If you are a military mother like me, you probably know know a lot of people who are just as baffled by the mysterious baby deaths on Fort Bragg Housing as the rest of us. It concerns me that so much is going on at Fort Bragg right now and very little national news is covering it.
*** If you have found yourself reading this article and you live in/on Fort Bragg or are planning too soon, please RECONSIDER moving on post if you have infants or small children, are pregnant, or are planning to get pregnant.***
Officials won't state which housing developments were involved, however, one News site told us that Fort Bragg's newest "off post" Housing Development Linden Oaks is to blame for at least 3 of the now 12 unexplained baby deaths within the last four years. We lived at the newly built Linden Oaks neighborhood for a little over a year (we've since moved into a house off post with our 3 year old daughter and 53 year old grandmother, who both have health concerns we weren't willing to put at risk) and in that time we experienced issues with mold, cracking window frames, plumbing leaks, and even crumbling drywall.
Fort Bragg officials still insist there is NO link even though 3 babies died in the SAME HOUSE! But 12 babies have died so far in Fort Bragg Housing from sudden onset upper Respiratory problems. Officials first said that none of the cases were related, but at the same time are blaming S.I.D.S as the cause. Yes, Sudden Infant death Syndrome can happen and it does happen, but that is NOT what happened with these babies. One child began coughing up blood and was dead shortly after. SIDS does not cause a child to cough blood. It doesn't present with upper respiratory symptoms either, so it seems that because it's easier for military officials to blame SIDS rather than taking responsibility for putting military families in shoddy housing, I guess that's what the solution is.
I don't know why more people talking about this? Maybe they aren't being told. I'm not usually one to call cover-up, but where's the front page news? All of our military friends and families should know. I'm not trying to scare anyone, or speak ill of the military. We are, after all, a PROUD MILITARY FAMILY. But the point is that we need to look out for each other, and we need to speak up when it's right, so please share this with anyone you know that could potentially be affected by the dangers of these unknown causes of death on Fort Bragg Military Housing.
Here is a short list of links I've found covering different parts of the story, for whoever wishes to double check the facts:
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=7639569
http://www.littlerockmamas.com/index.php/2011/03/29/babies-dying-at-fort-bragg-two-lived-in-same-house/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1370811/Twelfth-baby-dies-years-Army-base.html
http://www.propublica.org/article/fort-bragg-infant-deaths
