In light of my recent conversation about re-opening my claim with the VA about my chest pains, I write to you today to share an article about Amie Muller.  She is a veteran I never heard of until I read about her death but her role as an educator discussing burn pits in Iraq is a conversation we must continue to move forward.  I am putting the story in here directly for your convenience and I implore you to share it with others this week.  The article can be shared via social media directly from military.com’s website.

Burn pits are something I’ve heard of, but the items I’ve burnt are on a significantly smaller scale which is why I’ve never looked much into where all the burn pits were located.  Here are some places that I stopped at or lived at over the course of the two deployments where burn pits were located so it is very possible to understand now why the medical personnel marked environmental exposure on my post deployment health assessment.

• Camp Al Asad
• Camp Al Taqaddum (Camp TQ)
• Camp Fallujah
• Camp Ramadi
• Kuwait

My Marines and I would burn documentation, including letters from home, and printer cartridges which are so simple compared to the mass burning at burn pits.  (Other than these items, Corporal Vaughn–one of my work peers–and I burned Captain Brock’s cover and holster.)  Marines I met have worst stories; these individuals have burned feces in the earlier days of the Iraq War but this is the first time I’ve read a personal story about health consequences from living around burn pits.

The story about Amie, shown below, is taken directly from military.com.  The Star Tribune article about her battle is available here.  Again, please read and share.  She was an advocate for others in sharing her story and it doesn’t take much for us to continue what she started.