US Soldiers admit to using Phosphorus.
Various US soldiers have admitted to using phosphorus during the Battle of Fallujah. One such admission is found on Page 26 of the March-April 2005 Artillery Magazine. The field report was a self-evaluation of the performance of their weapons systems, their tactics, and their units. Another such admission was in the North Country (CA) Times:
Joking and rousting each other like boys just seconds before, the men were instantly all business. With fellow Marines between them and their targets, a lot was at stake. Bogert received coordinates of the target, plotted them on a map and called out the settings for the gun they call "Sarah Lee." Millikin, 21, from Reno, Nev., and Alexander, 23, from Wetumpka, Ala., quickly made the adjustments. They are good at what they do. "Gun up!" Millikin yelled when they finished a few seconds later, grabbing a white phosphorus round from a nearby ammo can and holding it over the tube.
"Fire!" Bogert yelled, as Millikin dropped it. The boom kicked dust around the pit as they ran through the drill again and again, sending a mixture of burning white phosphorus and high explosives they call "shake 'n' bake" into a cluster of buildings where insurgents have been spotted all week. They say they have never seen what they've hit, nor did they talk about it as they dusted off their breakfast and continued their hilarious routine of personal insults and name-calling.
Say 'cheese'
Every day since they started firing rounds into the city, other Marines have stopped by the mortar pit to take a turn dropping mortars into the tube and firing at some unseen target. Like tourists at some macabre carnival, some bring cameras and have other troops snap photos of their combat shot. Even the battalion surgeon fired a few Saturday, just for sport. Everyone wants to "get some," the troops explain, some joking that Fallujah is like a live-fire range.
Some have started to think of what happens after all the guns go silent. "I just don't want to come home and have someone calling me a baby killer," Alexander said after firing dozens of high explosive mortar rounds into the city. "That would piss me off." Alexander said no one has told him what the charges have hit.
What is clear from the talk among the soldiers is that despite all their bravado, they do not want to know what they have just done. But we now know what they have done. Fallujah will be an event that will sear our consciences for years.