NEW ALBANY, Ind. — Eleven months ago, retired Indiana National Guard Lt. Col. Jim Gentry declared he was dying because of exposure to a cancer-causing toxin while serving in Iraq after the American-led invasion in 2003.

On Tuesday, Indiana National Guard soldiers packed into the Kraft Funeral Service funeral home to mourn his death.

Gentry was a lifelong soldier who commanded more than 600 troops tasked with providing security in Iraq. The soldiers he led — about 140 of them from Indiana — guarded the Qarmat Ali facility, where defense contractor KBR Inc. was pumping water into the ground to assist the process intended to reinvigorate Iraq's oil production. Gentry made about a dozen visits to the plant between June and September in 2003.

"Only the good Lord knows what happened at that site," said Maj. Gen. R. Martin Umbarger, Indiana's top-ranking National Guard general, at Gentry's funeral. "I just think today that Jim and his men did what the nation asked them to do."

Gentry, a nonsmoker, was diagnosed in 2006 with a rare form of lung cancer. Military doctors say it most likely was caused by exposure to sodium dichromate, which contains hexavalent chromium, a known carcinogen.

The dustlike toxin littered the desert facility. It was yellow in some places, orange in others. It stuck to soldiers' boots and blew into their faces during Iraq's many windstorms. For months, no one wore protective gear. They were told they didn't need it.

The story of Gentry, who was 52 and lived in the Southern Indiana town of Williams, and his fellow soldiers has inspired federal legislation and prompted a lawsuit against KBR.

Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., has drafted legislation that would create a federal registry similar to one created for those exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam. The registry would have Department of Veterans Affairs doctors treat soldiers who reported being exposed to potentially harmful toxins, unless it could be proved that the soldiers' illness did not stem from the exposure.

"The circumstances of his death are tragic, but the quiet courage with which he lived his life, served his country and advocated for justice for those exposed at Qarmat Ali inspired everyone who knew him," Bayh, said Tuesday. "I will continue to do everything in my power in the United States Senate to honor his life and improve the medical care of those who served at his side."

###