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WASHINGTON - The bodies of U.S. soldiers
killed by chemical or biological weapons in Iraq or future wars may be
bulldozed into mass graves and burned to save the lives of surviving
troops, under an option being considered by the Pentagon.
Since the Korean War, the U.S. military has taken
great pride in bringing home its war dead, returning bodies to next of kin
for flag-draped, taps-sounding funerals complete with 21-gun
salutes.
But the 53-year-old tradition could come
to an abrupt halt if large numbers of soldiers are killed by chemical or
biological agents, according to a proposal quietly circulating through
Pentagon corridors.
Army spokesmen said the option to bury or
even burn bodies contaminated by chemical or biological weapons is being
considered, along with the possibility of placing contaminated corpses in
airtight body bags and sending them home for closed-casket
funerals.
"All due care is taken to honor the
remains of our fallen comrades," said Maj. Chris Conway, an Army
spokesman. "It's just too premature to speculate on any plan or
policy."
Lt. Col. Ryan Yantis, an Army spokesman,
said, "Military planners look at an operation in the full spectrum from
the best-case scenario to the worst, and you have to make plans
accordingly."
Yantis said that if a biological or
chemical attack occurs, "we're going to treat the wounded with the best
possible medical care. Those who are, unfortunately, deceased, we're going
to treat with the utmost dignity and respect. ... We're going to have to
take care of the mission and we're going to have to ensure the safety of
the force."
Iraq admitted to United Nations inspectors
in 1995 that it had produced large amounts of chemical and biological
weapons during the 1980s and 1990s. American and British intelligence
agencies say Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has continued to produce the
deadly weapons covertly since then, despite Iraqi denials.
U.N. inspectors have found no proof Iraq
is hiding weapons, but the U.S. insists they are there and is massing
troops in the Persian Gulf for a possible war.
The U.S. had a plan for mass burials
during the Gulf War in 1991, said Lt. Gen. William "Gus" Pagonis, the
chief logistician for that conflict and the man who conceived the
plan.
"The bulldozers were all lined up and
ready to go," to deposit contaminated bodies in "mass graves," Pagonis
said.
"You'll use whatever equipment is
necessary to avoid contaminating more people," Pagonis said in a recent
interview. "You don't want anybody else to die."
Pagonis said that before the Gulf War, he
sent the plan simultaneously to commanding Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf and
the Department of the Army and no one responded. "When you send a plan and
no one gets back to you, you assume it's been approved," he
said.
Army spokesman Capt. Ben Kuykendall said
the Pagonis plan is similar to the option currently under consideration -
except that bodies infected by biological agents might be both cremated
and buried.
If soldiers are killed by "something like
smallpox in which bodies cannot be decontaminated, we would have to
cremate them right there," Kuykendall said. He said he recently discussed
the option in detail with Brig. Gen. Steve Reeves, program executive
officer for the Army's chemical and biological defense office. Reeves
declined to comment.
"You would have to protect the living, so
you'd have to get rid of the (contaminated) bodies as quickly as
possible," Kuykendall said. "You don't want to contaminate any survivors
who are not already contaminated."
It is possible to decontaminate bodies,
but such efforts would be "very sensitive, expensive and time-consuming,"
particularly for corpses infected with contagious biological agents,
Kuykendall said.
But even if a body was believed to be
decontaminated, it could not be sent stateside for fear it might still
contain lethal germs or viruses that could fester deep inside and seep out
later, he said. "That just would not be worth the risk."
If bodies contaminated with biological
agents such as smallpox or anthrax were flown home, they could pass
potentially lethal contaminants to every vehicle, aircraft, building and
person that came in contact with them, Kuykendall said.
Bodies infected with chemical agents such
as VX and mustard gas, which are very persistent, could also contaminate
others, said Jonathan Tucker, a Washington-based senior scholar at the
Monterey Institute of International Studies who has written extensively
about chemical and biological agents.
It is easier to decontaminate chemically
contaminated bodies for shipment and traditional burials than those
infected by biological agents, Tucker said.
But in the heat of battle, Pagonis said, a
field commander doesn't have time to make the distinction. "You want to do
away with this (biological threat) as quickly as possible," he
said.
Military veterans said they hope those
commanders will never have to make such a choice.
"I know this is a plan to protect people
and to make sure that we don't bring back any biological agents, but we're
more concerned with how the (living) soldiers are going to protect
themselves on the battlefield," said Steve Robinson, a retired Army Ranger
and executive director of the National Gulf War Resource
Center.
