Located in Biloxi, Mississippi, along the Gulf Coast, the installation was established in 1941 as Biloxi Air Corps Station before being renamed for 2nd Lieutenant Samuel Reeves Keesler Jr., a Mississippi native and World War I aviator. During World War II, Keesler AFB became one of the Army Air Forces' largest technical training centers, and today it's home to the 81st Training Wing. Decades of that training mission required aircraft hangars, electronics laboratories, medical training facilities, and steam and HVAC systems, much of it built between the 1940s and 1970s.
AFFF exposure at Keesler Air Force Base
Keesler Air Force Base has maintained continuous Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting operations since well before the Air Force adopted AFFF as its standard extinguishing agent for petroleum-based aircraft fires in the early 1970s. Firefighters assigned to the installation from that point forward would have trained with the foam as standard practice, consistent with Air Force-wide firefighting protocols during this period.
That training followed the same rhythm every Air Force base of this era shared:
- Fire Protection Specialists mixed concentrate and loaded trucks ahead of scheduled drills
- ARFF crews charged hoses and worked live burns during certification exercises
- Instructors ran the same drills for new trainees year after year
- Vehicles and gear were cleaned and foam systems serviced between every session
- Civilian firefighters assigned to the base went through identical training alongside their military counterparts
Because firefighter certification required recurring participation in live-fire exercises, the same personnel handled AFFF repeatedly across the length of their careers, whether they were extinguishing simulated aircraft fires, testing foam proportioning systems, or servicing the storage tanks and delivery lines that kept the whole system running.
Kidney cancer and testicular cancer are the four conditions linked to AFFF exposure among firefighters with this kind of sustained occupational contact. If you trained or served as a firefighter at Keesler Air Force Base anytime after the Air Force adopted AFFF and were later diagnosed with one of these cancers, our team can help you find out whether you're eligible to file.
Asbestos exposure at Keesler Air Force Base
Keesler Air Force Base's oldest facilities were built during World War II and continued expanding through the Cold War, decades when asbestos was standard throughout military construction. Materials commonly used in its hangars, training buildings, and dormitories included:
- duct insulation
- boiler coating
- acoustical panels
- cement siding
- gaskets
- electric boards
- joint compound
- valves
The trades most likely to have come into contact with these materials while maintaining Keesler Air Force Base technical training and aircraft facilities include:
These trades routinely worked in mechanical rooms, boiler plants, and older buildings where asbestos-containing materials were installed decades earlier and often left undisturbed until a renovation, repair, or demolition project released fibers into the air. Because Keesler AFB has operated continuously since 1941, personnel assigned to base maintenance, utilities, or construction work at any point over that history could have encountered these materials, not just during the original construction era but throughout the decades of upkeep that followed.
Asbestos-related disease works on a long delay: mesothelioma and lung cancer, the two conditions most consistently linked to this kind of exposure, often don't show symptoms until 20 to 50 years after the fibers were first inhaled. Someone diagnosed today may be dealing with the consequences of maintenance work performed decades ago, long before retirement was even on the horizon. If your service included that kind of work at Keesler Air Force Base and you've since received one of these diagnoses, our team can review your history and let you know if you qualify to file an asbestos claim.