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Monday, April 2, 2012

Jerry Ensminger and Rachel Libert, "Semper Fi: Always Faithful"

WASHINGTON, DC
Sunday, April 1, 2012

This week on "Q&A," our guests are producer Rachel Libert and retired U.S. Marine Corps Master Sergeant Jerry Ensminger. Libert is the producer and co-director of a documentary which features Ensminger.

The film chronicles Ensminger’s efforts on behalf of Marines and their families exposed to toxic drinking water at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. These efforts resulted in the introduction of the Janey Ensminger Act in the House and the Caring for Camp Lejeune Veterans Act in the Senate. The act is named after Mr. Ensminger's daughter who died of leukemia in 1985 at the age of nine.



The documentary details how he heard a local news story in 1997 about a proposed health study on adults and babies exposed to toxins in the water system on the base. After that, Ensminger began an investigative trail that took him to a government website which contained specific documents relating to the exposure. He and other former residents of the base filed over one thousand Freedom of Information Act requests to discover more. Ensminger was invited to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee to discuss his findings.

During the interview with C-SPAN, Libert talks about her motivations for making the film, and introduces one of the participants, Mike Partain, who was diagnosed with male breast cancer at age 38.

Libert, a 2010 Sundance Institute Documentary Fellow, was the producer and director of documentary series last year on Discovery/Planet Green called “Boomtown.” Her film, “Undertaker” also won a Cable ACE award for best dramatic short film. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. Ensminger, a North Carolina resident, retired as a Master Sergeant after serving twenty-four and one half years in the U.S. Marines. He was in motor transport maintenance and was a drill instructor at Camp Lejeune.