Four Years After the PACT Act, Burn Pits 360 Launches the ‘One Mission One Million’ Campaign

On the fourth anniversary of the law we lead the fight on, a message from Burn Pits 360 founders Capt. Le Roy and Rosie Torres — and one thing you can do today.

Four years ago today, on August 10, 2022, the PACT Act became law.

We were there. Not as spectators, but as a family that had already spent a decade being told that what happened to Le Roy’s body after Iraq was not connected to his service, and that the burn pits he lived beside, the ones that burned everything from tires to medical waste around the clock, had nothing to do with the illness that ended his career as a Texas State Trooper and nearly ended his life.

We know what it feels like to be handed that answer.

We built Burn Pits 360 so that no other veteran or family would have to fight that fight alone. And when the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our PACT Act was signed into law, it was the largest expansion of veterans’ health care and benefits in more than 30 years. It was proof that a promise made to the people who serve can be kept.

Four years later, the numbers tell part of the story. The PACT Act has delivered more than $11 billion in benefits to veterans and survivors. More than 1.9 million claims have been approved.

More than 6 million veterans have received a free toxic exposure screening — a simple conversation that can be the first step toward care. More than a million veterans have newly enrolled in VA health care.

And one special surprise this year is the acceptance of our lime-green megaphone into the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Latino.

But four years in, we also have to tell you the truth: the law was a beginning, not an ending. The science is still catching up to what our community already knows.

We are still learning how toxic exposure moves through families — how it shows up in women’s and reproductive health, in birth defects, in the children of the exposed, over time, in pulmonary health, and other diseases.

There are conditions not yet recognized; there are families who don’t know they qualify, and there are veterans who were denied years ago and never came back to try again.

That is exactly why independent data still matters. And it’s why we’re asking you to do one thing today.

Add your story to the Burn Pits 360 Toxic Exposure Registry.

Our registry is independent of the VA. It’s voluntary. And it captures more data than any other registry in existence. We better understand the full picture of how toxic exposure affects not only service members but their families, over time and across generations. 

Every record strengthens the evidence we take into hearing rooms, research partnerships and the halls of Congress. Every record is a voice that can no longer be overlooked.

If you registered years ago, come back and update your record. If you never have, today is the day. Whether you’re a veteran, a service member, a family member or a survivor — your experience is data that can change policy, and change lives.

We made a promise, too. We promised the people who could no longer fight for themselves that we would keep fighting. Four years after the PACT Act, that promise still stands. Stand with us.

So today, on the anniversary, we’re launching the One Million, One Mission campaign — our goal to reach one million registrants in the Burn Pits 360 registry by 2030.

One million voices, on the record, that no researcher, policymaker or agency can ignore. We can’t get there without you — and we can’t get there without the next veteran you bring with you.

➡️ Be one of the million. Register today. 

With gratitude and resolve,

Capt. Le Roy Torres & Rosie Lopez Torres

Co-Founders, Burn Pits 360

*Not sure if you're registered, email admin@burnpits360.org to find out.