Trust Betrayed Again

Editorial

Army Times

July 3, 2000

You'd think Pentagon officials would learn a thing or two from mistakes.

Apparently not. The release this week -- by Congress, not defense officials -- of a Pentagon report on gas masks used to protect our troops in the event of a chemical or biological attack clearly shows that top defense officials knew much more than they were letting on just three months ago when they insisted U.S. troops were never in danger from defective chemical suits manufactured by a company the Pentagon knew was using shoddy workmanship.

In fact, the problems went far beyond the suits manufactured by Isratex, and the danger to U.S. troops of defective chemical-biological gear was far worse than most people thought. Back on Feb. 25, the Defense Department

inspector general released a report saying that for nearly four years, the Defense Department issued potentially defective chemical protective suits made by a company that it suspected of fraud and poor workmanship. Defense officials immediately circled the wagons and insisted the report vastly overstated the danger to troops.

"There were no people at risk," Jacques Gansler, the Pentagon's undersecretary for acquisition, told the House Armed Services Committee March 1.

Now, thanks to Connecticut Rep. Christopher Shays, we know that defense officials had in their possession an even more damning report, saying that an inspection of 19,218 protective masks revealed that more than half had critical defects that could have failed to protect troops during a chemical or biological attack.

The report, compiled by 20 military chemical-biological warfare experts on the Joint Service Integration Group, was completed in November. One of its recommendations was that the findings "be disseminated to the lowest level within each service." Instead, it was quietly circulated at the highest levels -- at least until Shays made it public during a June 21 congressional hearing.

In the report, released by Shays, defense officials acknowledge that lives are at risk because military leaders at every level place too little emphasis on equipping and training troops for nuclear, biological and chemical warfare. That's an incredible statement, given the department's bulldog-like tenacity in seeking to inoculate all 1.4 million U.S. service members against anthrax. As Shays correctly points out, the vaccine guards against just one element of chemical-biological warfare, but the masks protect troops against a whole host of warfare agents.

Yet troops who refuse the shots are kicked out of the service, while defects in essential -- no, critical -- protective equipment are ignored and information about those defects suppressed. "Trust us," defense officials tell troops who have concerns about the vaccine. Yeah, right.