Battle ready troops work 20-hour days

Troops in the British camp closest to the Iraq-Kuwait border are working long hours, and through the night, as the build-up for a possible invasion continues.

Commanding officer of the 2 Close Support Regiment of the Royal Logistic Corps, Lieutenant Colonel Alistair Deas, 40, from Kirkcaldy, Fife, said his men and women were working 20-hour days. The build-up is one of the busiest times for logistical specialists.

Preparations include running ammunition to soldiers who will make up the frontline, testing tanks to the limit on the firing ranges and - most ominously of all - issuing troops with drugs to combat chemical or biological attacks.

Soldiers are given the controversial Nerve Agent Pre-treatment Sets (NAPS) and Biological Agent Treatment Sets (BATS), taken on order if military officials believe a non-conventional attack may be imminent.

The NAPS bond with substances in the nerve fibre to make them less susceptible to an attack and some veterans' groups have questioned whether they have caused health problems, while the BATS are antibiotics used to combat biohazards like anthrax and botulism.

Troops are also offered anthrax jabs and are issued with ComboPens, syringe pens containing a combination of drugs to be used if they are hit by nerve agents.

The fear of chemical or biological attack is very real and soldiers carry their respirators at all times, with their Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) suits always nearby.

If ordered to go over the Iraq border they will also be told to "sanitise" their kit - removing personal items, which could be used against them or their families were they to fall into enemy hands.

But the most pressing logistical task is getting all the supplies, including ammunition and water, which will keep troops alive in the desert, to the regiments based around the vast, sprawling Camp Coyote.

Corporal Andy Phillips, from Falkirk, Scotland, has been on countless night-time runs to supply bullets and tank munitions as part of his work for the 2 Close Support Regiment of the Royal Logistic Corps. The 30-year-old father-of-two said: "We have been ensuring that the guys in the front have got all their water, rations and ammunition and everything they need on a day-to-day basis, keeping the supply chain going. If we can't get this stuff to them then these guys are going to suffer."

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