Lead contamintaion as a result of high use of lead and other metals (like mercury) during war (and after) is certainly a known and studied thing:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3464374/

So it wouldn't surprise me if many soldiers would be affected too.

I recall reading something similar about the depleted uranium rounds that A10s and other weapons dumped all over the middle east.

Not just A10s but bunker busters and all kinds of other munitions where you need the hardest metal shell material that is practically available in quantity. They get shot deep in the earth and leach metals into the soil and thus the plant and animal life and it's already a problem with some crops in the middle east.

Note that uranium is toxic in the same way lead and mercury are, but it is intermediate in potency.

Uranium is probably more harmful in terms of heavy metal poisoning than it is in terms of radioactivity.