article on missouri soldier

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MISSOURI NEWS LEADER 7/16/03 update:

The parents of an American soldier who died in Iraq after contracting

a

mysterious pneumonialike illness that ravaged his major organs are

convinced that their son stumbled across deadly chemical weapons

while

clearing rubble from one of Saddam Hussein's palaces. Josh Neusche,

20,

who had been conducting cleanup operations in Baghdad, died July 12,

2003 after being transferred from his base at the airport to a U.S.

military hospital in Germany.Army specialists are analyzing tissue

samples from his liver, kidneys and lungs to determine the cause of

death.Two U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq have died after their major

organs failed. Seven others have reported similarly serious symptoms,

although overall about 100 cases have been diagnosed since March 1.

Lt. Gen. Peake, the Army surgeon general, has sent two doctors

and four other disease specialists to Iraq and two more doctors to

Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, where some of the

troops

were treated after being flown from Iraq. The teams are retracing the

soldiers' steps in hopes of pinpointing the source of infection.Mark

and Cindi Neusche of Montreal, Mo., told the Sunday Telegraph that

their son had lapsed into unconsciousness less than an hour after

writing a letter to them in his tent.He had begun to complain of a

sore

throat and difficulty in breathing, and had been making his way to

the

field dressing station at the camp when he came across a medic,

muttered a few words and collapsed at his feet.The Army believes

Neusche had been suffering from pneumonia.Mr. Neusche said: " I

honestly feel that he must have got into some sort of chemical weapon

or something. For Josh to fall into a coma in just a few hours, it

has

to be something like that. He was a strong boy and he knew how to

look

after himself. This could not have been a natural thing. We have been

told that his lungs and kidneys collapsed, and he had toxins eating

at

his muscle structure.Mrs. Neusche,added: " I still want to know what

my

son died of. But we know that he had been on a hauling mission for 20

hours, and he told us in a letter that he had been clearing rubble

from one of Saddam Hussein's palaces. I am convinced that he stumbled

across something deadly from a chemical weapon that had been

buried in that palace. Neusche, who was serving with the 203rd

Engineer Battalion in Baghdad, was buried with full military honors

in

Montreal on July 22 after his body was returned from Germany.After

the

funeral,Rep.Ike Skelton, Missouri Democrat, said: " The Army has

confirmed that three or four of the soldiers in Josh's unit are among

those who got sick. They are investigating everything it could

possibly

be. I'm confident that we will get some answers.Military officials

said

there was no evidence that the cases, which are spread among troops

deployed across Iraq, were caused by exposure to chemical or

biological

weapons, or environmental toxins. " It is pneumonia. The question is

what

is the cause, " said Lyn Kukral, spokesman for Gen. Peake and the Army

Medical Command. " The epidemiological teams will look and follow the

facts wherever they lead, " she said. " You've got a healthy population

and a young population, and you have two soldiers who have died. And

that's a concern. " Fifteen of the 100 soldiers were ill enough to

require ventilator support. According to the Army, these severe cases

have been spaced out fairly evenly, which doesn't suggest a

single-source epidemic. Three occurred in March, three in April, two

in May, three in June and four in July.Mrs. Neusche

said receiving the flag at her son's funeral was an honor.