Matthew Mildrum loved serving his country as a Marine lance corporal, but his 156 days at Camp Lejeune, N.C., cost him his life. 

Now his widow, Kimberly Jensen of Berlin, is fighting for justice for her husband and other victims of the contaminated water at the Marine base, and raising awareness of the issue.

Too few people are aware they might be victims themselves, Jensen said.

She and five others recently took their case to the streets of Washington, D.C., staging a small demonstration at the United States Navy Memorial and the Department of Justice.

Mildrum died in January 2020 of lung and bone cancer, which the Navy acknowledged were service related. Jensen said he was a Marine till the end.

“When he said this to me, I knew how much pain he was in. He said, I wish I’d died in the Marines as a hero versus a victim of the country I loved,” she said.

As many as 1 million Marines, staff and family members may have been exposed to Camp Lejeune’s toxic chemicals, found in water, including benzene, which have been shown to cause cancer and birth defects, among other health issues.

The contamination began in the 1950s and the poisoned wells were shut down in 1985, three years after the problems were discovered, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

Seven cancers and Parkinson’s disease are considered “presumptive conditions,” meaning the Department of Veterans Affairs will grant benefits to those suffering from them if they served at least 30 days at Camp Lejeune between Aug. 1, 1953, and Dec. 31, 1987.

In August 2022, the Camp Lejeune Justice Act allowed for tort claims to be filed against the Navy. (The Marines are a part of the Navy.) The day after the law passed, Jensen’s lawyer filed 2,500 claims.

After his discharge, Mildrum was a mail carrier in Plainville for 32 years, retiring at 56, Jensen said. “Then he got the job he loved, which was an armed security guard for federal judges. And then all sudden, he’s not feeling good,” she said.

“He was diagnosed with lung cancer in January (2020),” she said. “He had radiation, he had immunotherapy and chemotherapy. And he did not respond favorably to any of it because apparently it was in his bones.”

Mildrum died in August 2020, “four days after our 17th wedding anniversary and a day after his grandson’s second birthday. It was pretty traumatic,” Jensen, 57, said. She spent the next year fighting for her husband’s VA benefits, which she ultimately received. And she has filed a notice of intent to sue.

“He was drinking approximately 380 parts per billion of benzene,” which has an allowable limit of five parts per billion, Jensen said.

“When you put the toxic cocktail together, they shouldn’t be denying anything at all,” she said. “So I helped advocate. Since his passing, I had a lot of people help me get through the VA. And with that, I in turn decided to pay it forward. And I’ve done research on all these horrible toxins. And an important part of my life now is to create awareness for Camp Lejeune.”

Jensen and Mildrum’s blended family includes five children and three grandchildren. Jensen now cares for her mother-in-law.

“I cry every time I cut the lawn because he loved cutting the lawn, and when he got sick, he tried,” but was unable to do the chore, Jensen said. “Every time I cut the lawn, I just see him so sick and so helpless. I mean, it’s the guy who walked 12 miles a day on his route, and then to lose the ability to walk, it was devastating.”

While the Navy is taking claims from survivors, many have been denied simply because the Navy did not respond within the required six months, Jensen said. All the claims must be filed with four federal judges in the Eastern District of North Carolina, who have received 45,000 notices, she said. The deadline for claims is Aug. 10, 2024.

“There’s never been any Camp Lejeune awareness campaigns in New England,” Jensen said. “I’m with the American Legion Auxiliary in Berlin and I’m meeting people every day that still don’t know that they could file a lawsuit or that they could fight the VA for their denials.”

On June 2, Jensen’s group of four widows and two victims met in Washington with signs and T-shirts. Her T-shirt read “D.O.J. Another Camp Lejeune victim died today!” 

Jensen’s friend, Tara Craver, who organized the group, called Catherine Herridge of CBS News, who came out to interview them. 

“We started at the Navy Memorial,” Jensen said. ‘We walked past the FBI, we went to the Department of Justice, and just kind of hung out there. … And we made a very quiet statement: ‘We’re tired. Stop the delay. It’s been 45 years in the making. Do something.’

“We weren’t obnoxious,” she said. “We were just making statements and taking pictures. Not shouting. And we wanted it to be small, because as far as I’m concerned, sometimes a whisper is received a lot better than a scream.”

Jensen found Craver through Craver’s Facebook group, “Camp Lejeune Victims: ‘The Faces.’” Craver, who lives in Sebring, Fla., lost her husband in 2014 to esophageal cancer.

Craver said she is proud of Jensen and her efforts.

“I’ve been in this just under 10 years since I lost my husband, and I met Kim about a year and a half ago,” she said. “After losing her husband, she was devastated. She didn’t know where to go, what to do, nothing.”

But after Jensen fought for her husband’s death benefits and having his death ruled as service connected, “The student has now become the teacher,” Craver said. “And now she’s paying it forward and I couldn’t be more proud of her if I wanted to be. She’s really a smart cookie.”

The two women talk almost every night. 

“I think it’s great what she’s done and what she’s doing,” Craver said. “So many people, they don’t want to get up and do anything. They want you to do it for them.”

Craver said she was most angered by the Navy’s response to the lawsuits, which put the responsibility on the victims. It claimed the Navy is not responsible if the plaintiffs voluntarily assumed the risk, negligently contributed to the injury or “failed to exercise reasonable care and diligence to avoid or lessen the consequences of any injury loss or damage.”

Maj. Jim Stenger, Marine Corps spokesman, issued a statement, saying, “The Marine Corps cares deeply about our service members, veterans, civilian workforce, and families — including those who have experienced health issues they believe are related to their time in service.”

Jensen said she is getting impatient with the Navy’s delay tactics.

“By no means is it our fault that this happened,” she said. “They need to stop stalling. They’ve ruined so many lives. They continue to ruin lives. We don’t even have any idea what the biological effects of it (are) genetically. And it’s still so new that they don’t know.”

While Mildrum’s spirits were good until his death, “the strong, burly 6-foot-4 Marine dwindled down to nothing,” Jensen said.

“He was so disillusioned when this happened,” she said. “He just couldn’t believe they hid it for so long.”

Ed Stannard can be reached at estannard@courant.com.