Air Force Still Not Seeing Higher Cancer Rates Among Missile Soldiers, Despite Collecting More Data

Current and former airmen who worked on U.S. nuclear missiles are not at higher risk of cancer, according to the latest data from an ongoing study. Air Force study, but officials explained that more data still needs to be examined before drawing conclusions.

Air Force Global Strike Command officials said during an all-hands meeting Thursday that the latest findings were released as part of periodic updates on an ongoing investigation into health and cancer issues among generations of service members. As the research continues, the service said it wants military personnel working with nuclear ICBMs to trust its methodology.

Widespread cancer research now includes data Department of Veterans Affairs electronic records, as well as cancer registries from the VA and the Department of Defense, some dating back to 1976. The latest data results appear to show that cancer rates were not higher among the nuclear missile community compared to the rest of the community. Air Force and the general population.

The investigation into cancer problems began last year after… Space Force officer and former rocketeer prepared a presentation in which he spoke about cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma among those who served in Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana. A wide-ranging investigation followed. The first round of original data, looking only at Department of Defense medical records, showed increased incidence of breast and prostate cancer among those who served at intercontinental ballistic missile bases.

A A Military.com investigation this year found that two separate small cancer studies in rocket scientists in the early 2000s prompted warnings about potential cancer clusters but were not acted upon. Air Force Global Strike commander Gen. Thomas Bussiere told participants at a town hall Thursday that he understands why current and former service members would be cautious.

“I feel like there is some skepticism in the general public based on the results of the 2001 and 2005 report,” Bussiere said. “I separate these two reports and have been vocal about my dissatisfaction with these two reports, but this research, this effort and this energy are significantly more focused and interested than those two times.”

Air Force medical officials made several changes to their study results released Thursday, namely, they excluded anyone who had less than one year of service in career fields related to intercontinental ballistic missiles, eliminating more than 19,000 people from the missile community.

Additionally, officials said the methodology for calculating incidence rates had been slightly changed, which determined that there was “no statistically significant difference in the incidence of most cancers” between the missile community and the Air Force, said Col. Anthony Waldroup, chief of aerospace medicine for the 711th. human potential wing, the mayor’s office said.

Officials clarified that nearly all the evidence suggests that “the missile community has a lower relative risk of developing these types of cancers than the general U.S. population,” Waldroup added.

Air Force Global Strike Command officials denied the discovery, saying they were still halfway through obtaining the necessary data.

“Releasing preliminary information is just an attempt to be transparent, not final in the reopening journey,” Bussiere said during the town hall meeting. “Roughly about 50% of the data available, we still have another 50% of the data to process.”

Next steps will begin with a study of cancer mortality in the missile community, followed by a large-scale study of civilian tumor registries.

Researching state and local cancer registries is a critical step, as many missileers told Military.com they didn’t seek help from either the VA or the Department of Defense because they didn’t initially believe their illnesses were service-related. or that it has been decades since they have been in uniform and received care from their primary care practitioner in the private sector. These results will likely not be available until 2025.

But for some, the long wait for results turned out to be an ordeal.

Rocketeers and their families are fighting to receive Veterans Affairs benefits and to link their service to their illnesses. Relatives of Mark Holmes, rocket scientist who died in 2020 at age 37 from non-Hodgkin’s lymphomatold the mayor’s office about the headwind they encountered.

“My son’s death was determined to be unrelated to Veterans Affairs and unrelated to Air Force duty,” Dan Holmes, a former rocket scientist and Mark’s father, said during the town hall. “Mark died in service to his country, but in addition to fighting this soulless, heartless, heartless bureaucracy that is the VA for three years now, our family now feels like the Air Force, my Air Force, doesn’t care either.”

Connected: They stood guard over the American nuclear missile arsenal. Many people worry that it could give them cancer.

The story continues