As one of his final acts, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at helping veterans who were exposed to toxic matter at a Soviet-era air base in Uzbekistan after 9/11. The airbase, known as the Karshi-Khanabad Air Base, or K2, came under scrutiny after media investigations revealed veterans faced a range of illnesses after being deployed to the base. These veterans have been self-reporting rare cancers, disorders, and other illnesses they believe are linked to the time they served on the base on a Facebook page run by the Stronghold Freedom Foundation, a group that represents the veterans that were deployed in K2. McClatchy reported in early 2020 that the base was contaminated by a refined form of uranium, chemical weapon solvents, and pools of fuel that produced a “black goo” at the soldiers’ feet. According to the Department of Veteran Affairs (DVA), service members who were at K2 may have been …