thedrifter
04-07-03, 06:33 AM
April 06, 2003
Marine battle awkward protection gear while combating Iraqi forces, weather
By C. Mark Brinkley
Times staff writer
OUTSIDE BAGHDAD, Iraq — If anything, chemical protection boots were supposed to make the Marine corporal safer.
But during an artillery mission here April 4, while grabbing for a 100-pound shell from the dirty bed of his ammo truck, the corporal’s slick rubber boots lost traction. In the middle of a combat operation, the Marine fell four feet to the ground, breaking his right leg in two places and prompting an immediate ground medevac.
With that tumble came yet another strike against the Mission-Oriented, Protective-Posture suits, designed to keep the troops fighting here, less than 10 miles from downtown Baghdad, safe from chemical and biological weapons.
From the war’s onset, Marine officials were determined to protect the troops from such deadly attacks. As soon as they got word that an invasion of Iraq was near, the Marines were stripping to their skivvies and trading cool cammies for charcoal-lined chem suits.
“If you’re a real man, you can fight without that crap,” said Maj. Gen. James Mattis, commanding general of the 1st Marine Division, during a prewar press briefing in Kuwait March 12, referring to chemical and biological weapons. “But, if [Saddam] wants to use it, we’ll meet him on that score too.”
The Marines were in the suits a week later and have been wearing them ever since, amassing nearly three weeks in the same suspender trousers and zip-up hooded jackets. The black rubber boots, worn like galoshes over the troops’ normal combat boots, have come on and off depending on the threat level.
New cammies hidden
Forget about all the money and research poured into the Corps’ new combat utility uniform, which has a new digital camouflage pattern different from the field uniforms of other services. The MOPP suits most Marines are wearing come in the same woodland print sported for decades, with cargo pockets on the legs and Velcro tabs at the ankles to hold them tight around their boots.
Their new cammies stuffed away in backpacks, most Marines are mismatched, with tan flak jackets and desert-patterned helmets standing in sharp contrast to the green suits and t-shirts underneath. The black rubber overboots — worn, at times, for 48 hours or more — trap heat and block airflow.
Already, the beginnings of trench foot are settling in on some Marines, forcing corpsmen to order their troops to air their feet out for at least two hours each day. The condition is caused when feet never really have a chance to dry, causing the skin to peel off and bacteria to settle in.
Slight cases, if not treated properly, can become serious infections.
The MOPP suits trap heat as well, a bad thing here as the temperatures near Baghdad top the 100-degree mark in the afternoons. Most Marines have heat rashes in places people don’t talk about.
“I’m nasty,” said one Marine gunnery sergeant, taking off his rubber boots to check out his feet. His combat boots underneath were soaked with sweat. “Well, there’s $100 wasted. These boots won’t make it home.”
The chemical threat makes the already-unpleasant task of clearing Iraqi forces that much worse. The Marines’ trousers don’t even have a zipper, turning a simple bathroom break into a nightmare of untucking and unbuckling.
Staying clean and dry is nearly impossible; there have been no showers since days before the war kicked off and baby wipes are beginning to run low. Added to the discomfort are the random calls of “gas, gas, gas” — the potential chemical attack alert that filled the early days of the war but since have slowed down — which leave the Marines wearing not only suits and boots, but cumbersome gas masks.
One convoy was forced to drive for more than an hour in the dark wearing their masks, night-vision goggles pressed to the lenses in a futile attempt to see, because of reports of an Iraqi unmanned aerial vehicle possibly equipped with chemical weapons. The report later proved to be a false alarm.
Overall, the MOPP suits are a sore subject among the Marines, many of whom are beginning to doubt the seriousness of the chem-bio threat. And when the suits get in the way of getting the job done — whether by causing falls or slowing down movements — tempers begin to flare.
“It sucks to lose a corporal, period,” said 1st Lt. Ty Yount, 26, executive officer for Battery M, 3rd Battalion, 11th Marines, whose Marine fell from the truck. “But to lose one like that, out here, that just makes it worse.”
