As America grapples with a fentanyl crisis, multiple junior sailors have died from the drug aboard the base that houses the Navy’s boot camp in recent years, and investigators have been probing efforts to smuggle drugs onto the installation, including through the U.S. mail system, since at least 2020, according to records obtained by Navy Times.

Two other sailors are facing criminal charges in connection to one of those deaths, records show.

The Navy’s law enforcement agency launched at least five separate investigations into “illicit/controlled substances” being mailed to servicemembers at Naval Station Great Lakes, Illinois, in the second half of 2020 alone, according to Naval Criminal Investigative Service records.

Those substances include fentanyl, cocaine and the opioids hydrocodone and oxycodone, as well as the hallucinogen LSD, Xanax and THC, the psychoactive component in marijuana.

“Numerous service members have been interviewed and related the illicit substances were being sent via the US mail and/or in re-packaged food containers,” according to a December 2020 NCIS investigative summary report.

These incidents and sailor deaths, which the Navy has not publicized and which have not been reported before, raise questions about how young sailors have been able to use and distribute drugs there.

Great Lakes contains not only the Navy’s basic training but also schools for newly minted sailors, and records indicate the two sailors who died and the two facing charges had already graduated boot camp.

Navy officials did not answer questions by Navy Times’ deadline regarding how many recruits or sailors at Great Lakes had suffered drug-related deaths since 2020.

They also did not answer a question regarding whether the sea service believes drug smuggling and use aboard Great Lakes to be a larger, systemic problem, nor did they answer questions related to mail screening procedures there.

The Navy also did not answer questions regarding whether any other sailors had been charged in connection to drug use or drug deaths aboard the base.

Meanwhile, as of Monday, NCIS had not provided reams of related records that Navy Times requested nearly a year ago under the Freedom of Information Act.

The service has also refused to release specific data showing how many sailors have suffered fentanyl-related deaths in recent years.

Federal authorities have been probing roughly 5,000 pilots who officials believe may have falsified their medical records to hide that they were earning benefits for significant health issues that could imperil their ability to fly safely, The Washington Post reported.

The pilots who have had their records examined are military veterans who informed the Federal Aviation Administration that they were suitable to fly, but didn't disclose that they were also receiving veterans benefits for various disabilities that could prevent them from effectively sitting in a pilot's seat.

Veterans Affairs investigators stumbled on the record inconsistencies over two years ago, but the FAA had not publicly disclosed many aspects of the investigation, according to The Post.

FAA spokesman Matthew Lehner told The Post that the agency had been probing around 4,800 pilots "who might have submitted incorrect or false information as part of their medical applications" and indicated that roughly half of the cases were closed. The spokesman also said 60 pilots who "posed a clear danger to aviation safety" were — for the moment — barred from the cockpit while their records were being looked over by officials.

Nearly 600 of the pilots who are being probed have licenses to fly the general public on passenger airlines, according to individuals with knowledge of the cases who spoke to The Post.

***
Officials at the Department of Transportation declined to comment to The Post regarding the report.

"The FAA used a risk-based approach to identify veterans whose medical conditions posed the greatest risk to safety and instructed them to cease flying while the agency reviews their cases," the FAA's Lehner said in a statement. "The vast majority of these pilots may continue to operate safely while we complete the reconciliation process."

In some of the closed cases, pilots have been told to resubmit more accurate records and sit for new health exams, while some have been unable to fly until they're cleared by the FAA, according to Lehner and lawyers for affected pilots.

And the VA inspector general's office is now probing some of the 4,800 pilots and will look into whether the Department of Justice should be involved in individual cases regarding potential benefits fraud, according to two individuals who knowledge of the subject who spoke with The Post.

For two decades, the FAA has been aware that thousands of pilots may have been flying with significant health ailments, but transportation officials pushed back against calls for more substantial background checks for pilots, according to The Post.