KCTV5 NEWS INVESTIGATION: Weapon Of Choice Depleted Uranium

KCTV5 NEWS INVESTIGATION: Weapon Of Choice
PRAIRIE VILLAGE, Kan. -- Since 1991 the U.S. military has admitted to using depleted uranium in armor and ammunition on a large scale. But since then, a debate has raged about its long-term health effects on soldiers and their families.

Could one of the most effective military tools in their arsenal actually be harming soldiers?

Jerry Wheat is one of the hundreds of thousands of American men and women who have enlisted in the U.S. Armed Forces.

"I was in the army for 4 years and 10 months. I joined in 1989 as a 19 Delta, which is a cavalry scout," said Wheat. "My job was to go out and look for the enemy."


Wheat was awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star after his 1991 deployment in Gulf War I.

Wheat said his unit was in Iraq, heading toward Basra, when it got caught up in a firefight.

"My Bradley was hit again with another tank round, and that tank round knocked me unconscious," said Wheat.

In an instant flash of fire, smoke and shrapnel, Wheat became a casualty of war. But without knowing it, his battle was just beginning.

"I took shrapnel in the back of my head. I had some second- and third-degree burns, and there was about 25 pieces of shrapnel from my head all the way down my back," said Wheat.

The military initially denied it, but Wheat ultimately learned that the pieces of shrapnel embedded in his head and back were shards from "friendly fire" and some of the fragments contained depleted uranium.

"As a soldier, you know, most of us didn't know what DU was or made aware of to stay away from it," said Wheat.

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