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Camp Lejeune 'Toxic Cocktail' T-Shirt Makes a Comeback Former Marine Russell Mantz created this tongue-in-cheek design a decade ago that is popular with veterans sickened by Camp Lejeune's water system, which was heavily contaminated from the 1950s through the 1980s. (Courtesy Samantha Via) 10 May 2021 It was one of Maynard Sinclair's favorite shirts, a yellow tee with a tongue-in-cheek recipe for a specialty cocktail hand-crafted, not-so-lovingly, at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, for more than 30 years. A little bit of dry cleaning solvent, some engine degreaser, a hefty da...

U.S. Marine Corps veteran Russell Mantz says he is just a guy with an idea. He’s also the man who, more than 10 years ago, designed The Camp Lejeune cocktail shirt, a uniquely comical and lighthearted take on a tragedy. “I was just driving down the road and I threw it together in my mind,” Mantz said. “I said, ‘What a drink that it is,’ and my mind runs like that.” What Mantz envisioned while traveling home from a meeting about the base’s toxic water crisis was an ad for a cocktail served at special locations during the contamination era from 1953 to 1987.

Maynard “Lee” Sinclair, Sr. joined the U.S. Marine Corps right out of high school. He fought two tours in Vietnam, survived the Beirut bombing in 1983 and trained troops for the Gulf War, even after retirement. Lee loved serving his country for 24 years, but his family feels like their country has let them down. Last summer, Lee got ill and suffered more than a handful of heart attacks in a two-month span while hospitalized.  “When he was in the hospital, they couldn’t figure out why he was having so many heart attacks,” said Sam Via, Lee’s daughter. Based on his military records...