The Battle Over Burn Pits, a Military Practice That’s Making Veterans Sick

The Battle Over Burn Pits, a Military Practice That’s Making Veterans Sick

From Lawless Planet by Audible

February 23, 2026 · 46 min · Episode 33

About this episode

The episode discusses the health issues faced by veterans due to exposure to burn pits in military operations.

When Jessey Baca returned from Balad Air Base in Iraq, he began experiencing strange health symptoms: fevers, chills, headaches, difficulty breathing. The VA tried to write off his condition as PTSD, but Jessey and his wife Maria would eventually learn that the likely cause was exposure to burn pits, where the military was incinerating trash with jet fuel. And they weren’t alone. Thousands of veterans were sick and dying from burn pit exposure.  Featured in this episode: Kelly Kennedy Jessey and Maria Baca Sources: Kelly Kennedy’s reporting for The Military Times ( https://www.militarytimes.com/ ) and The War Horse ( https://thewarhorse.org/ ) The New Republic’s “The Things They Burned”: https://newrepublic.com/article/138058/things-burned   The New York Times’ “The Soldiers Came Home Sick. The Government Denied It Was Responsible”: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/11/magazine/military-burn-pits.html See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

People in this episode

Guest: Jessey Baca

Topics covered

  • veterans health
  • burn pits
  • military practices
  • government accountability
  • PTSD

Keywords

  • burn pits
  • veterans
  • health symptoms
  • military
  • PTSD
  • exposure
  • trash incineration

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Military Times, The War Horse, The New Republic, The New York Times

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