“I would hear our two oldest coughing through the night in their beds,” said Norquist.
Traci Lenz and her family had health issues too and had to put out their own cash to throw away clothes, furniture and other personal items that were contaminated with mold.
“We’ve had nothing refunded or reimbursed or paid for despite any promises or meetings,” said Lenz.
The Air Force has investigated mold issued at MacDill for months. The housing at MacDill is run by a private company and they claim they are working to correct the problems.
Attorney Natalie Khawam represents both Lenz and Norquist. She says the problems are not being fixed.
“It’s so sad, these men and women serve our country, they protect our freedom and they can’t even go home. It’s really disastrous when we treat the people who protect us so poorly,” said Khawam.
The health issues have impacted a number of families. A report by the Military Family Advisory Network found that more than 60 percent of the families in base housing at Macdill have experienced mold problems.
“It’s national security. When somebody is not deployable that’s been trained by our military to go and fight terrorism and they can’t fight terrorism because they are in the doctors, they’re in the hospital. They have pulmonary issues, they have respiratory issues, they have brain fog issues, I mean that’s despicable,” said Khawam.
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