More Than 600 Reported Chemical Exposure in Iraq, Pentagon Acknowledges

By C. J. CHIVERSNOV. 6, 2014 Photo Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel at
a news conference last week. A review he ordered uncovered the reports
of exposure. Credit Michael Reynolds/European Pressphoto Agency Continue
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More than 600 American service members since 2003 have reported to
military medical staff members that they believe they were exposed to
chemical warfare agents in Iraq, but the Pentagon failed to recognize
the scope of the reported cases or offer adequate tracking and treatment
to those who may have been injured, defense officials say.

The Pentagon’s disclosure abruptly changed the scale and potential
costs of the United States’ encounters with abandoned chemical weapons
during the occupation of Iraq, episodes the military had for more than
a decade kept from view.

This previously untold chapter of the occupation became public after an
investigation by The New York Times revealed last month that although
troops did not find an active weapons of mass destruction program,
they did encounter degraded chemical weapons from the 1980s that had
been hidden in caches or used in makeshift bombs.

The Times initially disclosed 17 cases of American service members who
were injured by sarin or a sulfur mustard agent. And since the report was
published last month, more service members have come forward, pushing
the number who were exposed to chemical agents to more than 25. But an
internal review of Pentagon records ordered by Defense Secretary Chuck
Hagel has now uncovered that hundreds of troops told the military they
believe they were exposed, officials said.

The new and larger tally of potential cases suggests that there were more
encounters with chemical weapons than the United States had acknowledged
and that other people — including foreign soldiers, private contractors
and Iraqi troops and civilians — may also have been at risk.

Having not acted for years on that data, the Pentagon says it will now
expand outreach to veterans. One first step, officials said, includes
a toll-free national telephone hotline for service members and veterans
to report potential exposures and seek medical evaluation or care.

Phillip Carter, who leads veterans programs at the Center for a New
American Security, called the Pentagon’s failure to organize and follow
up on the information “a stunning oversight.” Paul Rieckhoff, founder
and executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said
the military must restore trust by sharing information.  Continue reading
the main story Revealing the Pentagon’s Long-Held Secrets

Explore the Times investigation on secret casualties of Iraq’s abandoned
chemical weapons, and the Pentagon’s response, including follow-up
care for those exposed.  Continue reading the main story Related Coverage

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“We need total transparency and absolute candor,” Mr. Rieckhoff said,
and noted the military’s poor record in releasing information about
its use in Vietnam of Agent Orange, a chemical defoliant linked to an
array of health problems, and in sharing data about troops’ presumed
chemical exposures and other medical and environmental risks during and
soon after the 1991 Persian Gulf war.

Military officers said the previously unacknowledged data was discovered
when, at Mr. Hagel’s prodding, the Army’s Public Health Command
examined its collection of standardized medical-history surveys, known
as post-deployment health assessments, which troops filled out as they
completed combat tours.

The assessments included the following question: “Do you think you
were exposed to any chemical, biological and radiological warfare agents
during this deployment?” For those who answered “yes,” the forms
provided a block for a brief narrative explanation.

Col. Jerome Buller, a spokesman for the Army surgeon general, said
Thursday that the review showed that 629 people answered “yes” to that
question and also filled in the block with information indicating chemical
agent exposure.  Photo Some of the chemical projectiles discovered in
December 2006 in Iraq, awaiting disposal. Credit The New York Times

Those who answered the questionnaire would have received medical
consultations at the end of their combat tours, Colonel Buller said.

Why the military did not take further steps — including compiling
the data as it accumulated over more than a decade, tracking veterans
with related medical complaints, or circulating warnings about risks to
soldiers and to the Department of Veterans Affairs — remained unclear.

Before post-deployment assessments were reviewed, Colonel Buller said,
the Public Health Command had already expanded its search for potential
victims and intended to examine the medical records of all troops
assigned to units that the Army has belatedly acknowledged handled
chemical weapons or were attacked with them.

These include three Army explosive ordnance disposal companies and B
Company, First Battalion, 14th Infantry, he said.  Times Documentaries
By Mac William Bishop and C.J. Chivers 13:15 Chemical Secrets of the Iraq
War Continue reading the main story Video Chemical Secrets of the Iraq War

The United States went to war in Iraq expecting to destroy an active
weapons of mass destruction program. Instead, it found only remnants of
chemical arms built in close collaboration with the West. By Mac William
Bishop and C.J. Chivers on Publish Date October 14, 2014. Photo by Roberto
Schmidt/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images. Watch in Times Video »

    embed

Veterans said this unit list was incomplete and would inevitably grow
as the military accounted for other high-risk troops, including those
on route-clearance duties in areas where chemical roadside bombs were
repeatedly found, or chemical warfare troops who served in so-called
technical escort units, which were assigned to collect and analyze the
old chemical weapons.

