Posted on 03/14/2003 4:47:15 AM PST by kattracks
CAMP BOUGAINVILLE, Kuwait, March 14 (Reuters) - United States forces fearing attack by Iraqi chemical weapons are deploying the first of a new breed of "magic trucks" to help medics treat casualties from any poisoned war zone.
An inflatable tent unfurls from the back of an adapted all-terrain vehicle, swelling into a chamber designed to shield doctors from chemical weapons like nerve agents or mustard gas.
"In a chemical environment, it makes medical work possible," said Captain Eric McDonald, patting the desert-coloured vehicle after a demonstration in northern Kuwait.
"It gives us a clean place -- clean from dust and clean from chemical warfare," said McDonald, 44, from Maryland, who is serving as a surgeon with the First Marine Expeditionary Force.
Outside the cool interior of the tent, U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopters whipped up a cloud of dust as they landed for a training exercise designed to simulate evacuating casualties from the front line.
The "magic truck", officially known as a Chemical Biological Protective Shelter System, aims to allow doctors to work in a safe environment without wearing the stifling gloves and gas masks that would make delicate medical work impossible.
McDonald said the U.S. military has stationed more than 40 of the trucks alongside thousands of troops massing in Kuwait, representing their first deployment in a possible conflict zone.
Iraq denies having chemical or biological weapons, but U.S. and British soldiers awaiting war in tented camps in Kuwait say the risk of a being hit during an attack by chemical-tipped missiles or artillery is one of their worst fears.
U.S. troops refer to such an attack as being "slimed", hoping to take some of the menace out of the ugly reality of weapons that can cause convulsions, vomiting and severe pain before killing.
TRAINING KICKS IN
Casualties entering the tent must first be decontaminated by troops equipped with spraying devices worn like backpacks, before spending five minutes lying on a stretcher in an airlock to reduce the risk of transmitting poisons into the inner area.
Like the soldiers, medics say they will fall back on their training if they are forced to deal with a real-life chemical attack -- something none of them have ever experienced.
"Normally I work in a family practice, where things are a little more laid back, colds, flu, that kind of thing," said medic Lieutenant Roger Talbot, 44, from Virginia, who normally works at a U.S. base dealing with servicemen's families.
"When things really happen, adrenaline is going and it's just mass chaos," he said. "You let your training take over."
Marines, who carry gas masks and injectors to administer shots of atropine to counter the effects of nerve gas at all times, say they are as ready as they can be for the worst.
"It's just like taking exams in high school or college, you prepare for it to be really hard," said Sergeant Alfredo Rodriguez, 28, from Los Angeles. ((Writing by Matthew Green;
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