Description
Vice Admiral Miller explains the procedures given in protecting our Canadian sailors against attack in respect to gas, chemical attacks and disease.
Duncan “Dusty” Miller
Born in the United Kingdom, Duncan “Dusty” Miller immigrated to Canada in 1954. At the age of 15 and having a strong desire to join the military, Mr. Miller went to the recruiting centre but could not be accepted until 16 years of age. He then attended Bishop’s University in Lennoxville. During his career, Mr. Miller rose to the rank of Vice Admiral where he became the Naval Task Commander aboard HMCS Athabaskan during the Persian Gulf War. Vice Admiral Miller later retired from the military and now resides in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Transcript
When we knew that the missiles were going to fly we had to have about 5 or 6 injections of those things we thought the Iraqis might use in either chemical warfare or biological warfare. We all had a mask system and a protection system. We had atropine that if we were thinking we were under a gas attack we could inject ourselves. And the evening when we knew these missiles were going into Iraq we had to all line up and get all these shots including an experimental anti-nerve gas pill that we all took because the Iraqis were known to have chemical weapons and so if we had a chemical attack we would at least have some kind of; it was probably more a positive motivator that we would be able to come out of it in a way but they were not nice, you know, we had malaria, we had small pox which is a dead disease but you never know who’s going to use it so all of these things had to be done just before that happens.