NP? "Better bombing through chemistry"

Fri Aug 2 16:34:15 CDT 2002

"1/2-grain syrettes of morphine tartrate squeezed toothpaste-tube empty,
broken amyl nitrite containers looted from anti-gas kits, olive-drab tins
of Benzedrine . . ." (GR 686)

http://www.benzedrine.cx/

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0801-06.htm
Published on Thursday, August 1, 2002 in the Toronto Star

U.S. Pilots Stay Up Taking 'Uppers'

by William Walker

WASHINGTON - U.S. jet fighter pilots, responsible for at least 10 deadly
"friendly fire" accidents in the Afghanistan war, have regularly been given
amphetamines to fly longer hours.

Then when they return to base, the pilots are given sedatives by air force
doctors to help them sleep, before beginning the whole cycle again on the
next mission, often less than 12 hours later.

The exact drugs pilots are given and how they're taken is outlined in a
24-page document obtained by The Star, produced by the Top Gun fighter
training school and the Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory in
Pensacola, Fla.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Air Force Surgeon-General's Office in
Washington confirmed pilots are given the stimulant Dexedrine, generically
known as dextroamphetamine, to stay alert during combat missions in
Afghanistan.

Pilots refer to Dexedrine as "go-pills." The sleeping pills they are given,
called Ambien (zolpidem) and Restoril (temazepam), are referred to as
"no-go pills."

"When fatigue could be expected to degrade air crew performance, they are
given Dexedrine in 10 mg doses," air force spokeswoman Betty-Anne Mauger
told The Star.

It is not known whether Dexedrine was involved in the friendly fire
incident in which an American fighter jet dropped a 500-pound laser-guided
bomb that killed four Canadian soldiers early on April 18. But the
possibility did come to the mind of one defense analyst.

"Better bombing through chemistry," remarked John Pike, director of
Globalsecurity.org, a Washington-area defense policy think-tank.

"This was certainly one of my first thoughts after the Canadian friendly
fire accident," he said in an interview. "The initial depiction made it
seem as if the pilot was behaving in an unusually aggressive fashion."

Illinois Air National Guard Maj. Harry Schmidt was piloting the F-16
supersonic fighter that dropped the bomb. Maj. William Umbach was flying
with him in another F-16 that night.

"I don't know the answer," Schmidt's lawyer, Charles Gittins, responded
last night about whether Dexedrine was involved. "I never asked my pilot if
he was medicated. But it's quite common. He's on vacation now, so I'll
check with him about it when he gets back."

Pike said there's little controversy among politicians or the American
public about the use of amphetamines by the air force because "I don't
think anybody even knows about it.

"The aviation community and the air force community certainly don't like to
talk about so-called `performance enhancing' drugs," he said.  [...]

The 24-page Top Gun document, entitled Performance Maintenance During
Continuous Flight Operations, reports that in an anonymous survey among
pilots who flew in Desert Storm, the 1991 Persian Gulf War, 60 per cent
said they used Dexedrine. In units that saw the most frequent combat
missions, usage was as high as 96 per cent.

During that war, Dexedrine was administered in doses of 5 mg each, as
opposed to the 10 mg pills now offered to pilots in Afghanistan. [...]

The U.S. military appears to view pilots as machines. Under the heading
"Basic Principles" in the Top Gun document, it says: "We manage
maintenance, we manage fuel and weapons; we can also manage fatigue."

Pilots are allowed to "self-regulate" the amounts of Dexedrine they take.
They carry the pills in the single-person cockpit of their F-16s and take
them as they wish.

As one unidentified Desert Storm squadron commander said of his pilots in
the document: "You must give them guidelines and then let them
self-regulate. If you can't trust them with the medication then you can't
trust them with a 50 million dollar airplane to try and go kill someone."

Retired Col. Richard Graham of Plano, Texas, who logged 4,600 hours of
flight time in the U.S. Air Force, including 210 combat missions in
Vietnam, said pilots in that war routinely took Dexedrine. The air force
approved its use in 1960.

"We would be tested for uppers and downers and if we tolerated them okay,
we went forward," he said in an interview. As long as nobody is abusing it,
I think it's okay.

"I'm not a big fan of anybody taking medication in the flight business, but
sometimes situations call for it in combat. I never had any bad effects
from it and it served me well."

But medical literature indicates that amphetamines can have severe side
effects. The worst is called "amphetamine psychosis." It causes
hallucinations as well as paranoid delusions.

"Dexedrine also leads a person to build a tolerance level for the drug and
when higher doses are offered, anything at that level develops addictive
tendencies among those who continue to use it regularly," said Dr. Joyce A.
Walsleben, director of the Sleep Disorder Center at the New York University
School of Medicine. "The threat of abuse and addiction is definitely higher
with Dexedrine."

Pilots, after being tested for drug tolerance, are also asked to sign a
consent form, which was also obtained by The Star.

Entitled "Informed Consent For Operational Use of Dexedrine," it begins by
saying: "It has been explained to me and I understand that the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration has not approved the use of Dexedrine to manage
fatigue ... (and) I further understand that the decision to take this
medication is mine alone."

Air force insiders say the pilots really do not have a choice in taking the
drug. The form states that "should I choose not to take it under
circumstances where its use appears indicated ... my commander, upon advice
of the flight surgeon, may determine whether or not I should be considered
unfit to fly a given mission."