[bailie]

Paul, the "burn pits" comment originated from me and I don't know if Ray was ever exposed to the "burn pits". We had "burn pits" on the firebases in Vietnam where everything was burned. We had no garbage dumps to take the garbage. Everything had to be burned in these pits including plastics, human waste, packaging material, used oil and everything else imaginable. These were not small fires. The smoke from these pits was always black and heavy. Our firebase was relatively small and exposure was difficult to escape. We would spend a week each month on the firebase for security and the rest of each month in the jungles. Even when we were working in the field we had to burn all excess/garbage. I feel certain that I was exposed to more carcinogens from these pits than ever from Agent Orange.