When 7,000 people sue you, there is a lot of crisis management in your future, even if you’re the U.S. Navy. The landmark lawsuit, which involves much of the population of Vieques, Puerto Rico, alleges that the six decades of weapons testing the Navy did there has caused residents to develop cancers and other illnesses. To help their cause, the plaintiffs have several very vocal experts and witnesses who are making the media rounds, including ex-Marine Hermogenes Marrero, quoted here in a CNN.com article:
Because he no longer lives on Vieques, Marrero is not one of the plaintiffs but has given sworn testimony in the case. He said the weapons used on the island included napalm; depleted uranium, a heavy metal used in armor-piercing ammunition; and Agent Orange, the defoliant used on the Vietnamese jungles that was later linked to cancer and other illnesses in veterans.
“We used to store it in the hazardous material area,” Marrero said. It was used in Vieques as a defoliant for the fence line.
The military’s crisis response can vary from excellent to amateurish. This situation demonstrates the latter. Eventually, someone’s head will have to come out of the sand and stop letting the lawyers negatively imp;act reputation.
The BCM Blogging Team
https://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/