"It makes sense" to bury or burn
contaminated bodies, Robinson said, "but it's still going to be hard on
the families. ... If you are told your son was killed in Iraq but buried
in a mass grave, you are going to be forever speculative on how he
died."
Mass burial is "a sensitive issue, and we
don't want to think about it because our hopes and prayers are that it
won't happen," said Tom Corey, president of the Vietnam Veterans of
America who was wounded in Vietnam and now uses a wheelchair.
A top Army mortuary official said he is
confident his nearly 700 soldiers could decontaminate any corpses and send
them home for proper burial.
"They would process them as best they
could and move them to the rear," said Douglas Howard, deputy director of
the Army Mortuary Affairs Center in Fort Lee, Va., which is responsible
for handling the bodies of soldiers.
"If we bury on the battlefield, it will
only be as a last resort," Howard said.
But mortuary teams would have to be wary
of charging into areas filled with noxious fumes or deadly
germs.
"The primary difficulty is concern for the
safety of the mortuary affairs soldiers," said Howard, who has been an
Army mortician for 30 years. "We never launch forth into a contaminated
area without the advice and consent of the chemical community."
Pentagon officials declined to reveal
exactly how many people staff the decontamination teams. The Army mortuary
affairs center has only one such group - the 246th Quartermaster Mortuary
Affairs Company, a 220-soldier reserve unit based in Puerto
Rico.
Kuykendall said the Army's limited
decontamination assets would have to be concentrated on survivors. Pagonis
and other defense experts agreed.
"The military's first concern would be its
own people - if they're still alive they would be the top priority. Next
would be civilian noncombatants. People who are already dead would not be
at the top of the triage," Philip Coyle said.
Coyle served as an undersecretary of
defense from 1997 to 2001 and oversaw the testing and evaluation of much
of the military's new decontamination and protective gear but said he was
never informed of the option for cremation or mass burial of
casualties.
Decontamination teams use large,
showerlike pressure washers to spray victims with special disinfectants,
cleaning solutions or even water. The teams, which can operate together or
in small subgroups, rely on the guidance of specialists in
chemical-biological warfare and sometimes even transport from other
units.
Soldiers contaminated by chemical weapons
would need to leave the scene as quickly as possible to limit their
exposure. Those contaminated by biological agents would need to stay put
to avoid spreading germs or viruses to their colleagues or civilians,
Tucker said.
Chemical weapons generally contaminate
relatively small areas, while biological weapons such as smallpox, which
is highly contagious and lethal, can spread for long distances if
contaminated people, bodies, gear or equipment are moved around, Tucker
said.
Every U.S. soldier deployed to a potential
combat zone carries an advanced gas mask and at least one air-tight,
charcoal-lined protective suit. But such gear is useless if ripped open by
bullets or shrapnel, or if troops are caught without all their garb on.
Experts worry that the troops might be tempted to remove some or all of
the bulky, uncomfortable equipment, particularly in the searing heat of
the gulf region.
U.S. troops also carry auto-injecting
needles that can inject atropine and oxine to counteract the effects of
chemical nerve agents. But those must be applied immediately after
contamination to be effective, Tucker said.
Tucker said the Iraqis are believed to
have large, hidden stockpiles of chemical weapons, including "very high
quality" mustard gas, a blistering agent, and nerve agents such as sarin,
cyclosarin and VX. The chemicals are liquids that can be administered in
person, or by aircraft, missiles or artillery shells.
"A drop (of VX) on the skin can kill
within 15 to 20 minutes unless antidotes are immediately administered,"
Tucker said. "In the case of smallpox it would be impossible to
decontaminate the body ... or the linens or anything else the body comes
in contact with."
Iraq also has produced "significant
quantities" of highly lethal biological agents such as anthrax, botulinum
toxin, aflotoxin, gas gangrene and ricin, Tucker said. The Iraqis are also
believed to harbor lesser amounts of smallpox.
The possibility of U.S. troops having to
bulldoze or burn comrades killed by chemical or biological weapons
foreshadows the possibility that similar methods would have to be used on
civilians caught in similar attacks, Pagonis said.
That could happen overseas during wartime
or even in the United States in the event of a terrorist attack, he
said.
Most Army officers deflected questions
about the mass graves option to Pentagon superiors, who in turn deferred
to the White House. White House officials also declined to comment, saying
any such plan is a Pentagon issue.
"I'd have to refer you to the Defense
Department," Sean McCormick, spokesman for the White House's National
Security Council, repeated several times during a brief telephone
conversation. "We don't comment on military plans, operations or
procedures."
A final decision on the option would have
to be made by President Bush or Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld,
Kuykendall said.
"Not everybody's going to support whatever
we do," he said.
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