Sempers,
Roger
Marine battle awkward protection gear while combating Iraqi forces, weather
By C. Mark Brinkley
Times staff writer
OUTSIDE BAGHDAD, Iraq — If anything, chemical protection boots were supposed to make the Marine corporal safer.
But during an artillery mission here April 4, while grabbing for a 100-pound shell from the dirty bed of his ammo truck, the corporal’s slick rubber boots lost traction. In the middle of a combat operation, the Marine fell four feet to the ground, breaking his right leg in two places and prompting an immediate ground medevac.
With that tumble came yet another strike against the Mission-Oriented, Protective-Posture suits, designed to keep the troops fighting here, less than 10 miles from downtown Baghdad, safe from chemical and biological weapons.
From the war’s onset, Marine officials were determined to protect the troops from such deadly attacks. As soon as they got word that an invasion of Iraq was near, the Marines were stripping to their skivvies and trading cool cammies for charcoal-lined chem suits.
“If you’re a real man, you can fight without that crap,” said Maj. Gen. James Mattis, commanding general of the 1st Marine Division, during a prewar press briefing in Kuwait March 12, referring to chemical and biological weapons. “But, if [Saddam] wants to use it, we’ll meet him on that score too.”
The Marines were in the suits a week later and have been wearing them ever since, amassing nearly three weeks in the same suspender trousers and zip-up hooded jackets. The black rubber boots, worn like galoshes over the troops’ normal combat boots, have come on and off depending on the threat level.
New cammies hidden
Forget about all the money and research poured into the Corps’ new combat utility uniform, which has a new digital camouflage pattern different from the field uniforms of other services. The MOPP suits most Marines are wearing come in the same woodland print sported for decades, with cargo pockets on the legs and Velcro tabs at the ankles to hold them tight around their boots.
Their new cammies stuffed away in backpacks, most Marines are mismatched, with tan flak jackets and desert-patterned helmets standing in sharp contrast to the green suits and t-shirts underneath. The black rubber overboots — worn, at times, for 48 hours or more — trap heat and block airflow.
Already, the beginnings of trench foot are settling in on some Marines, forcing corpsmen to order their troops to air their feet out for at least two hours each day. The condition is caused when feet never really have a chance to dry, causing the skin to peel off and bacteria to settle in.
Slight cases, if not treated properly, can become serious infections.
The MOPP suits trap heat as well, a bad thing here as the temperatures near Baghdad top the 100-degree mark in the afternoons. Most Marines have heat rashes in places people don’t talk about.
“I’m nasty,” said one Marine gunnery sergeant, taking off his rubber boots to check out his feet. His combat boots underneath were soaked with sweat. “Well, there’s $100 wasted. These boots won’t make it home.”
The chemical threat makes the already-unpleasant task of clearing Iraqi forces that much worse. The Marines’ trousers don’t even have a zipper, turning a simple bathroom break into a nightmare of untucking and unbuckling.
Staying clean and dry is nearly impossible; there have been no showers since days before the war kicked off and baby wipes are beginning to run low. Added to the discomfort are the random calls of “gas, gas, gas” — the potential chemical attack alert that filled the early days of the war but since have slowed down — which leave the Marines wearing not only suits and boots, but cumbersome gas masks.
One convoy was forced to drive for more than an hour in the dark wearing their masks, night-vision goggles pressed to the lenses in a futile attempt to see, because of reports of an Iraqi unmanned aerial vehicle possibly equipped with chemical weapons. The report later proved to be a false alarm.
Overall, the MOPP suits are a sore subject among the Marines, many of whom are beginning to doubt the seriousness of the chem-bio threat. And when the suits get in the way of getting the job done — whether by causing falls or slowing down movements — tempers begin to flare.
“It sucks to lose a corporal, period,” said 1st Lt. Ty Yount, 26, executive officer for Battery M, 3rd Battalion, 11th Marines, whose Marine fell from the truck. “But to lose one like that, out here, that just makes it worse.”
Sempers,
Roger