- "GAS, GAS, GAS", those three words elicit immediate
fear and action. If these words or any other alarm from a "siren"
to "banging on metal" are heard military personnel must stop
breathing while putting on their gas mask and securing it within 9 seconds.
Then they must put on their chemical protective clothing "MOPP suit"
within 5 to 7 minutes.
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- The purpose of this equipment is to prevent breathing
in and prevent skin contact with chemical, biological, or radiological
poisons that may be used during Gulf War II or future battles by either
Iraqi, the United States, or other nations. You must use both pieces of
equipment to survive and they must not be defective!
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- The essential life-saving assumption is that the gas
mask and MOPP suit will work when you wear it. However, the Army's M40
series and the Navy's gas mask both leak when you move your jaw or head
and when you sweat. Most of the masks also have numerous tears and holes
in them. United States General Accounting Office investigators, U.S. Army
reports, congressional testimony, and soldiers complaints have verified
that the gas masks are defective and leak. These same reports have verified
that over a quarter million MOPP suits that are defective have been issued
to our troops, but they can't be located.
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- U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL.) sent a letter
to Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld dated November 27, 2002 asking him (quote)
"to certify that military personnel who may be deployed in Iraq are
adequately equipped against biological and chemical attacks". As of
Jan 17, 2003, Representative Schakowsky's staff said that Secretary Rumsfeld
has not provided that certification. Today, Pentagon officials have deployed
and are deploying our nation's and Illinois' finest sons and daughters
for war with defective gas masks and MOPP suits.
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- As reported in the Pentagraph Editorial "Bad time
to have doubts on Army protective gear" (1/1/03) U.S. Army spokesman
"Capt. Benjamin Kuykendall said the shortcomings are being addressed
and many are minor ones that could be fixed in the field with DUCT tape".
As an Army officer and expert in nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare
I must emphasize that: DEFECTIVE GAS MASKS AND MOPP SUITS CANNOT BE FIXED
WITH DUCT TAPE! DUCT tape is not impervious to the chemical, biological,
and radiological agents and DUCT tape will come off the mask once it gets
wet.
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- The current gas masks leak because the mask does not
have enough silicon rubber under the chin to keep the mask from coming
off the head during movement. Another deliberately ignored problem is that
the gas mask filters will not remove the very small (less than .3 micron)
and very dangerous particles that are released during chemical, biological,
and radiological incidents, especially use of depleted uranium. This is
a hazard if Iraqis use such agents, if the US again explodes any stockpiles
they find in place, and from exposures to radioactive components of our
own weapons.
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- In rebuttal to Capt. Kuykendall's solution for repairing
defects with "DUCT tape", masks with tears and holes must be
replaced -- not fixed with DUCT tape. I must ask, and hope my neighbors
care enough to ask; why didn't the military unit commanders report these
defects and obtain equipment that is not defective? These defects have
been known for years and have been willfully ignored. Now widespread dereliction
of duty threatens the lives of seasoned soldiers and young recruits alike,
as we prepare to go to war.
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- Defective gas masks are not limited to the military.
Our community police, fire, and medical personnel have also been issued
defective gas masks and do not even possess necessary MOPP or equivalent
protective suits.
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- Exposures during GULF WAR I (August 1990 - November 1991)
caused in part by use of these same defective gas masks have resulted in
over 159,238 Gulf War veterans on permanent disability, and over 8013 dead
as of May 2002. This casualty count is still increasing. (Veteran's Benefit
Administration, Office of Performance Analysis and Integrity Data and information
System, May 2002 Gulf War Veterans Information, September 10, 2002). Today,
the entire Persian Gulf region still is a toxic and environmental wasteland
because the chemical, biological, and radiological contamination dispersed
during Gulf War I was never cleaned up.
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- As a combat veteran of Gulf War I and the Vietnam War
and as an Army officer, I must urge that every mother, father, son, and
daughter demand that President Bush and Secretary Rumsfeld replace all
defective gas masks and MOPP suits.
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- The President and Secretary Rumsfeld also must be required
to finally provide medical care for thousands of us who are Gulf War I
combat veterans and who are already sick because we were given and wore
defective equipment while on duty in the toxic wasteland that is the Persian
Gulf.
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- Remember the President and his staff work for each of
us! That is how our government was created and must continue to function.
We cannot send the pride of our nation and our community to Gulf War II
with defective equipment. If we do, and thousands of our sons and daughters
come back disabled as has happened since Gulf War I, the future of our
community and nation is dismal. The media may not show you a single dead
body or injured warrior during the next war. That was the strategy of the
Gulf War I, but that's not the reality of war. Death and injury are the
reality of war. That includes children. Citizens who can see through the
smokescreen of political rhetoric and the sanitized image of war must speak
up and demand replacement of defective equipment. That is our obligation
as Americans based on a heritage of freedom. A freedom won by the legendary
"Minutemen", the pride of Concord and Lexington.
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- Guest Editorial The Bloomington Pentagraph
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