- KUWAIT -- Army Sgt. Rodney
Brown was called up to serve as a tank mechanic with Delta Company of the
2nd Tank Battalion, now stationed in the Kuwaiti desert not far from the
border with Iraq. But these days, he has another job that may be just as
important: taking care of chickens.
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- Delta Company is just one of several front-line units
that have been buying up chickens in Kuwait to use them as a crude kind
of early-warning system in case of a chemical attack. "Poultry have
very weak respiratory systems," said Brown, who used to raise organic
chickens on his family farm in upstate New York. "They're like a canary
in a coal mine. They'll die first. So it's a good indication of a gas attack.
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- "It's unfortunate that you have to use them, but
it's to save the troops," he added.
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- For the past few days, Brown has been taking care of
three plump white chickens in a makeshift pen. He feeds them corn and whatever
else he can find to mix in their meal. The chickens pass their days quietly,
sheltered from the hot desert sun by camouflage tenting.
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- "I expected to see camels," Brown said. "I
didn't expect to see chickens here."
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- The chickens will be deployed with the troops if there
is a war with Iraq. They will be posted like sentries and watched carefully
to see if they succumb to poisonous gases.
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- These decidedly low-tech chemical detectors may turn
out to be more valuable than anyone expected.
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- ABCNEWS has learned that some of the expensive, high-tech
detectors military officials are counting on to warn of chemical or biological
attacks have malfunctioned. A reporter who visited troops near the Kuwait-Iraq
border recently said the inanimate detectors were constantly going off
even though there was no poisonous gas in the air.
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- This is not the first time that poultry has been pressed
into protective service for the military. American forces used fowls during
the Gulf War also. One morning, a group of soldiers awoke to find their
chickens dead. The soldiers panicked, thinking they had been gassed and
not yet felt the effects.
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- Only after investigating more closely did they discover
the chickens had frozen overnight when the temperature had plunged. The
chickens then came in handy as that night's meal.
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- Mike Cerre contributed to this report.
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- http://abcnews.go.com/sections/GMA/Living/iraq030225_KuwaitFieldChickens.html
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