In Iraq and Afghanistan, thousands of service members were exposed to potentially harmful smoke from the mass burning of trash and other waste on bases in giant, often centrally located areas called “burn pits.”
In a new piece in the Daily Beast, Kelly Kennedy, a former journalist who covered the practice as far back as the first Gulf War, details the legal mine field veterans often face when trying to deal with the health issues that might arise from this practice.
Now the director of veterans outreach at a major law firm, Kennedy writes about the hope she finds in recent rulings from the higher courts, but remains wary of the Department of Defense and Department of Veteran’s Affairs’ historic reaction to this issue.
