Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnews!military From: carlson@gateway (Bruce Carlson) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: The Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait. Message-ID: <1990Aug14.034048.9598@cbnews.att.com> Date: 14 Aug 90 03:40:48 GMT References: <1990Aug9.020039.8873@cbnews.att.com> Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker) Organization: The Mitre Corporation Lines: 80 Approved: military@att.att.com Full-Name: Usenet News From: carlson@gateway (Bruce Carlson) In article <1990Aug9.020039.8873@cbnews.att.com> mailrus!sharkey!amara!mcdaniel@uunet.UU.NET (Tim McDaniel) writes: > >Suppose Iraq were to use tactical chemical weapons against U.S. >forces, be it Marines/Army or Navy. > >- What protective equipment does the U.S. have available, and in what > quantities? >- What do the units in the Persian Gulf area have? >- Is the stuff actually usable in the area? (If the Army uses > rubberized suits, say, I rather have my doubts.) >- What, if anything, did Iran and Iraq use in their war? The "rubberized suit" description is not quite correct, but the suits are almost that bad. A description of the suit: Two piece, pants and shirt, with zippers on each and a snapped down flap over the zippers. The shirt snaps to the trousers and the trousers are quite high-waisted. The construction is two layers of fabric with an activated charcoal layer (maybe some other layers) between them. The look and feel is like a kids fiberfill snow suit. Its not quite as warm as a snow suit, but its close. Boot covers, thick rubber sole, thinner upper portion that you tie up around your ankles. Loose fitting, akward to walk in, upper portions are not very durable. Gloves, black, similar to heavy rubber kitchen gloves, with a cotton replaceable liner. Mask, (I think M17A1 is the nomenclature). Mask body is heavy rubber, inhale through the filters on each side, exhale through the lower middle in front of the mouth. Masks are sized in small, medium and large and if you wear glasses you can fit eye-glass inserts into them so you can see. There is an attachment on the front with a tube that connects to a canteen so you can drink without removing the mask. You can also get a resuscitation tube that connects to the exhalation port so you can (in theory) give CPR with your mask on. Mask hood, attached to the mask. Rubber hood that covers most of the mask and extends down over the shoulders, straps under the arms hold the hood down. If you wear all this equipment you are covered from head to toe with either rubber or the charcoal filtered double-layer cloth. Problems with the equipment: - Overheating of personnel is prevalent, even in moderate weather. - It is fairly easy to tear some of the rubber pieces if you actively engage in things like walking in rough terrain or falling on the ground. - The mask filters must be replaced periodically if they are exposed to active agents and the mask must be removed during replacement. Replacement time is every 4 hours of exposure and you have to be in a chemical free environment since you must remove the mask. - The mask makes it generally hard to breath, because of the one-way valve on the intake. It wears you out after a while. The U.S. Army has a lot of other Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) equipment that is standard to all tactical units. They have chemical monitoring units that mount on the outside of vehicles and portable detection kits to analyze the type of agent. In combat every man should carry Atropine or Nerve-Agent Antidote and some other items (that I can't recall the name of) stored in his mask carrier. The big problem with all the NBC equipment, from the troops perspective, is that they have never seen it used in a real chemical environment and they don't know if it works the way its supposed to. The Army trains NBC personnel and makes NBC training part of its regular program, but there has never been an actual threat. There are also no "war stories" about chemical attacks and no "old-timers" that can tell troops what really happens. Bruce Carlson carlson@gateway.mitre.org