Re: DU Projectiles

[Mark Steinbuchel <markst@ONC.hhsys.org>]

Dear Radsafer's 

I would like to state that I am speaking from my 
experience from an Army career (enlisted then as a 
commissioned officer) and 14 years with a "major defense 
contractor", there are several types of projectiles, Air 
Force A-10 "Warthog" cannon ammo has a small dart within 
the metal jacketed shell and High Explosive (HE) that is 
intended to drive into the armoured vehicle then explode 
and set off any available ordnance (as you would find in a 
tank) by the searing heat created.  
Today's DU anti-tank shells like are used by the Abrahams 
main battle tank are of the same concept and intended to 
also be delayed to allow their larger "dart" of Depleted 
Uranium to penetrate within the shell primarily because the 
latest technology is that everyone has what is called 
reactive armour wherein there are little box shaped 
sections of replacable outer skin that are filled with mild 
but quick to react explosives that do not burst upon being 
struck by small arms (rifle type) impact but in mere 
nano-seconds will burst and throw away the pentration of 
older technology tank to tank or artillery shells that were 
not like the high speed Depleted Uranium darts that are of 
a speed and density to allow them to defeat this "Reactive 
Armour".  
All of this stuff used to be DOD For Official Use Only 
(FOUO) or Secret (S) classified in the early days of its 
development but now is Unclassified (U) thanks to the 
British Publications by "Jane's" on such weapon systems, 
the salesmanship of our American, Israli, British and other 
military commands at the Paris Air Show and other arms 
bazaars and perhaps most significantly the famous US 
Magazine, "Aerospace Week (some used to call it Aerospace 
Leak) and Space Technology". 
Shrapnel pieces (as were asked about in the below e-mail 
that prompted me to reply) from a DU dart technology weapon 
warhead can be Softball size large or as small as submicron 
size from the conflagration of melting metal, exploding 
shells and rapidly burning biological organisms in the 
several thousand degrees and that is precisely why the 
former nurse featured in the A&E television special on this 
past Saturday evening was saying that she had not seen the 
types of charred fatals and severe injured Iraqi soldiers 
from her previous experiences.  It is hotter HELLFIRE 
(which is exactly the name of one of the weapons sold 
internationally to shoot at your enemy's tanks) than the 
previous wars such that people did not often escape the 
tank or APC and the injured were either not near exploding 
ammo, just outside the tank or on a road adjacent to the 
tank that had just been hit by the DU weapon.  
Small wonder that thousands of these elite Republican 
Guardsman who were suddenly next to their comrades 
vaporized remains suddenly lost their previously frenzied 
desire to follow this Hitler like Muslim dictator 
(should be pronounced "Sad Dam" like Bush did to infer 
the negative Arab use of that term versus the name of 
the man) into the allegedly desirable afterlife of Holy War 
Martyrdom that he had hoped to inspired them to. 
On active duty, we used to call the tanks "rolling coffins" 
and I personally feel that our latest American defense 
industry's advances in modern anti-armour technology saved 
thousands of lives on both sides of the Persian Gulf War, 
the only sad part is that because of security concerns, the 
various countries that made up this United Nations 
Coalition is now facing (and unfortunately denying) the 
real scientific potential that respired, skin absorbed (yes 
- a tank war is messy not conducive to taking a warm shower 
immediately after calmly vaporizing your worthy foe) thus 
we are seeing these brave soldiers worldwide whom are 
facing metal fume fever type symptoms from this heavy metal 
(depleted uranium is in the lead family on my periodic 
table) and some of the mixed items from its manufacture 
from spent reactor fuel that often include berrilium and 
other trace heavy metals that are also not easily removed 
from the blood, brain and other organ systems.  
The constants of dose quantity and duration dictate the 
level of toxicity in a give exposed biological entity.  
Thus the one or two small fragments in muscle tissue, a 
few hundred microns respired into the lung aveoli or 
dust size particles under a toe nail for a week are not the 
same "cocktail of radioactive materials blended with 
other chemical toxin" exposure as the quoted nurse on 
this TV special who undressed and cared for contaminated 
but very injured prisoners of war - or other examples of 
exposure. 
I agree with our government using these weapons to shorten 
the war and save lives, but we need to have the balls to 
admit that as a nation, we failed to warn our young men and 
women about the various routes of DU and toxin entry into 
their bodies.  Thus, they handled an injured foe or wiped 
their noses, butts, eyes, smoked, drank and ingested - 
these tiny particles entered their bodies as they went 
innocently about their duty to preserve our freedom.  
We  and the VA should quit denying them care and seek to 
focus medical research on more than just the friendly fire 
victims mentioned in the TV report. 
This is an International Problem - look on the Internet and 
you will find Danish, Australian and other government 
soldiers with the same Gulf War illness that is not just DU 
alone, but rather a cocktail of DEET impregnated clothing, 
burning crude oil (try looking up the effect of raw benzene 
pyrolosis that was in a lab test tube then magnify the 
health potential by a few hundred thousand with multiple 
field variables)wells and other toxins.
I personally would like to use this soap box to thank these 
brave young soldiers, nurses and others who allowed my
grandson and others to be safe from this dictator but feel 
we have an obligation to move on from debate and speculation
to treating each case as a potential toxic exposure and not 
someone who is only psychosomatic with an attempt to fool 
the tax payers.
Thanks for reading this, now I feel much better, which is 
more than that discharged Army Nurse SFC Carol Picuo of 
Louisiana, can say.
 
On Mon, 10 Nov 1997 13:41:43 -0600 (CST) P S Rao 
<psr@po.cwru.edu> wrote:

> Can an informed Radsafer enlighten me on the following?
> 
> How is a DU projectile built?  What is the radiation level around one?  Is
> it a solid, or is there coarse or fine powder within some type of casing?
> Does it shatter on impact, and if so how big can the shrapnel get?  If
> shrapnel is embedded in a body, is there a pathway for the uranium to get
> into urine?  Does it burn, and if so, how toxic are the fumes?
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> 
> P. Sridhar Rao, Mailstop BSH5056, Univ Hospitals, Cleveland, Ohio 44106.
> Tel: 216-844-1295.   Fax: 216-844-3300.   E-mail: psr@po.cwru.edu
> 

----------------------
Mark Steinbuchel
markst@ONC.hhsys.org