Gulf War troops did not just fight Iraq. They came home sick, and a lot of what hit them was not incoming fire. When Iraqi forces pulled out of Kuwait they lit hundreds of oil wells. Estimates run from about 600 to 750. The smoke turned day into night. Guys used flashlights at noon. That cloud was raw petroleum, soot, and sulfur sitting low over the ground. It coated skin, clothes, and lungs. Fear of a chemical attack put about 250,000 troops on pyridostigmine bromide pills. Those were meant as a pretreatment against nerve agents. A lot of soldiers got sick right away. Nausea, cramps, diarrhea. Later studies tied the pills, especially when mixed with heavy pesticide use, to lasting nerve problems. The chemical threat was not only theoretical. After the fight, coalition forces blew Iraqi ammo bunkers at Khamisiyah. That release sent a plume of low-level sarin and cyclosarin downwind. Tens of thousands of troops were later judged to have been in the path of it. Most of them never knew it at the time. The desert was also thick with insects. Uniforms got soaked with pesticides again and again. Some troops even wore dog flea collars on their boots or necks. Add MOPP suits in 100-degree heat, constant chemical alarms, and dust from depleted uranium rounds around wrecked armor, and you have a stack of exposures that did not end when the ceasefire did. A lot of veterans spent years being told it was in their heads. The record says otherwise.