American soldiers dying of lung cancer may have been knowingly exposed to toxins!

WASHINGTON - December 23, 2008 - The military contractor Kellogg Brown and Root, known as KBR, has won more than $28 billion in U.S. military contracts since the beginning of the Iraq war. Now, KBR may be facing a new scandal.

First, accusations its then-parent company, Halliburton, was given the lucrative contract, and later, allegations of shoddy construction oversight that resulted in Americans getting electrocuted. Now, some other American soldiers say the company knowingly put their lives at risk.

In April of 2003, James Gentry of the Indiana National Guard arrived in Southern Iraq to take command of more than 600 other guardsmen. Their job: protect KBR contractors working at a local water plant.

“We didn’t question what we were doing, we just knew we had to provide a security service for the KBR,” said Battalion Cmdr. Gentry.

Today James Gentry is dying from a rare form of lung cancer. The result, he believes, of months of inhaling hexavalent chromium - an orange dust that’s part of a toxic chemical found all over the plant.

At least one other Indiana guardsman has already died from lung cancer, and others are said to be suffering from tumors and rashes consistent with exposure to the deadly toxin.

“I’m a nonsmoker. I believe that I received this cancer from the southern oil fields in Iraq,” he said.

Now CBS News has obtained information that indicates KBR knew about the danger months before the soldiers were ever informed.

Depositions from KBR employees detailed concerns about the toxin in one part of the plant as early as May of 2003. And KBR minutes from a later meeting state, “that 60 percent of the people … exhibit symptoms of exposure,” including bloody noses and rashes.

Gentry says it wasn’t until the last day of August in 2003 - after four long months at the facility - that he was told the plant was contaminated.

“We would never have been there if we would have known,” Gentry said.

A new internal Army investigation obtained exclusively by CBS News says the Army’s medical response was “prompt and effective.”