The Pentagon says it didn't happen, but soldiers returning from Operation Desert Storm burned and dumped large stockpiles of food, equipment, medical supplies, clothes, tents and lumber rather than give them away or bring them back home.
In some cases soldiers acted on their own out of haste or laziness. In a few units, soldiers reluctantly destroyed the surplus under orders from commanding officers.Our sources told us they witnessed burning of supplies near the Saudi Arabia-Iraq border. Dumping was the more common method of disposal in the port city of Damman where fires would have been conspicuous. The piles there included tents, uniforms, tools, tires, cots, medical supplies, building materials, blankets and food packets.
Although the Pentagon claimed every item had to be accounted for with paperwork, Army Reserve Sgt. David Utzke of Minnesota told us "depending on the item, accountability just wasn't there." Gen. William "Gus" Pagonis, the man in charge of logistics for the gulf war, denied any widespread burning had taken place. He told our reporter Nick Budnick that the only things authorized to be burned were contaminated latrines and lice-infested tents. And he said there were soldiers stationed at the dumps in Damman to stop unauthorized dumping. If anyone was guilty of waste, it was a few "disgruntled or unhappy" soldiers, Pagonis said.
The accounts of waste we heard involved Army units - usually logistical units, evacuation hospitals and the mobile Ration Breakdown Points where food was distributed. "In their wake (the food distribution units), we would find truckloads of food items left behind in the desert," Utzke told us. That may have been the best thing the military could have done with its surplus - leave it behind in the desert. Nomadic tribes glean whatever the desert gives them, and the Persian Gulf war leftovers could have been a bumper crop for them, or for the needy Kuwaitis and Kurds. But some military commanders seemed to be consumed by a tidiness fetish, not wanting to leave one stick of wood behind, even if it meant burning the excess.
The official Pentagon policy was to bring home the surplus or give it to relief organizations. Pagonis told us soldiers were only allowed to throw away food or medicine if it had spoiled. But Utzke, whose duties included food inspection, said the discarded food he found was fine. He also said soldiers asked them to condemn food to avoid the hassle of doing something with it.
One source told us at least one planeload of soldiers was told that, while on active duty, they would say only positive things to the press. The implied threat was that they might be court-martialed.
Based on our findings, Rep. Jim Bilbray, D-Nev., member of the House Armed Services Committee, wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Dick Cheney asking him to look into the destruction of supplies. So far, Bilbray has had no response.