Pentagon Says More Gulf War Troops Possibly Exposed to Nerve Gas

ap ^ | 4/26/02

[knak]

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Defense Department says an additional 829 military personnel may have been exposed to deadly gases when an Iraqi chemical weapons depot was destroyed during the Gulf War.

Dr. Michael Kilpatrick, chief of staff for the Office of the Special Assistant for Gulf War Illnesses, Medical Readiness and Military Deployments, said the number was increased after veterans contacted Pentagon officials to tell them their locations when the depot exploded.

The increase brings the total of possible exposures to 101,752. Military officials have steadfastly said the level of exposure was not hazardous.

The Khamisiyah weapons depot was destroyed March 4 and 10, 1991. It was discovered later that the depot and a nearby pit contained hundreds of weapons filled with lethal sarin, cyclosarin and mustard gases.

The Pentagon created a computer model of the vapor cloud in 1997 and sent letters to troops who might have been exposed. Three years later, the Pentagon revised the computer model using new weather data and troop information. The new model showed a different track for the vapor cloud, and some different troop exposures.

For years the Pentagon discounted claims that mysterious illnesses cited by Gulf War veterans could be tied to toxic exposures. Last December, though, a Pentagon-supported report by the Rand Corp.'s National Defense Research Institute raised the possibility some undiagnosed illnesses could be explained by exposure to low levels of Iraqi nerve gas.

A Veterans Affairs analysis released in February showed that the soldiers the Pentagon had removed from its initial list of exposures at Khamisiyah had a much higher death rate than those on the current list. VA Director Anthony Principi ordered further study. No findings have been released yet.

The Pentagon said Thursday that the 829 people were added to the list because:

-Some solders were on the personnel list of a unit, but did not deploy with that unit.

-Air Force personnel were attached to or on exchange with Army units, but the Army units did not include the Air Force members on their personnel lists.

-Some Army reserve civil affairs units were attached to military police brigades.

[donozark]

This had to have been one of the dumbest aspects of the Gulf War. All that stuff piled together and detonated, yet they claim they did not know all this Chemical/bio stuff "nearby?" And with our troops so close? Sounds like the old days in Nevada/New Mexico.

[GreyFriar]

Unfortunately most of the munitions in the captured dumps did not have any markings on them that would indicated what was inside the shells. There was no way, short of cutting a shell open to tell if it contained regular explosives or chemical weapons. At least that is what several of the engineers who helped blow the stuff up said.

[Grut]

Unfortunately most of the munitions in the captured dumps did not have any markings on them...

Still, eleven years seems to indicate a rather relaxed management approach....

[donozark]

I've read those reports to. However, one would have thought a lack of markings on the shells/canisters would have led to increased caution. We may not have known everything about Saddam's CBR weapons then, but we had a pretty good idea. IMO, we should have at a minimum, stacked it, blew it in place-when our troops were long gone...at least those unprotected-and most were.

The numbers of Gulf War vets receiving compensation is staggering! At least according to VFW. I'll have to paw through issues from a couple months ago, but it was a very large number-considering the age group. Tragic in any event...