Why Killeen Residents and Fort Hood Veterans Are at Risk for Asbestos-Related Disease

Fort Hood — now designated Fort Cavazos — is the largest active-duty Army post in the United States and has been the dominant institution shaping Killeen since World War II. Military personnel stationed at Fort Hood across the mid-20th century lived and worked in facilities built and maintained with asbestos-containing materials that were standard in government construction through the 1970s. Barracks, administrative buildings, maintenance shops, motor pools, and warehouses constructed at the installation from the 1940s through the late 1970s incorporated asbestos ceiling tile, floor tile, insulation board, pipe insulation, roofing materials, and fireproofing. Army personnel who maintained this aging infrastructure — facility engineers, building maintenance workers, electricians, and plumbers — encountered asbestos as they repaired, renovated, and worked within these structures across active-duty assignments and long civilian employment on the installation.

Military vehicle and equipment maintenance is another well-documented source of asbestos exposure for Fort Hood personnel. Brakes, clutches, and gaskets in Army vehicles — including tanks, trucks, and support vehicles maintained at Fort Hood's motor pools — historically used asbestos-containing friction materials through the same decades that industrial asbestos use was standard across the civilian economy. Mechanics and vehicle maintenance crews who performed brake jobs, clutch replacements, and general mechanical work on Army equipment across multi-year assignments accumulated meaningful asbestos exposure from these tasks. Combat engineer units and construction battalions who built and repaired military facilities using standard construction materials of the era also carried significant exposure histories.

Killeen's civilian community — which has grown largely to support the Fort Hood population — includes many veterans who served in asbestos-exposure environments and later settled in Bell County after their service ended. These veterans may have experienced asbestos exposure on ships (particularly those who served in the Navy aboard vessels insulated with asbestos), at other bases with similar construction-era facilities, or during overseas deployments at foreign military installations with comparable asbestos histories. Mesothelioma's 20-to-50-year latency means that service-related asbestos exposure from the 1950s through the 1970s is only now manifesting in diagnoses for many Killeen-area veterans. Danziger & De Llano has extensive experience representing veterans with military-origin asbestos exposure histories.