The MeidasTouch Podcast - Iraq Combat Veteran Kristofer Goldsmith Discusses Burn Pit Exposure

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Starting point is 00:02:01 The Mighty is a new podcast show on the Midas Touch Podcast channel hosted by your favorite Midas brother, Jordy Mycelis. New episodes of the podcast I do with my brothers, don't worry, those still drop every Tuesday and Friday morning. You just get a double dose of Jordy. On The Mighty, we highlight top commentary, responses, rants, musings, and reactions from Midas contributors. On today's Mighty Podcast, we highlight Iraq combat veteran Christopher Goldsmith, who suffers from exposures to burn pits to this day. Christopher Goldsmith discusses his personal experiences with burn pits and the consequences he faced and continues to face. Today, he addresses the Republican senators who were shamed into finally voting for health care to veterans exposed to toxic burn pits after the Republican senators first voted to block the bill

Starting point is 00:02:50 and celebrated with a fist bump. Here is Christopher Goldsmith. Hey, what's up guys? Chris Goldsmith here, Army vet, run a small company called Sparvarius. Our mission is to detect and disrupt disinformation and domestic extremism. And I'm here to tell you a story about burn pits and disinformation. One of the things that is angering veterans right now all around the country is this Republican betrayal, where all of a sudden they decided they no longer support veterans who've been exposed to burn pits. Senator Ted Cruz is out there spreading disinformation, saying, oh, there's some sort of new budgetary trick that the Democrats snuck in there. That's simply not true. I mean,

Starting point is 00:03:33 you can go to congress.gov, look at the Honoring Our Pact Act. You'll see there's no changes. You'll see there's no $400 billion slush fund. What it does is expands research, expands healthcare for veterans who are exposed to toxins in service to that country. I deployed to Iraq for the year 2005. I was stationed in a small base called Fab Hope Forward Operation Base Hope outside of Sadr City, Baghdad for the first seven, eight months of that deployment before moving on to Camp Liberty to finish out the year. And while I was at Sadr City, I lived in a hard structure that was fewer than a hundred yards away from a burn pit. Now, what is a burn pit? A burn pit is a pretty primitive way of disposing of trash and waste in

Starting point is 00:04:28 the combat zone. Now what kind of stuff is burned in there? Everything from food waste, medical waste, sometimes spent ammunition and unexploded ordnance, which is not supposed to go in there, but sometimes it does. Paint, jet fuel, and oil are used to burn all of that stuff there's plastics thrown in there there's computer parts mechanical parts industrial parts industrial solvents any sort of leftover chemicals or waste to try and think about how much gets burned by a battalion-sized element think of your family think of how much trash you throw out to the curb, you know, once a week when the trash folks come and pick the stuff up.

Starting point is 00:05:09 Now multiply that times about 1200 guys, not just throwing out household waste, but every piece of waste that they produce throughout the day in a combat mission. So packaging, we're overseas, we're getting mail. If there's any plastics, getting burned. Fires go 24-7. I lived in a plume of that for seven or eight months before moving off to Camp Liberty. When I was a teenager, I was a cross-country runner. I was incredibly fit,

Starting point is 00:05:40 went to basic training, graded PT. For me, it was easy. But after coming home, I started to struggle. And it wasn't because at 20 years old, I was suddenly an old man. When I was in Iraq, I started experiencing sinus infections, ear infections, and it was persistent and just wouldn't go away. When I got home, it kept going for months. You know, I'm still in the army, still in active duty. It's not exactly a good thing to always be going to sick calls. So I tried to avoid it, going and looking like I was hurt.

Starting point is 00:06:16 But I reached a point where all of a sudden I would hear this crazy feeling sound where it was like a tunnel was closing. Like I could hear wind in my ears almost. And then I would hear and I would go temporarily deaf. I was 20 years old. I ended up two years after coming home

Starting point is 00:06:40 having some pretty substantial sinus surgery. There's these things called turbinates in your face. It's like a vacuum filter. It's like a pleated filter. They had to go in and cut out a bunch of scar tissue because of all the infections had swollen everything up and it started to calcify. So I had a couple of surgeries all done at once. And now for the rest of my life, taking emergency inhalers, taking a daily inhaler morning and evening, take one of these every morning, and I take one of these every night. All because I just can't breathe. And Senator Cruz is out there right now lying about vets like me, telling the world that we're stupid and that we can't read, that we don't understand the bill that we've been working for years to support. The PACT Act is not a joke. My cousin, who's in the Army, died of a mysterious brain cancer just a few years after coming home.

Starting point is 00:07:46 Same thing that killed one of the guys from my company, Sergeant Vela, mysterious brain cancer. Same thing that killed Beau Biden, same exact cancer. There are a lot of folks out there who can't wait. They need help. We can't wait for Senator Cruz to get off his high horse. Stop insulting our intelligence. If this doesn't pass with every Republican voting in support, I hope they never show up to a

Starting point is 00:08:12 Memorial Day or Veterans Day event again. They don't care about those of us who've died, but those of us who've served. These people are, uh, they're something else. So if you live in Texas, give Senator Cruz a call. Tell him you're the boss, you're the American voter. You want him to support the PACT Act and to issue an apology to all the veterans who he's been insulting throughout the weekend. We need your help.

Starting point is 00:08:45 Tell him to pass the PAC Act. Thanks, Christopher. It's good news that the Senate Republicans changed course and voted to support healthcare for vets. We must never forget though that this was because they were exposed and ultimately shamed into doing so. This is why your voice is so important. This is why calling out these disgusting tactics by the ultra-MAGA Republicans is so vital. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of The Mighty. Please make sure you subscribe right now to the Mightiest Touch Podcast channel and leave a five-star review. Thank you.

The MeidasTouch Podcast - Iraq Combat Veteran Kristofer Goldsmith Discusses Burn Pit Exposure

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