WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — Earlier this year, NewsNation brought you the story of a group of veterans who guarded our nation’s deepest secrets. Now they’re telling their own.
These men and women served on a cl***ified military installation that encomp***ed the infamous Area 51. They now say they’re getting sick and dying without recognition. Their work so secret, the Department of Defense has yet to acknowledge it; their records remain “Data Masked,” as if they were never there.
They tell NewsNation’s Natasha Zouves, this cl***ification is preventing them from getting the care they need, and their health is deteriorating. When we first aired our story in February of 2025, their memorial list stood at 446. Now, it is at 491.
After our investigation aired, two bills were introduced to help these veterans: the Protect Act and the Forgotten Veterans Act. They were invited to Washington, D.C. this month, where they laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and brought their fight directly to lawmakers — not just for themselves, but for the widows, children and fellow service members they say have already paid the price.
“If it wasn’t for NewsNation, I wouldn’t have been here today, and I mean that,” said veteran Dave Crete, speaking to us after the wreath laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. “It put [our story] in front of so many people, literally, my phone blew up. It was unprecedented. We had never been through something like that. We are all indebted, truly indebted.”
The invisible enemy
The Air Force veterans served in the mid 1980’s through 1990’s on the Nevada Test and Training Range — a cl***ified site that encomp***es Area 51 in the Nevada desert.
Dave Crete and the men and women he served alongside were hand-picked and tasked with top-secret work. They couldn’t even tell their spouses what they did every day.
“We couldn’t even tell them the weather,” said Crete.
A 2016 reunion barbecue at Crete’s Las Vegas home was supposed to be a chance for Air Force buddies to reminisce after almost three decades apart. It was veteran Randy Groves who suddenly brought up the subject of tumors — a comment that stopped Dave Crete in his tracks.
“We’re just sitting around drinking beers,” recounted Groves. “I said, ‘You guys, I got this this lump on my back. Does anybody else got that?’ And Dave goes, ‘Yeah, I had a big one cut out.’”
Dave Crete says he had, in fact, developed more than 20 lipomas on his body, ranging from his forehead to his arms to his torso; one of them grew so large that it had to be excised from his back.
“I said, ‘Yeah, I had one of those. I had it removed. It was the size of a grapefruit,’” he recalls.
The veterans discovered that out of the eight men sitting around that backyard, six of them had developed tumors. Crete’s stomach dropped when the seventh man said, “I don’t have any, but my son was born with one.”
“It just kind of confirmed it. There was an issue where we were. That’s the one common denominator. We were all there,” said Groves.
“There” was the Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR). This remote site, known for its nuclear testing since the 1950s, both underground and atmospheric, hosted highly cl***ified military operations.
The veterans still can’t talk about most of their work on the range, but the one decl***ified mission they can now disclose involves guarding the F-117 Nighthawk, America’s first stealth bomber.
The full scope of their work will likely never be known by the public, but Crete says he takes refuge in a conversation he had with the late Sen. John McCain.
“We never talked about what I had done, but I knew he knew. He was on the Senate Armed Services Committee, so he knew. And he came up to me and he says, ‘Your unit ended the Cold War.’ If you ever wanted a validation what you did was important, that’s just about it,” said Crete.
‘It’s a matter of betrayal‘
Veteran Mike Nemcic had the same tumors as his crewmates at the barbecue, starting around his eye, followed by multiple cancers.
“I was to the point where I felt forsaken. I thought, ‘My God has forsaken me,’” said Nemcic.
Nemcic endured four bouts with cancer — throat, salivary gland, bladder and colon — starting at just 38 years old. He says his biggest fear was leaving his young family behind without a father or provider.
Nemcic is far from alone. Robert Krouse is a former DOD contractor who worked alongside these vets. He endured two cancers, having 80% of his tongue removed along with his vocal cords and all of his teeth. He can’t speak and can’t eat. Despite this, he says he feels blessed to be alive.
“I have a feeding tube, but I saw friends who p***ed away or are paralyzed and can’t walk,” said Krouse. “I’m just blessed I’m functional but not as handy. I feel blessed. I’m much better off than some.”
Krouse says he “***umed it was safe,” as did all of these men and women. Do***entation has been unearthed since their service showing what the government knew before deciding to send these Air Force members into the desert.
“It’s like a kick in the gut. It’s just a matter of betrayal,” said Nemcic. “These folks knew, and they purposefully kept it quiet because it was more beneficial to them not to tell us.”
What the government knew: An unearthed 1975 report
Before Pomp Braswell became a pro golfer and a Harlem Globetrotter, he served.
“You’re hand-picked, you know, you’re the top of the top,” said Braswell. “It felt very special, especially at a young age. My mom knew absolutely zero about what I was doing. She knew there was a phone number if she needed to get ahold of me, that’s it.”
The Air Force vet is now fighting thyroid cancer.
“Our government knew that the area was contaminated. So knowing that, and they willfully put us there, that’s giving somebody a death sentence,” said Braswell.
