A Hard Rain

A Hard Rain
by Mike Madias, Clinical Sociologist and Columnist

November 5, 2002

Columnist Mike Madias Veterans of the last Iraqi campaign have endured the consequences of exposure to war related toxins. American foot soldiers and airmen have suffered from being gassed with poison substances, even when no chemical weapons were used against them.

During the period January 12-26, 1991 (probably on January 19, 1991) US troops and airmen at King Fahd Military Airport near Dhahran, in Saudi Arabia about 200 miles south east of Kuwait, came under attack by Iraqi fired Scud missiles. It turns out that these weapons were armed with conventional explosive warheads.

Of course, coalition forces did not know what the payloads contained. It was believed that the Scud warheads contained chemical weapons. And, Patriot surface to air missiles were fired at the incoming rocketss which blew up the Scuds in mid air.

A Scud flies at an approximate altitude of two miles. Any conventional ordnance detonated that high above its intended target would be rendered ineffective, or so it would seem. And indeed, facilities at King Fahd Military Airport in Saudi Arabia were not significantly harmed. It was a place to launch air strikes on Baghdad before the Scud attack and just as an effective afterward.

The Patriot missiles used by coalition troops were solid fueled, they were like high tech versions of sky rockets that fly on independence day. The Scuds were liquid fueled, a technology developed by Robert Goddard and Werner von Braun. Scuds are more like thermos bottles then they are like skyrockets. They contain tanks, one with kerosene and the other with a chemical agent that causes the kerosene to burn, called an oxidizer. The Iraqis used inhibited red fuming nitric acid as an oxidizer. This stuff is a variant on the same chemicals used in fertilizer, and not, in itself, a chemical weapon.

Quoting a report from the Office of the Special Assistant US Secretary of Defense for Gulf War Illnesses "When Scuds broke up on re-entry or were destroyed by Patriot missile intercepts, they often released unexpended inhibited red fuming nitric acid into the air.

"Many times this phenomenon was observed as a yellowish-brown or orange mist. Veterans related incidents of nausea, dizziness, tingling or burning skin and other symptoms consistent with IRFNA exposure.

"Lacking an explanation for these observations at the time of their occurrence, some veterans assumed that the cloud's presence or mist and the accompanying symptoms meant they had been subjected to a chemical weapons attack."

A Scud is cylinder in the neighborhood of 60 feet long and about four feet in diameter. Nearly half its volume is made up by the tank containing inhibited fuming fuming nitric acid. But when a Scud is destroyed two miles up in the air, and if it is not a windy day, inhibited fuming nitric acid will rain down on the ground onto an area about 2 miles long and 300 yards wide. And the American troops below, at this safe coalition airbase, far from the front, in a friendly country, were gassed and poisoned with yellowish-brown mist; a potent dose of it.

There were also fragments of the exploded Scud that fall to the ground. The debris was examined by hand in order to determine if Saddam had used chemical weapon warheads. From the DOD report: "the Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses received a small piece of metal . . . from a Scud missile intercepted by a Patriot missile near King Fahd Military Airport on January 19, 1991 . . . a soldier from King Fahd Military Airport picked up the metal piece as a souvenir; the soldier stored the fragment in a plastic bag, he forgot about it for more than three years . . . This soldier then gave the piece to the veteran who provided a portion . . . the original piece of the Scud as being about six inches long, five inches wide, about 3/8 inches thick, and burned on both sides.

"The unprotected sample, when examined in an enclosed room with no ventilation, will cause a person’s eyes to water after about 10 minutes and sometimes will cause a tingly sensation. Additionally, touching the sample will cause a burning sensation within about 10 minutes on the contacted skin. Within 20 minutes, the area is red; within 30 minutes there is a slight ring around the red part; within an hour, there is a watery blister; and within three to four hours, there is a large blister. The blister will rupture on its own in six to seven hours."

The Yanks serving at the King Fahd Military airport in late January 1991 were not in Iraq. They were not in Kuwait. While they were in the Kuwait Theater of Operations, they were 200 miles away from Kuwait itself. They were in a friendly country, Saudi Arabia, at an airbase that was well protected by high tech surface to air missiles.

Incoming, and two miles up, was a Scud powered by 30 year old technology and carrying a conventional explosive warhead. The coalition forces took defensive action by firing a surface to air missile. We successfully destroyed the Scud.

Inhibited red fuming nitric acid oxidizer fell to the earth. Military men and women breathed the toxic fumes. After the clouds cleared, a grunt inspected the wreckage. Took a chunk of steel about the size of a paperback book and put it in his bag. The grunt forgot about it. Three years passed. While he was at his own home in North Carolina, he took it out and touched it. The place he touched quickly grew red, broke into blisters that grew and finally ruptured in six hours.

This was not a tragic but isolated occurrence, an unfortunate accident. The DOD has documented about 28,000 cases of this type of illness among vets of this last invasion of Iraq. The department states that this number is an approximation, and probably below the actual numbers. Studies did not start until some years after the hostilities in the Gulf War ended. ***

Photo of Mike Madias courtesy of the author

A clinical sociologist living in the Metropolitan Detroit area, Mike's work has appeared in The Detroit News. He may be reached by e-mail at DetroitHardball@aol.com.