PFC, unmask

To my knowledge, no Marine has died in a chemical warfare attack in over 100 years. This was an entry from Gary's journal on 3/18/2003:


This is the same pigeon later in the conflict (Jim had reached the rank of lance corporal):


The "PFC, unmask" method is exactly what you'd think. When you're unsure about chemical contamination, you make the lowest ranking Marine take off his mask. If he dies, you keep yours on.

Later:

I just ran across this. It's the accelerated promotion schedule for the pigeon in question. As described in Stepping Off, this pigeon was non-recced after going UA, so he fell behind this schedule. This must be Gary's early draft, because it disagrees by one day with the date given in the journal, and is dated two days earlier.



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