Hundreds of nuclear weapons tests were conducted in the area of the range from the 1950s to the early 1990s. In the 1970s, the government began exploring the idea of building a military installation there to house cl***ified projects.
A 1975 Environmental Report from the U.S. Energy Research & Development Administration acknowledges nuclear contamination — depleted uranium, beryllium and plutonium — present before these men and women were sent by the government to the range. But the report adds, “Discontinuing the work done … would be against the national interest.”
“It’s one thing to be ignorant or to be naive to not know,” said Dave Crete. “But they’ve understood for a long time.”
The issue is that now, these veterans are telling NewsNation their claims are being denied by Veterans Affairs, their work so top secret that their records from the DOD are what’s called “Data Masked.”
“I feel pushed aside,” said Braswell. “That our government has chosen to use national security as their excuse to not take care of the people who took care of them.”
Crete has decided to go public despite the risks he believes could be involved. He now runs The Invisible Enemy, a nonprofit fighting for government transparency, pushing for legislation that would provide medical treatment and compensation for military personnel and their families who were exposed to contamination at the Nevada Test and Training Range.
When we ran our investigation earlier this year, NewsNation reached out to the Department of Defense for answers. We asked them about the 1975 Environmental Report and the veterans’ claims that their diseases are linked to contamination on the range. We also asked why DOE workers received coverage and compensation when working on this identical site often for shorter hours, but these veterans have not.
The DOD said they would not comment and referred us to the Air Force.
The Air Force said, “We don’t have any information available from that time frame.”
NewsNation went to Veterans Affairs. The VA told us there is no presumptive exposure for these veterans who served at the range, and these veterans will need to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis to prove their illnesses are related to their service.
The vets tell us this is difficult, if not impossible, when their data is masked.
A ‘never in a lifetime’ moment
These veterans were invited to Washington, D.C., where they gathered for a solemn ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. There, they laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
“It was surreal. There was a banner on the wreath that said ‘The Invisible Enemy,’” Crete said, reflecting on the moment. “And then your thoughts go to all of our buddies that have already p***ed. Yeah, you have to honor them. They can’t be there. And you’ve met some of these guys, they’re amazing people, so you have to honor them.”
He wasn’t the only one moved by the moment.
“During the wreath laying, there was Paul, the guy that was standing next to me. I said, ‘Now tell me, this isn’t a once in a lifetime opportunity.’ He goes, ‘this is never in a lifetime opportunity.’ That’s the way he put it. And it’s true. This is never something that happens. And here we are.”
Crete says it hit him the moment he saw the NewsNation crew arrive: “When I woke up this morning, I was getting pretty nervous. When I saw the crew walking up from NewsNation, it was a pretty heavy moment. I just stood there by myself because you knew it was happening. So I just stand off by myself for a while and thought about what I needed to do.”
Taking the fight to Congress
The room was silent as Dave Crete spoke at the House Veterans Committee roundtable that same week. After the NewsNation investigation aired, for the first time, they had a seat at the table.
“I struggle telling our story, we are a proud group of veterans,” Crete said to the lawmakers in the room. “I get the calls from the widows. They’re terrible phone calls, as they tell me what happened to their spouses. All of the widows experience the same thing. Mine will as well.”
Crete said they are not looking for money, they are looking to not be erased.
“We’re not talking about making somebody rich,” he said. “We’re just talking about making them not forgotten.”
The veterans are hopeful that there is a path forward with legislation. Two bills have now been introduced that has the potential to help them, but the question remains if they will find bipartisan support and the momentum they need to p***.
Ranking Member Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) invited Dave Crete and the Invisible Enemy to the roundtable. After watching the NewsNation investigation, he says he felt compelled to act.
“Frankly I was pissed off. It was infuriating. Heartbreaking,” said Rep. Takano. “Every American who saw the story and the exposé that you all did on Dave Crete and the Area 51 veterans should be angry, it should make them want to demand that our government does something. I think we need to move more quickly than we are.”
Congressman Takano is now renewing his call for a full congressional hearing on the matter.
“I’m a little frustrated. I called on the chairman to hold hearings on Area 51 and I still reiterate that call for the chairman to do that. I believe this is deserving of a full hearing by the Veterans Affairs Committee,” said Rep. Takano.
Dave Crete hopes political will and presidential action will follow.
Speaking into a microphone in front of the Congressional roundtable, Crete described a litany of serious health issues he faces today, from brain atrophy and a brain cyst to 20 tumors throughout his body, including his thyroid and lungs. He told NewsNation that mortality is never far from his mind. He is 60 years old now. The average age on the memorial list is 65.
For Crete, this isn’t just a policy issue. It’s a promise to those he served alongside, hunkered down for days in secret in the windswept desert.
“These people I served with are the greatest people I’ve ever known, many of these people are my heroes,” said Crete. “To be able to do something for them is incredible. It’s the highest honor. In the end, if [these bills] p***, it means I did something that made a difference for somebody other than myself. I was a part of something greater than me. And that leaves a legacy.”
