On this Texas billboard, ROA is cited in support of medically retired Army Reserve Capt. Le Roy Torres, fired from the Texas Department of Public Safety, where he was a state trooper, after returning home from Iraq, his lungs crippled by toxic “burn pit” fumes.
ROA wrote Texas Governor Greg Abbott in November 2019, asking that he simply intervene so that Capt. Torres could continue serving the people of Texas in a less physically demanding capacity and retain his dignity. Abbott refused and his cooperative state supreme court refused to hear the case.
Now, because a governor refused to support a war veteran, the U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether to consider the case, in other words, whether or not to hear it: on behalf of Torres, attorney Brian Lawler filed a petition for certiorari (discretionary review), and ROA filed an amicus brief urging the court to grant certiorari. ROA supports Captain Torres and his wife, Rosie, co-founder and executive director of Burn Pits 360 veteran service organization: www.burnpits360.org.
This outrage, which has upended their lives, is all too common among veterans sickened by the toxicity of modern war and cast aside by those they fought for. ROA is the only national military organization that solely and exclusively supports the Reserves and National Guard, all ranks, all services.
We’re honored to help out in the fight to reduce battlefield toxicity and support those afflicted by it.