Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!apple!rutgers!att!cbnews!military From: jon@cs.washington.edu (Jon Jacky) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: Drugs in War Summary: News story confirms US Air Force issues amphetamine; some history also Message-ID: <12454@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 20 Dec 89 07:03:10 GMT References: <12395@cbnews.ATT.COM> Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM Organization: U of Washington, Computer Science, Seattle Lines: 80 Approved: military@att.att.com From: jon@cs.washington.edu (Jon Jacky) Here are excerpts from a news story that came out last year, confirming that US and other military services issue drugs to servicemen. It was in INSIGHT, a magazine that is, or was, published by THE WASHINGTON TIMES newspaper. It was in the August 22, 1988 issue, pages 18 and 19: FLYING ON AMPHETAMINES IS NO DEPARTURE FROM TRADITION by Susan Katz Keating ...(there was) a recent report that fighter pilots stationed in West Germany are issued both stimulants and sedatives. The administration of drugs to pilots was a featured item on "Monitor," a West German investigative television program. Germans reportedly gasped in horror at the thought of American pilots zipping over Europe, giggling madly while carrying loads of weapons. The civil aviation community in the United States responded with similar expressions of shock: Civilian agencies do not --- ever --- condone flying under the influence of drugs. But the Air Force, which might have been expected to deny or downplay such news, simply shrugged its official blue shoulders and said, in effect, "What's the big deal?" The drugs are indeed issued, says Col. Russell B. Rayman, chief of Air Force Surgeon General's Aerospace Medical Consultants Office. "It's a safe, sensible policy. We've never had an accident with this, and it's smart." The tablets, which are prescribed under strict conditions for pilots on long-distance flights, are credited as lifesavers in a situation known for its enormous physical demands. ... In their use of artificial stimulation, airmen were taking their place in a long military tradition. Historians have speculated that soldiers in the Civil War coped with their arduous marches by using cocaine. The drug is also believed to have been used in the Spanish-American War, and the German's winter march against the Soviet Union during World War II was made possible by amphetamine supplements. "The German army along the Eastern front used Benzedrine extensively," says military historian Shelby Stanton. "They dispensed it to the line troops. Ninety percent of their army had to march on foot, day and night. It was more important for them to keep punching during the Bliztkrieg than to get a good night's sleep. The whole damn army was hopped up. It was one of the secrets of the blitzkrieg." ... Paratroopers and special assault troops in the US Army were also given stimulants in battle in World War II, says Stanton. ... The Army's Special Forces ... were issued amphetamines for use on long-range reconnaisance missions in the Vietnam conflict. Teams infiltrating Laos, for example, were issued survival kits that included 12 Darvon, 24 codeine and six dextroamphetamine tablets per man for each four-day mission. Former Special Forces operatives also report receiving steroid injections before embarking on strenuous, deep-penetration assignments. "Some people were really junked, and had to be taken off the drugs," said one former operative. "They got hooked from the frequency of their missions --- not from breaking into their kits and getting high." Air Force pilots, meanwhile, are issued stimulants only under fishbowl-like conditions governed by the service's surgeon general's office. "We use these medications only under very controlled and special circumstances," says Rayman. Amphetamines are mainly prescribed for fighter pilots on long trans-oceanic missions or on special flights of two or three days' duration requiring frequent in-flight refueling and crossing several time zones. ... Amphetamines are made available to pilots on these high-stress flights, says Rayman, only after a long process of consultation between the aviator's commander and a flight surgeon ... Pills are doled out in small increments before a flight; unused tablets are collected and destroyed afterward. "Pilots are not required to take them," says Rayman. "The great majority don't even use them, but some say they feel good having them available, just in case." ... - Jonathan Jacky, University of Washington, jon@gaffer.rad.washington.edu