In August, President Biden signed the PACT Act, which provides benefits to veterans who were exposed to toxicants in the line of duty. The legislation has special significance for up to 1 million people who lived or worked at Camp Lejeune from 1953 to 1987. During this span of time, Camp Lejeune’s drinking water was contaminated by chemicals linked to cancers, birth defects, and other serious health problems. James Cotton (pictured first), was born at Camp Lejeune in 1967, while his parents lived there during his father’s military service. He had serious medical problems as an infant, including seizures and spinal meningitis. Though Cotton was never diagnosed with cognitive deficits, he felt he had to “try harder” than other people in school. Then, last year, both he and his father were diagnosed with cancer. Peter Romano (in the third photo) enlisted in the Marines straight out of high school. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1990 and, when doctors advised Romano to look into freezing his sperm in case treatment compromised his fertility, learned that his sperm was already unviable. There was no discernible explanation for Romano’s diagnosis—he was young, healthy, and had no family history of cancer. Then, in August, he got a text from a friend: “Hey, weren’t you at Camp Lejeune?” Read the full story at the link in our bio. Photographs by Ricardo Nagaoka (@hisnameisricardo) for TIME (1, 2); Adeline Lulo (@adelinelulo) for TIME (3)