Located near Grayling, Michigan, the installation is the largest National Guard training facility in the country, supporting infantry training, artillery exercises, aviation operations, engineer training, and live-fire exercises. Camp Grayling includes the Grayling Army Airfield, which handles helicopter operations, aviation training, and aircraft maintenance, and decades of Cold War-era expansion added aircraft support facilities, fire stations, barracks, and boiler plants built largely between the 1940s and 1970s.
AFFF exposure at Camp Grayling
Most bases have one or two named training sites. Camp Grayling has five, all identified by Army National Guard investigations as locations where firefighters conducted live-fire training with AFFF during the 1970s and 1980s:
- Grayling Army Airfield Fire Training Area
- former Maneuver Area Training Equipment Site
- fire training area near Taxiway D
- site at the northwestern end of Runway 14/32
- City of Grayling Fire Department Fire Training Area
Investigations concluded that AFFF was released during exercises at several of these locations as crews practiced responding to aircraft and fuel fires, spreading firefighter exposure across multiple points on the installation rather than a single pit.
Whichever site a firefighter trained at, the work followed the same basic pattern: fuel got ignited to simulate a crash, AFFF went down to put it out, and afterward came the cleanup, servicing hoses, trucks, and storage tanks before the next drill. Certification wasn't something earned once, so this cycle played out repeatedly over the course of a career. Army Fire Protection Specialists and Army National Guard firefighters were closest to it, but Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting personnel, trainees, instructors, apparatus operators, and the staff maintaining foam systems all had reason to be there too.
PFAS chemicals in that foam carry a documented link to kidney and testicular cancer. If you trained at any of Camp Grayling's fire training areas and were later diagnosed with one of these cancers, our team can help you find out whether you're eligible to file an AFFF claim.
Asbestos exposure at Camp Grayling
Like many long-standing Army installations, Camp Grayling relied on asbestos for its heat resistance, durability, and insulating properties. Materials commonly used across its barracks, hangars, and utility buildings included:
The trades most likely to have disturbed these materials while maintaining Camp Grayling's buildings and airfield facilities include:
Camp Grayling contains numerous buildings and infrastructure dating back to the mid-20th century, when asbestos-containing products were standard throughout military construction, and personnel responsible for maintaining barracks, aircraft facilities, and utility systems faced the greatest opportunity for exposure. Mesothelioma and lung cancer are the two conditions most strongly tied to this kind of exposure, and both can take 20 to 50 years to surface after the fibers are first inhaled, which means a diagnosis today may connect back to maintenance work performed decades earlier without any clear link at the time. If your service included that kind of maintenance work at Camp Grayling and you've since received one of these diagnoses, contact our team to find out whether you're eligible to file an asbestos claim.