The numbers are shocking.

Military aircrew face a 24% higher cancer rate than the general population, according to a 2024 study by the Department of Defense. Cancer rates are 87% higher for melanoma, 39% higher for thyroid cancer, 16% higher for prostate cancer and 16% higher for breast cancer in women.

In addition, military aircrew will get diagnosed with cancer at much younger ages — an average of twelve years earlier than the general population.

But not many people knew this back in 2022, when Gatlin Hardin, a Navy helicopter pilot, was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer at the age of 36. His diagnosis predated the study and the news blindsided him and his wife Breen. He had no family history and only a few symptoms; it seemed implausible that someone so young could develop cancer.

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