It’s long been said that music connects us, and one veteran has turned to AI to create bluesy southern rock to draw attention to the hundreds of thousands of people harmed by decades of contaminated water aboard Camp Lejeune.
Mike Morrill served in the United State Marine Corps for six years, from 1983 to 1989, and was stationed at Camp Lejeune for the majority of that time. He’s one of more than 400,000 people still trying to get compensation under the Camp Lejeune Justice Act from the U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of the Navy after being sickened by contaminated water aboard the base.
“I didn't find out until 2016 about the water,” he said, “I got a letter out of the blue from, I think it was either the VA or the DoD that said that basically told me about the water and that I have permission to go to the V.A. and get checked out. And that's when everything started with me. That's when my very first appointment all of a sudden. I had things going on that I didn't. I mean, I knew I wasn't feeling well in certain areas, but I didn't know exactly why. I just thought I, I'll be honest with you, had a bad gut, so to say.”
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Like many others who have been diagnosed with a wide range of cancers, organ damage, and reproductive issues caused by drinking the chemical-laden water, Morrill is an advocate for not just himself, but all who are suffering. He said, “I wanted to try to do something. I wrote letters to senators, like all of us have, and to no avail, so I thought, ‘Well, maybe I'll put out a song and see if I can get attention that way.’”
While the lyrics flowed pretty naturally, being a songwriter overall did not. Morrill said, “I love to write, but I'm not much of a singer, or I'm not musically inclined at all, so I used A.I. to help me with that.”
Because A.I. is maybe not in its infancy, but certainly its toddler years, Morrill said there was a bit of trial and error during the process. “It doesn't understand a lot of the lingo when it comes to the Marine Corps, like Semper Fi and things like that,” he explained. “It doesn't understand how that fits in with either the Marine Corps life.”
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One of the tunes, "Carolina Sand," is about more than the base’s location along the Atlantic coast. Morrill said, “Most of my songs are more about, it's not necessarily the Marine Corps, but certain people within the ranks let us down because they knew about it before and they just kept, you know, pushing it papers. And you'll notice some of my songs I talk about papers hidden behind a door because they didn't want anybody to know and they didn't want to shut the water supply down. I guess because it would, they wouldn't be able to supply certain areas of the base.
For 34 years—from 1953 to 1987—Marines and civilians working at Camp Lejeune were exposed to drinking water laced with toxic chemicals like TCE, PCE, and benzene. Despite warnings in the early 1980s, the military didn’t fully disclose the contamination for more than a decade after the last wells were closed. The toxic exposure affected the Hadnot Point and Tarawa Terrace systems, reaching levels hundreds of times higher than safety standards.
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Another of Morrill’s A.I. generated tunes, "Devil Dogs," is a tribute to those who have died from illnesses caused by the toxic water as well of those who may die before the court cases reach conclusion. “A lot of the vets that have issues are Vietnam vets. And they're up there in the age groups. And so that's who I've been advocating for more than anybody else, because most of them don't have a lot of time,” Morrill said. “So, you'll hear that in a lot of my songs about people not having much time that the government needs to give them their justice before they're gone."
"Devil Dogs" also touches on common frustrations of the thousands of plaintiffs waiting on their day in court, and settlement money in their bank accounts, under the Camp Lejeune Justice Act. “The DOJ right now is, ‘Delay, delay, delay, fight, fight, fight.’ How they're prolonging it and how they filed motion after motion after motion and how frustrated, you know, everybody is about how long this thing's going on. And it just, it seems like there's no light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.
Morrill said the songs have been well-received by many involved in the fight for justice, and, “They're getting a group to go to Washington, D.C. sometime in May and June, and they asked if they could use my song. I said, ‘Absolutely.’ You know, these are not for me to, you know, make him. I said, use them however you can to help the cause.”
Morrill’s AI-generated music can be found on the SUNO website under the username EpicuriousV12134.
