The Poisoning of Fort Ord: Veterans' Perspectives on Institutional Accountability
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- This honors thesis explores how veterans navigate military-caused pollution and the institutions responsible for poisoning the people and environment. Because there are loopholes in environmental legislation, the military is often exempt from the same regulations other corporations and industries are subject to. Their argument for this is to accomplish the goal of national security. Nevertheless, national security cannot be achieved without a sustainable environment for human welfare benefits. This work aims to understand the history behind military pollution and how veterans who have been personally impacted deal with the consequences. This thesis’ research questions are the following: 1) How do veterans reconcile a reality that was part and parcel of life on a military base that poisoned rather than protected them? 2) How does a veteran navigate military pollution and decipher which institutions should be held responsible for the resulting health consequences? Better understanding a veteran’s identity can help reveal how they still have a deep love for the military even when they have been diagnosed with a life-threatening health concern decades afterward or have lost a loved one. This information shows the ways in which veterans come to terms with what institution is responsible for their ailment. Based on this research, more public awareness around the issue of military pollution and institutional accountability is required for effective legislative action to be enacted.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Publication date | May 30, 2023; May 2023 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Reinhart, Caroline |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor | Wolfe, Mikael |
| Thesis advisor | McKibben, Carol Lynn |
| Degree granting institution | Stanford University |
Subjects
| Subject | Military base closures > Environmental aspects |
|---|---|
| Subject | United States Army Training Center, Infantry (Fort Ord, Calif.) |
| Subject | Environmental policy |
| Subject | Drinking water > Contamination |
| Genre | Text |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY).
Preferred citation
- Preferred citation
- Reinhart, C. (2023). The Poisoning of Fort Ord: Veterans' Perspectives on Institutional Accountability. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at https://purl.stanford.edu/hh691wm4265. https://doi.org/10.25740/hh691wm4265.
Collection
Stanford University, Program in Science, Technology and Society, Honors Theses
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- Contact
- creinhar@stanford.edu
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