Nonetheless, the new data has prompted the Public Health Command to take
further steps, Colonel Buller said.

These will include identifying all veterans who reported a possible
chemical exposure, gathering their medical records, contacting them for
a structured interview and perhaps inviting them for a medical exam.

He said the Department of Defense had also revived a telephone line,
1-800-497-6261, for veterans to notify the Pentagon that they may have
been exposed. The phone line, he said, had previously been used for
veterans reporting Gulf War-related illnesses.  Continue reading the
main story Document: In Army Health Surveys, Troops Report Chemical
Weapons Exposure in Iraq

Immediate reactions among exposed service members and veterans’
advocates mixed cautious appreciation with skepticism.

“It’s too little, too late,” said Jordan Zoeller, a former Army
sergeant who served in a platoon that was exposed to a sulfur mustard
agent as soldiers destroyed buried chemical artillery shells near Taji
in 2008.

Mr. Zoeller was medically retired after developing a series of health
problems, including asthma and psoriasis. He said his breathing trouble
began within weeks of the chemical episode, though he is not sure its
onset was related to a mustard agent because the Army denied that he
had been exposed and did not examine his claims.

“No one ever believed me,” he said. “They were like, ‘Oh, that
never happened.' ” Continue reading the main story Document: Exchange
Between Hagel and Congress on Chemical Weapons Exposure in Iraq

He said at one point after he returned to the States and coughed up
blood and lost consciousness, a regimental surgeon agreed to look into
the episode. Nothing came of it, he said.  Continue reading the main
story Recent Comments DS_veteran November 10, 2014

As a Desert Storm veteran and a founder of a national veterans
organization in the 1990's, I can say we fought this for many years
after...  Wanda November 7, 2014

In 1980, my (now late) beloved partner, Tod Ensign, and his colleague
Michael Uhl, wrote the earlier version of this hypocrisy in GI Guinea...
anon November 7, 2014

Also, check with a homeopathic doctor, maybe Gluthathione, Astragalus
and Ginseng would be very helpful.

    See All Comments

Another veteran, a Navy explosive-ordnance disposal technician who
remains on active duty, said he was burned on the left forearm in December
2006 when handling 114 American-designed M110 mustard shells at a bomb
makers’ weapons cache near Samarra.

He said that after the mustard agent splashed on his arm, he quickly
rinsed it away by squirting it repeatedly with solution from IV bags. The
mustard agent still caused a long patch of redness that took weeks to
heal and left scarring, he said.

The sailor, who asked that his name be withheld, said when he sought
treatment at Forward Operating Base Brassfield-Mora, the Army doctor
was not interested.  Continue reading the main story Document: Medical
Records of U.S. Casualties of Iraq’s Chemical Weapons

An officer in the unit to which he was assigned — a battalion from
the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, he said — issued what he called
“a gag order” that forbade him to discuss that he had found chemical
shells.

The sailor’s post-deployment health survey, which he provided to The
Times, shows he reported the exposure again as he left Iraq in late 2007.

The attending caregiver did not recommend further care, but noted the
previous order prohibiting mention of the episode. The patient, he wrote,
“was instructed not to discuss due to mission classification.”

Cmdr. Ryan Perry, a Navy spokesman, said that the sailor had discussed
the exposure with the Navy in recent days and that any previous order
of silence was unacceptable.

“We in no way condone the silencing of any of our service members,”
he said, “and are greatly encouraged that this sailor took the step
of reaching out to the Navy so we can get him the medical attention
he needs.”

While exposure to nerve or blister agents can carry long-term health
risks, veterans, medical officers and exposure victims said that it was
impossible to analyze the new data immediately and predict how many troops
who reported exposure would have suffered medical problems. They said
it could also be difficult to establish how closely medical complaints
might be linked to exposure.

They noted that many of the troops’ encounters with chemical agents
could have been brief and minimal, as that of a turret gunner in a vehicle
passing briefly through an area where a chemical shell had been used in
a makeshift bomb.

Moreover, not all chemical agents were alike. The nerve agents found in
Iraq after the United States invaded in 2003 were less potent than when
manufactured decades ago, according to people involved in many of the
chemical arms recoveries in Iraq. Iraqi mustard agents tended to be of
higher quality and more stable, they said.

Nonetheless, Mr. Carter and Mr. Rieckhoff said that the latest number was
probably understated, and that the military should not rely on people who
reported chemical weapons exposures to determine the scope of the problem.

It should look deeper, Mr. Carter said, at symptoms, such as troops who
reported rashes, breathing difficulties or tremors.

John Ismay contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on November 7, 2014, on page
A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Pentagon Reveals Greater
Exposure to Chemical Arms. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe