NewsChannel5's Ron Regan wins Peabody journalism award for McMurdo Navy station cancer investigation

CLEVELAND - Chief Investigator Ron Regan won a national award Wednesday for his series of reports on "Operation Deep Freeze."

Regan and his investigative team were among 38 recipients of the 71st Annual Peabody Awards Wednesday by the University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. The winners were chosen by the Peabody board as the best in electronic media for the year 2011.

Regan began investigating the increased cancer rates among veterans in November of 2010 at McMurdo Naval station in Antarctica. The wife of a veteran called Regan after her husband passed away and asked him to probe the death of her husband and other veterans who contracted cancer. The investigation took Regan across the country in pursuit of finding answers for the military members who needed medical help.

As a result of this investigation, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is pressing Veterans Administration Secretary Eric Shinseki to look into whether veterans are eligible for service related compensation due to radiation exposure at McMurdo. And, Sen. Brown doesn't rule out eventually calling for congressional hearings into what the Navy knew about radiation leaks and how the plant functioned.

The intent of the Peabody Awards is to recognize the most outstanding achievements in electronic media, including radio, television and cable. The Award is determined by one criterion – "Excellence."

Regan and his team will be honored in New York next month for their work this investigation.