How "burn pits" in Iraq and Afghanistan may have put veterans at risk Over 1.5 million American troops were deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan between 2001 and 2011. Many returned with visible scars of war -- but for some, their injury is hidden. At some of the military bases throughout those regions, waste materials were disposed of in giant so-called "burn pits," and breathing fumes from those fires appears to have damaged the health of countless veterans. Barry Petersen reports.