Las Vegas SUN: Gulf War
legacy
Sun 4/14/97
BOMBED BUILDING - [ Photo Appeared here ]
Scuds hit this Hafar Al Batin building Feb. 14, 1991, and near the base camp where Wegner and the 164th Maintenance Co. were stationed. Declassified military documents reported consecutive airbursts suspected of being chemical weapons. Oneof these reports said tests for toxic agents came back negative.
Iraqi missiles screamed across thesky and crashed to the ground. Some of the munitions broke up in flight, creating "air bursts" that spewed their contents through the air.
Chemical alarms rang in Hafar Al Batin, a Saudi Arabian city about 14 miles north of the Army camp Log Base Echo where the 164th was stationed. Scuds hit city outskirts, creating craters in the sand. Inside the city, an auto-parts store (about one block away from Army showers) was bombed.
Iraqi snipers were targeting vehicles along MSR Dodge, which connected the base camp to the city.
Wegner was driving shotgun on this road with Spc. Paul Fuentes. They had left the 164th to get fuel for the company's generators and vehicles, but the air attack was forcing them to retrace their route with speed.
In front of them they spotted an Army ambulance careen to the side of the road, hit a 20-foot-high berm and flip. The engine raced and thick smoke escaped from beneath the hood.
Wegner yelled at Fuentes to stop the vehicle, but jumped out while it was moving about 35 mph. He ran to the ambulance and pulled out the driver and a second injured soldier, according to witness reports.
During the rescue of the two medics, Wegner injured his head. Fuentes said in his report that Wegner was bleeding from the nose and ears, and his head and leg were beginning to swell.
Although medics believed Wegner should have been their third patient, he and Fuentes returned to their vehicle and continued to retrace their route, with the ultimate goal to get fuel.
"You just don't leave your people in the middle of a war zone with no way of getting out of where they were at," Wegner said. "We didn't have any fuel for our generators or our vehicles."
This Scud attack is reported in recently declassified military records.
Three documents report missiles breaking up in flight, creating "air bursts" suspected of holding chemical agents. British aircraft reported three consecutive air bursts.
A chemical detection team tested the area near two craters south of Hafar Al Batin but found no evidence of a toxic agent. The second team responded to the auto-parts store, but did not include its findings in the report.
Not until hours later did Wegner go to a front-line Army hospital, or MASH unit, where a doctor said the injuries Wegner sustained during the rescue gave him a concussion. It was recommended that Wegner be evacuated to Germany.
"I told the doctor, 'Wait a minute. There's a war going on. I'm not going nowhere,'" he said.
Wegner left the hospital and returned to the 164th with orders of seven days bed rest. In the days that followed, he said, he suffered severe headaches, daily nose bleeds and dizziness. Sometimes his ears would bleed and his vision crystalized, colors brightened.