Excerpts from the upcoming book…"Digging Deep; The Voz Island Destruction Mission" by Mission Commander Brian Hayes
The Flight In...
At roughly 1430 hours on 20 February 2002 we arrived back on Vozrozdeniya Island once again. I know because it was supposed to be at 1000 AM which would have afforded us the opportunity to establish camp during daylight hours, conduct a proper reconnaissance of the area to ensure that we were "alone" and to make sure that proper security measures had been put in place. None of what was supposed to happen on this mission actually went according to plan. Suffice to say it was haphazard at best but it was required predicated upon an immediate request from the Republic of Uzbekistan to address concerns about potential "catastrophic" contamination throughout the island - which come to find out was a euphemism for - "the amount of money you have programmed for the destruction of the anthrax buried on the island is not enough so therefore we are going to try and get more from you" - but I digress!
The mood was a bit somber on this mission set as compared to previous trips and to be honest somewhat confrontational as the both the Ministry of Science and Health as well as the assets from the Ministry of Defense would also be with us on this little excursion to the biological wasteland known as Voz. Seems they were none too happy with how the US Departments of State and Defense had come up with the dollar figures for the elimination of the anthrax that was on the island and now were posturing and claiming that the island was so "dangerous" that even this trip could put us and our lives all in jeopardy - citing American "experts" from California with direct scientific knowledge that "rodents could bite us at any time!" I immediately called BS to Dr. N's antics and told him "Either get on the helicopter now or we were leaving you (here) at the airfield."
I had been dealing with Dr. N on and off for several years while working with his Anti-plague Institute(s) throughout Uzbekistan securing dangerous pathogens left over from the days of the former USSR and found him to be very respectful - most of the time - and although I thought of him as a very competent and measured gentleman I was not in the mood for this bureaucratic rancor at this moment.
His stalling was costing us valuable time considering where we were going and the aircraft (which WE already had paid for) had "blades spinning" and it was time to go...AND he was pissing off the pilots to no end! Not to mention I just cancelled a two-week ski trip back in the States for this!
"Get on the bird now!" I yelled!
To state it lightly my patience was wearing thin.
He looked bewildered as I ascended the stairs with my team in tow and he then ran after me. Seconds later the MI-17 took to the air and finally headed for Vozrozdeniya Island.
After a good 10-15 minutes in the air, it became readily apparent.... he does not like low level flying in vintage Soviet era helicopters!
Presence Established on Site
There are certain things that are very hard to put away in your life - especially if you are a soldier. You know if you are going to the field for a day, overnight, or a week, that you bring certain things with you - a sleeping bag, a hat, extra socks, food, water, etc. Every member of my team was briefed before travel on what to bring with them as a minimum for this mission. It is something that is ingrained in you while in the service of our Nation. My second in command Scott made sure folks had all items necessary to stay on the island comfortably for 5 days in the "catastrophic" conditions laid out by our Uzbek minders and so we were well prepared.
Unfortunately, our Uzbek counterparts did not get this same level of training which is ironic given they were keenly aware of the "catastrophic conditions" we would have encountered, and the necessary equipment and the remedial training needed to survive in this extreme environment.
After watching us put up our military grade tents and roll out our sleeping bags they knew we were readily prepared for the next week...but THEY were not...and it showed! It was the difference between watching a varsity level and a junior varsity level football game when it came to preparedness.
But that was the least of the concerns as the best (and funniest) was yet to come!
Since the island was now "heavily contaminated" Dr. N would need to don a 3M HAZMAT suit and go to some of the more "heavily contaminated" areas on the island to conduct sampling operations as the lead governmental agent on behalf of the Republic of Uzbekistan - I had to remind him of this several times!
He never realized that this was part of his new assignment! Guess the ministry back in Tashkent forgot to tell him that one. Again, just like flying, he was not happy about this endeavor as mandated by his own government.
On 22 February he set out with Scott and a small party from the main element in full protective ensemble to conduct sampling operations across the island...all on foot to prove that Voz Island, for all its mystique and hyperbole was not this biological Chernobyl lying in wait for the United States to clean up.
