Company C 3rd Tank Battalion USMC, Task Force Ripper,
1st Marine Division Desert Storm
Maj Gen Salah Aboud Mahmoud
III Corps
As Task Force Ripper holds positions around Al Jaber Airbase,
the mass spectrometer on the FO vehicle operated by CWO
Joseph Cottrell detects vapors of lewisite blister agent. Cottrell
reports his findings to 1st Marine Division headquarters and is
told to send the detection record up the chain of command.
Headquarters responds that the detection was a false alarm,
caused by oil smoke. But Cottrell separates the petroleum
peaks from the agent spectrum, confirming the detection.
According to the 1st Marine Division log, “Ripper 6 believes that
chemical weapons were used, but not sure if Ripper was the
target. These chemical munitions could have been exploded by
our own artillery, thus causing secondary explosions.”
Gunnery Sergeant Paul Cochran was the Platoon Leader of 2nd Platoon C
Company 3rd Tank Bn.

He was in B Troop 1-4 Cavalry 1st Infantry Division Vietnam 1969-1970.