Veterans and their families were more and more enraged with Republican legislators on Tuesday over the failure of a plan to assist veterans who were poisoned by poisonous smoke from American military burn pits in Afghanistan and Iraq.
DailyMail.com conducted interviews with veterans and their families. They encouraged senators to swiftly enact the burn pit bill, with others advocating for even stricter action to prevent future exposure of military troops to hazardous vapors from burning.
The draft had wide-ranging bipartisan support when it first cleared the 100-member Senate, but 25 Republicans withdrew their support during a procedural vote on Wednesday, reportedly over money, leaving the document five votes short of the 60 required for approval.
On Tuesday, senators were debating an amendment and preparing for a vote. Celebrity comic John Stewart gathered with veterans at the Capitol and pleaded with Republicans to act quickly and “do the right thing.”
June Heston, who lost her husband Brig Gen Mike Heston to a rare pancreatic cancer in 2018 after a nearly two-year struggle, criticized Republicans for “delaying health care and benefits for veterans and their families” and called the U-turn “infuriating.”
‘If it was one of their spouses, children, family members, loved ones or friends that were in this situation, they would vote differently,’ Heston told DailyMail.com from her home in Vermont.
‘They’re putting money over people’s lives, and that is not okay.’
The multibillion-dollar proposal, if made law, would help roughly 3.5 million veterans who had cancer and other diseases after being exposed to smoke from enormous open fire pits, some of which were as big as football fields.
They set fire to everything, including tires, batteries, explosives, waste materials, and chemicals.
The gases caused deadly respiratory ailments and uncommon malignancies among returning soldiers from Afghanistan and Iraq, yet they were frequently refused coverage or had to endure lengthy, expensive legal battles to establish their eligibility.
Veteran Marine Joe Kauffman also calls for more aid for those who, up until the middle of 2010, were exposed to hazardous smoke while serving on overseas bases. The Veterans Administration denied 80% of the disability claims related to burn pits.
When Joe Kauffman was a Marine in Iraq, he burned tires and other debris in dangerous burn pits. He is now running for office with the organization Disabled American Veterans.
The 37-year-old claims that in 2008, when still a young Marine, he “didn’t think anything of it” when he burnt tires, diesel fuel, and other surplus equipment in a hole at Al Taqaddum Airbase, west of Baghdad, Iraq.
No one was the wiser since we didn’t wear safety gear, he told DailyMail.com.
But Kauffman has since learned of growing numbers of service people — some close to him — who developed asthma, other breathing issues and even cancer from inhaling noxious fumes in war zone pits.
The married father of two from Pennsylvania is really concerned about that.
‘You don’t know what’s gonna happen years down the road,’ he said.
According to Kauffman, who is currently a campaign officer with Disabled American Veterans, passage of the Honoring Our PACT Act, which increases assistance for those exposed, would provide “peace of mind, knowing that your family would be taken care of” (DAV).
The Veterans of Foreign Wars, The Independence Fund, and DAV, organizations that support former service members, encouraged legislators to fulfill their promises. DailyMail.com also spoke with additional veterans.
Veteran of the Army’s special forces for 30 years, David Maxwell, claimed that the controversy was a symptom of a longer pattern of inadequate care for service members suffering from Gulf War syndrome in the 1990s or Agent Orange sickness during the Vietnam War.
According to Maxwell, “It’s a recurring trend that the politicians are ready to defer these major medical concerns for many veterans.”
An specialist on North Korea at the think group Foundation for Defense of Democracies is 30-year Army veteran David Maxwell.
“Congress needs to look carefully at how it serves veterans and at itself.”
Veteran of the special forces for 29 years, Dennis Downey, claims that the issue is far worse. According to him, his study of US military deployments throughout the world is piecing together alarming evidence of occurrences of “some pretty unusual malignancies.”
Downey claims that although it is still in the early stages, troops are exposed to hazardous compounds from metals in bullets and other common military equipment that over time accumulate and cause inflammation and an elevated risk of cancer.
Heston claims that while she anticipates them to be overturned, she won’t stop there. Giving sick veterans the money and treatment they require is insufficient since Americans in uniform are still breathing poisonous gases in dangerous places across the world.
She urged the generals to introduce cutting-edge high-tech incinerators that dispose of waste, reduce fumes, and generate electricity all at once, saying that “we still have to work on the fact that they’re still utilizing burn pits to dispose of rubbish.”
The U.S. military is having a hard time recruiting new members, and as a result, there will be a deficit of around 10,000 soldiers this year and more serious issues in the future. This focus on burn pits and inadequate assistance for veterans comes at a difficult moment for the military.
According to research released this month by the Military Family Advisory Network (MFAN), between 2019 and 2021, the proportion of military people who would recommend others to enroll fell by over 12 points, to 62.9 percent.
Three-quarters of those polled were in debt, more than half were unable to save, 61 percent had difficulties paying their rent, and an alarming 17 percent indicated they were sometimes unable to put enough food on the table due to a lack of funds.
