Red Hill is shutting down, but the tragic reality of its long-term effects continues impacting many families sickened during the 2021 fuel leaks.

I am the mom of three boys and the wife of an Air Force Reserve colonel. Half of my family continues battling daily symptoms that began during the 2021 leaks. Our battle to recover has thus far lacked the support, care and acknowledgement from the very military to which my family has given 30 years of service, and the very institution that caused the ailments we suffer.

While shutting down Red Hill is the right and necessary step needed to protect Hawaii, equally important is for Department of Defense leaders to take full responsibility for its toxic health effects. They must begin helping families by accepting and acknowledging the unexpected and tragic long-term health effects of Red Hill.

In 2022, military officers told my family that a federal tort claim was the only route to try and recover our $30,000 in mounting medical bills. Since then, we have discovered our bills will never end, and that the military would rather hide behind legal walls than make the necessary and honorable decisions needed for its own sickened families. By acknowledging the long-term effects and accepting our families’ current realities, our attorneys and DOD lawyers could begin immediate collaborations on the best path forward for those affected.

The names of military leaders during the Red Hill contamination will be forever linked to it. Their words and actions reflect how the Navy and leaders’ names will be remembered. Will they be remembered for protecting military families when negligent actions harm them, or will they be known for ignoring the ailments we suffer, casting our families off as collateral damage, and abandoning us to attorneys and courts?

For me, I want history to remember my name. I want DOD leaders to remember me as one of the many who spoke up and for two years tried informing that something wasn’t right. I want the Navy to remember my name and my family’s reality when they think about what negligent and delayed actions pertaining to fuel and drinking water really mean for a person’s long-term health.

The tragedy of Red Hill hasn’t ended for families like mine. We have a 16-year-old son now diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome. Like others after the Red Hill crisis, he has struggled with chronic diarrhea for 27 months. I want history to remember my child as one of the many examples of children sickened and then abandoned after they drank jet fuel-contaminated water.

In February 2024, neurologists informed me that my latest test result shows I have an incurable, neurodegenerative, progressive disease. Prior to the Red Hill water contamination, I was a perfectly healthy, active 51-year-old. I never recovered from ingesting jet fuel and now I have Parkinson’s disease.

To military leaders: Remember my name and what my family’s future looks like. Remember the tragic reality of Red Hill — the ongoing medical effects that have forever changed the lives of your families.

To the community of Oahu: Remember my family’s reality the next time a military physician, leader, neighbor or attorney tries to tell you there were only short-term, fleeting effects from Red Hill. My family got sick during Red Hill’s toxic fuel leaks, we haven’t recovered, and the reality is that our symptoms are not psychosomatic.

Over time, I believe Red Hill will continue to reveal more somber truths. Without aggressive, protective measures, peoples’ health, the land and Hawaii’s precious wai, will all reflect the reality of its toxic effects. For now, families who never recovered from Red Hill must continue enduring the long-term medical realities that the Navy and DOD continue to deny.

I want Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro, Adm. Lisa Franchetti and Adm. Samuel Paparo to remember my name — and what the future looks like for families like mine.

Katherine McClanahan is the wife of an Air Force Reserve colonel whose family has been affected by the Red Hill contamination.