Las Vegas SUN: Gulf War
legacy
Sun 4/14/97
By Rachael Levy
LAS VEGAS SUN
A Las Vegas veteran's war mementos may prove Iraq's use of chemical weapons during the Persian Gulf War.
A small military booklet written in Arabic, an Iraqi chemical agent antidote kit, two photographs -- the first depicting what appears to be a spent chemical or biological round, the second, a chemical minefield -- appear to reinforce thousands of ill Gulf War veterans' claims of exposure.
The booklet describes the human body's reaction to chemical warfare agents. The list of reactions are the very same symptoms of some sick Gulf War veterans who suspect they were poisoned by toxic chemicals or infected with debilitating microorganisms.
The booklet was found near the body of an Iraqi soldier days after the invasion of Kuwait and Iraq by U.S. and Allied forces, said Las Vegas veteran and retired Army specialist Ken Wegner. It inadvertently was shipped back to the United States with Wegner's belongings after he was injured saving the lives of two Army medics.
The 40-year-old former nuclear, biological and chemical warfare or "NBC" expert trained the 164th Maintenance Co. on detection of and reaction to chemical and biological agents prior to its deployment to the Persian Gulf. He was an NBC noncommissioned officer for the company's 200-plus soldiers.
"Specialist Wegner, he knew his job," 164th Warrant Officer Samuel Chavez said from Phoenix. "The whole unit relied on this individual for NBC training. I thought it was too much responsibility for him, but he knew his job."
With written assurances made by the Pentagon to all Gulf War veterans, Wegner speaks openly about his recollections of war: the booklet, chemical kit and photographs, no longer a secret.
Wegner recently gave copies of the booklet to Nevada Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan and the Las Vegas SUN in hopes that the congressional pressure and media attention would help him get medical aid.
He said he and his wife and youngest daughter (born Veterans Day 1992) are suffering from Gulf War-connected illnesses. The Las Vegas Veterans Administration has examined him and plan to refer him to a VA hospital in Los Angeles for further tests in hopes of discovering the source of his illnesses.
Bryan's press secretary said the senator -- a member of the Senate Intelligence
Committee
and a former member of the Armed Services Committee -- gave the booklet to
the Pentagon.
In addition to the booklet and photographs, Wegner has what he believes is an Iraqi gas mask and chemical agent antidote kit. This kit -- the shape of an oversized metal Band-Aid box -- contains what Wegner believes to be drugs for the treatment of nerve agent exposure referred to in the booklet.
The war souvenirs are hard evidence in an environment filled with unsubstantiated theories for the mystery illnesses. In addition to possible exposure to chemical or biological weapons, veterans and scientists have blamed toxins from oil well fires set by Iraq, microorganisms from insect bites, exposure to depleted uranium ammunition, a toxic combination of vaccines and other shots given to U.S. and Allied troops and psychosomatic disorders.
Whatever the cause, ailing veterans' suspicions that the Pentagon is hiding something are only reinforced by the number of years it took for the military to discover, or admit, that U.S. troops were exposed to chemical weapons at a remote weapons depot called Khamisyah.
The growing estimation of soldiers possibly contaminated with mustard and sarin gases -- first put at 400 in June and since revised to more than 20,000, according to the Washington Post Weekly -- underscores their distrust.
"The government keeps saying, 'Khamisiyah. Khamisiyah. Nobody outside Khamisiyah.' But I was nowhere near Khamisiyah, so how can they explain me and people like me who are sick?" Wegner asked. "With all my training, it looks like I was exposed."