Located in central New Jersey, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst is the Department of Defense's only tri-service joint base, formed in 2009 when McGuire Air Force Base, Fort Dix, and Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst officially merged under the Base Realignment and Closure program. Fort Dix opened in 1917 as a World War I training camp, McGuire AFB began in 1941 as Fort Dix Army Air Field before becoming a Strategic Air Command installation, and Lakehurst traces back to 1921 as the home of naval airship operations. Today the combined installation supports more than 42,000 active-duty personnel, reservists, civilians, and family members across strategic airlift, Army mobilization, naval aviation engineering, and Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting missions, with buildings spanning the 1920s through the 1970s.
AFFF exposure at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst
The former McGuire Air Force Base maintained a sequence of three Fire Training Areas that together spanned roughly 40 years of continuous live-fire training. Official Air Force environmental records identify FT-08, active from the late 1940s to 1958, followed by FT-11 from 1958 to 1973, and FT-13 from 1973 through the 1980s. Each site was used to simulate aircraft crash emergencies by burning aviation fuels such as AVGAS and JP-4, and while EPA Superfund documentation focuses on the fuels burned at these locations, later PFAS investigations at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst identify these same sites as historic AFFF source areas.
Across four decades and three successive training sites, firefighters followed a consistent routine:
- fuel was ignited to simulate an aircraft crash
- AFFF was applied to knock down the resulting fire
- proportioning systems were tested to confirm the foam-to-water mix
- vehicles and equipment were cleaned once training ended
- foam storage systems were restocked between exercises
Air Force Fire Protection Specialists and Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting personnel were joined in this exposure by Navy firefighters, Army firefighters, civilian firefighters, fire instructors, firefighter trainees, fire apparatus operators, and the staff who maintained foam systems, reflecting the tri-service nature of the base itself. The chemicals in that foam carry an established cancer risk for firefighters exposed this way over time:
If your firefighter service at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, McGuire Air Force Base, Fort Dix, or Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst included this kind of training and you've since received one of these diagnoses, our team can review your history and let you know whether you're eligible to file an AFFF claim.
Asbestos exposure at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst
Because the three component installations span nearly a century of military construction, asbestos-containing materials were built into thousands of buildings across the combined base. Materials commonly used throughout its hangars, barracks, and administrative buildings included:
Asbestos exposure wasn't spread evenly across every job on base. It concentrated in the hands of the people who kept hangars, mechanical systems, and fire stations running day to day, work that meant direct, repeated contact with insulation, wiring, and structural materials built decades earlier. At Fort Dix and across the joint base's Army-associated facilities, that meant:
Because the installation incorporates facilities dating from World War I through the Cold War, maintenance personnel, mechanics, engineers, and contractors serviced barracks, aircraft maintenance buildings, steam systems, hangars, and support facilities throughout that entire span. Mesothelioma and lung cancer, the two conditions most closely tied to this kind of work, often don't surface for 20 to 50 years after the original exposure, meaning a veteran who worked at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst decades ago might only be seeing symptoms now. If your service included that kind of maintenance work and you've since received either diagnosis, contact our team to find out whether you're eligible to file an asbestos claim.