the ground itself.
Karshi-Khanabad Air Base, known as K2, was a launchpad for U.S. operations into Afghanistan after 9/11. But for thousands of American troops who served there, it may have been a death sentence.
Matthew “Nick” Nicholls, an Army environmental technician and preventive medicine specialist, was part of an early team that assessed the environmental hazards at K2.
“It is probably the most toxic soup of chemicals that any service member has ever been exposed to,” Nicholls told Fox News Digital.
Yellowcake uranium oozed from the ground. Jet fuel and volatile chemicals from decaying Soviet rocket bunkers polluted the soil and air. Dangerous fumes hung over the base like the fog of forgotten war.
Nicholls and his team warned commanders, providing recommendations like laying down gravel to suppress toxic dust and restrictions on how long personnel could work in high-risk zones. Some precautions were taken, others weren’t.
Researchers excavated “Soviet-era jet fuel that was pure enough to put into an engine and work” at K2 base. (Obtained by Fox News Digital via Matthew Nicholls)
Images show visible “yellowcake” found in the ground at the K2 base. (Obtained by Fox News Digital/Matthew Nicholls)
“People that I am friends with are actively dying from cancer right now,” Nicholls said. “These are weird ontologies that are striking down people who are very young, people in their 20s, 30s, 40s, in the prime of their life.”
K2 veterans have reported a disturbing trend of rare and aggressive cancers, reproductive organ diseases, osteoarthritis and sudden, unexplained deaths.
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“These are not the cancers that young people normally get,” Nicholls said. “Their stories are not really able to be told….
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