After 8 hours of walking through the test grid and taking hundreds of samples Dr. N came "walking back" to the campsite with help from Scott and several others with his 35mm camera dragging behind him and announced in front of the campfire for all to hear that "Vozrozdeniya Island is pathogen free" - I looked at Scott and laughed as Dr. N went to his bedroll in his 3M suit (which was in tatters!) and just before just before falling asleep for the remainder of the mission (go figure!) was able set Scott's canteen cup ablaze in the campfire while trying to prepare a cup a tea after suffering from fatigue he hadn't seen since his teens.
After his whirlwind tour of the island, he did not wake up till the next day which was fine because we still had more work to do and I - nor the members of my team - did not need his type of distraction any longer.
Again, a great guy but a bureaucrat at heart especially when it came to hard work. All his rancor about secondary contamination on the island turned out to be fantasy. We took hundreds of samples from across the island, the R&D facilities, and other structures and not a single sample came back positive. This trip was nothing but a ploy to garner additional funds for a project that was not to be.
More on that later in the book.
Barkhan Airfield
I and a couple of others from the team had headed west to identify two key areas - the actual burial pits where the live anthrax had been buried and Barkhan Airfield - as this was going to function primarily as our resupply airfield for the pathogen destruction mission later in the year. Having found what was left of the airfield we quickly realized that the intelligence provided to us on was outdated and that it would not support our needs.
For background, "Barkhan" as it was referred to was located close to the town of Kantubek on Vozrozdeniya in close proximity to our campsite so the trek should be relatively short. It was the only airfield in the former Soviet Union with four runways in a starburst pattern. The weather on the island changed frequently and planes landed on one of the four runways depending on weather and wind direction at the time. Since this was an unimproved dirt runway system it was deemed to be not usable by cargo aircraft for our upcoming mission given that atmospheric conditions had taken a toll on it since the late 1990's. To be blunt it was unrecognizable from the pictures provided by the intelligence community and would provide nothing more than photographic opportunities moving forward. As I said earlier - none of what was supposed to happen on this mission actually went according to plan - and finding Barkhan in a dilapidated state was just the beginning.
Identifying the Pits
With the airfield dilemma taken care of we now could focus on identifying the pits to get a better handle on the magnitude of the problem. Although I had a hand drawn map from a previous expedition having been on site several years prior and were given the illustration by "someone with direct knowledge of the burial site" it had to confirmed and that was one of our missions. Given I had been here just six months prior myself the topography continues to change, and nothing looked the same.
Several "metal" markers that I put in place were indeed scavenged by locals continuing to look for scrap metal. I placed a call back to the US on the SATPHONE and spoke with one of the individuals in the intelligence community who was able "see" us on the island and who able walk us to the geographic location of each of the pits - or at least most of them - so they we could get a pretty could handle on the approximate size of the area we would be looking at. This was a pre-arranged call just in case this type of situation arose. Without this assistance we would have been "digging in the dark" trying to locate the exact location of the burial sites of this material.
That call in conjunction with several others allowed us to section off the grid and precisely map out the pits during the pathogen destruction mission so that we were able to remove with absolute certainty the biological material and complete the remediation process.
On the way out I had the pilots do a flyby just to make sure that what we were seeing on the ground was in fact the same from the air and that they matched precisely to our new map...and they did!
There was only two people on this team who knew the exact location of the burial pits, but I wanted to make sure that the information I would share with the destruction team back in Washington DC was accurate so that they could put together a solid plan for the pathogen destruction mission which was forthcoming. I did not want any hiccups moving forward giving what was already going on with Uzbekistan and the likelihood that another monkey-wrench would be thrown into this mission. I learned a long time ago - "trust your instincts" and with a mission like this nothing could be further from the truth!
A few days later, all tasks completed, and our reconnaissance done, we departed the island once again with the helicopter banking sharply to the east and then heading south, I looked over and could see Dr. N and the Uzbek contingent sleeping soundly for the first time in a week.
Mission success!
More to follow.......
