Article in Armor Magazine
Date: Thu, 07 Dec 2000 11:13:07 -0600
From: Chris Kornkven

Editors:

In a recent article of Armor Magazine, the 120mm round is discussed in a manner that would be very misleading to your readers. It would make the spinners in the Pentagon proud of the way the round is described as life-saving, without mentioning other implications of its use.

As your article points out, it was used during Operation Desert Storm. In fact, over 300 tons of Depleted Uranium munitions were fired during Desert Storm, with thousands of soldiers exposed to the radioactive waste after its use.

What do I mean exposed?

The military has known since the early 1960's of the effects on human health of using Depleted Uranium munitions, knew about the effects prior to Desert Storm, and knows about the effects now, but no effective training to avoid this exposure is yet in place.

In 1993, the General Accounting Office investigated the use of Depleted Uranium during the Gulf War, and found the Army had no training in place to minimize exposure to soldiers.

The Pentagon has been dragging their collective feet in investigating these exposures as a cause of illnesses among Gulf War veterans, yet they agreed training was required. Rather than implement effective training, the Pentagon instead chose to change regulations to avoid papertrails of soldiers exposed.

Recently, the General Accounting Office again investigated its use during the Gulf War, specifically including a section on training. The report is dated March, 2000 (GAO/NSIAD-00-70). They found training was dismal at best, to non-existent. The Pentagon could not determine if soldiers deployed to Kosovo had been trained to avoid DU hazards. Eleven tons of Depleted Uranium munitions were fired during the action in Kosovo.

Information from the Department of Energy shows Depleted Uranium can contain the much more hazardous Plutonium and Neptunium. This information has been acknowledged by the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.

As Non-Commissioned Officers, you are failing miserably in your mission to ensure your soldiers are properly trained to avoid this hazard, much the same as if your soldier cannot properly react to an NBC hazard if they have not been given training in that area.

Below is an excerpt from your article:

"The next time you break out a 120mm round, stop and take a close look at it. The next time you score a  first round hit on Tank Table VIII, take a second to think about that round. Real people produced it, real  people that care about us, the soldiers and Marines  whose lives may one day again depend upon their  products."

The next time you break out a 120mm round, stop and take a close look at it, then ask yourself if your soldiers have been trained to properly use the round, and avoid exposure to it. If not, request the material and do your duty to ensure they are trained.

You will never fire a Depleted Uranium round on Tank Table VIII since it is against federal law and Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing to fire a DU munition on U.S. territory, except for testing purposes.

Soldier and Marine lives may depend on their products, just as surely as soldier and Marine lives depend upon their NCO's to provide training to avoid exposure to substances that will ensure they go on living.

Does it matter whether the soldier dies on the battlefield, or dies months or years later because they were exposed to DU on the same battlefield?

Chris Kornkven
Helenville, Wisconsin