A Trust Betrayed

Washington Post, 4/6/14
“A meticulous reporter, Magner draws from a bounty of memos and other documents to build a devastating case against a generation of military leaders who ignored or played down the contamination at the base. He adds new insights into the appalling decisions made by Lejeune administrators who were alerted to the contamination but kept the water flowing without alerting residents to the severity of the problem…In writing this book, Magner has done a great service to those Marine families—a service that the Marines failed to provide.”

InfoDad blog, 4/3/14
“Make[s] a large subject comprehensible…Magner's carefully detailed look at the ways in which the Defense Department repeatedly failed Marine families even as the toxic-waste accumulation appeared to spawn birth defects and cancers is damning, and his discussion of the slow-moving bureaucratic machinery that allowed the toxic-waste problem to go unaddressed or inadequately addressed for so long is enough to infuriate any reader who thinks of the government, and the military in particular, as a sleek, efficient, and fast-moving machine.”

Kirkus Reviews, 2/1/14

“A fast-moving, smartly detailed story of an environmental disaster compounded by the Corps' broken promise—‘We take care of our own'—to the men who served and suffered.”

Publishers Weekly, 2/3/14

“This book is the first complete account of what really happened—an adroit mixture of detailed factual reporting and disturbing accounts of the serious health problems suffered by individual Marines and their families.”

New York Post, 3/30/14
“Magner reports the awful results through affected families' sad stories—along with the Pentagon's slow and sorry response.”

The VVA Veteran, March/April 2014
“Magner does a thorough job telling the story…The book is an adroit mixture of detailed reporting on the facts and disturbing accounts of the serious health problems of individual Marines and their families.”