Soldiers ready, but uneasy about chemical, biological weapons

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky.-Meet Platoon USA, a group of typical young American warriors who are charged up and ready to take on Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein. Except for one thing. They fear that Saddam, during a last desperate stand, may hurl some kind of poison gas or deadly germ at them.

In today's world, American soldiers expect to brave enemy gunfire and maybe even tanks. Many, in fact, look forward to being tested in battle as they face such familiar weapons. But the new silent killers-chemical or biological agents that could go undetected until too late-are unnerving, even to the Rambos in today's Army.

The fears of this platoon-the 15-man 4th Anti-Armor of the lst Battalion in the 327th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)-are typical, Army officers say, of those of the thousands of front-line soldiers now waiting for the president's attack order. For American soldiers, the chemical and biological warfare threat has been largely quiescent since World War I, when German artillerymen fired shells loaded with mustard gas. The unknowns are always more fearsome than the knowns to soldiers waiting to go into battle.

"I don't know what to make of it," said Army Spc. 4 Anthony Heimos, 34, of Grants Pass, Ore., in a typical comment about the threat of chemical and biological weapons confronting him and other troops being sent to the Middle East. "I've got my equipment," he said. "If it works, I'm all right." But, he adds, "sure, I'm afraid of [the threat].... I can only train so hard."

Sgt. Daniel Johansen, 23, of Salt Lake City would fight shoulder-to-shoulder with Heimos and other members of this front-line platoon. "The only thing I'm really worried about is Saddam using chemicals," he said. "But this is something I always wanted to do. I want to fight. That's what I joined the Army for."

Although the United Nations has spent several months debating whether Saddam still has chemical and biological weapons, Maj. Blain Reeves, the lst Battalion's operations officer, assumes the Iraqi leader has them. "We know it's over there," Reeves said confidently. But few, if any, of today's soldiers have been up against them on the battlefield, and that creates understandable apprehension. "Most of us have not been exposed to nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons," Reeves notes.

The House Armed Services Committee recently released a compilation of the chemical, biological, and nuclear arsenal Iraq held at the end of the Persian Gulf War in 1991, as well as a list of weapons Iraq may be hiding for use against invading American forces. The committee rundown, based on official U.N. findings and reports, lists these chemical warfare stores:

• 614 tons of the precursor chemicals used to make the most-toxic nerve agent, VX. U.N. inspectors cannot confirm their destruction by Iraq.
• 6,500 bombs filled with about 1,000 tons of chemical agents. According to the committee report, "Iraq claims 6,500 bombs were destroyed, but an official Iraqi report proves they were not."
• More than 3,000 tons of chemical warfare agents. Iraq says they were discarded, destroyed, or employed, but has provided no supporting documentation.
• 550 artillery munitions filled with a mustard agent. Inspectors said that Iraq failed to provide credible evidence that they had been lost or destroyed.
• 31,658 empty and filled chemical munitions. Iraq maintains that it destroyed them but has provided no verifying documents.

The House committee listed these biological agents in Iraq as possible threats to U.S. troops:

• 8,500 liters of anthrax. Iraq claims it destroyed all 8,500 liters in 1991, but chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix has said that Iraq cannot document the destruction and could have produced more since the war.
• 2,160 kilograms of bacterial growth media, enough to produce 26,000 liters of anthrax, 1,200 liters of botulinum toxin, and 2,200 liters of aflatoxin. U.N. inspectors working in the late 1990s said they could not verify Iraqi claims on what happened to the growth media.
• 400 bombs capable of dropping biological weapons. U.N. inspectors said that Iraq failed to provide credible evidence that they had been lost or destroyed.

Here in Kentucky, the 4th Platoon, like the other Army outfits being deployed to the edge of Iraq, has tried to prepare itself for these largely unknown killers. Artillery shells filled with VX nerve gas are the major worry, Army officers said, because Iraq's army remains very capable of firing shells. Bombs dropped from airplanes are less of a worry because Iraq's air force is negligible. Drones could be used to spray poisons, but this is further down the worry list. And biological weapons experts say that germs, although scary, are not easy to deploy, especially in open areas where winds can scatter the bugs. Such weapons could be a threat in the close confines of a city, however-another reason U.S. commanders hope to avoid block-by-block fighting in Baghdad.

The soldiers' first line of defense against these weapons is their chem-bio suits. Since World War I, troops have been cursed with awkward gas masks and heavy anti-chemical suits that become unbearably hot. In recent months, however, Army quartermasters have been busy handing out the new generation of masks, suits, and boots to soldiers, either before they leave their bases or after they report to U.S. Central Command in the Middle East. The new suit, advertised as lighter and cooler, features two layers of cloth with charcoal in between. Boots, too, have to be impervious to be effective. Troops, though, complain that the new ones seem to develop holes easily.

Lt. Matthew Hall, 24, 4th Platoon leader, is the officer who has had to deal most directly with the worries of his men about chemical and biological weapons. The tried-and-true techniques of looking and listening apply equally to these new threats, Hall said.

If his platoon comes under artillery fire, for instance, he has trained the men to listen intently to the explosions. "If you hear bang, bang, and then a pop," he said, "that last pop was probably a good sign that it was a chemical agent rather than an explosive artillery round." The platoon also carries chemical alarms, including strips worn on their sleeves that change color when exposed to chemicals. Fourth Platoon, like many others waiting to go to war against Iraq, has designated soldiers equipped with special detection devices to check out spots suspected of being contaminated by chemical agents.

In battle, the five Humvees in 4th Platoon, four of which carry TOW anti-tank missiles, would be spread out. But everybody would be looking and listening for chemical rounds, officers said. At the first sign of one, the nearest truck would sound the alarm over the command net radio. If they did not already have them on, troopers would pull on their masks and chemical suits and wait for the chain of command to decide where they should go to avoid the poisons and when they could take off their masks and suits.

Sgt. Damion D. Tassler, 26, of Westfield, Wis., is one of 4th Platoon's section chiefs who will be listening for the distinctive pop of the chemical shells. "If I hear one, I'll call my platoon leader and also get on the company [radio] net to let every company know. If we've got to fight through it, we just fight through it," Tassler said.

Hall's men sounded confident about their ability to hit the enemy with their M-4 rifles, .50 caliber machine guns, squad automatic weapons, and wire-guided anti-tank TOW missiles. They know what they can do with those weapons and what little the Iraqis could do against them.

"Nobody is worried about bullets flying and food running out," platoon leader Hall said. "But a chemical attack is something we can't control. If it happens, and we're there, we're just in the wrong spot."