Along with the usual hazards of war (such as disease, gunfire, and other explosives), American soldiers in Bosnia face two serious threats to their limbs, if not their lives: frostbite and land mines.

Bosnia-Herzegovina is the most heavily mined country in the world, with about 152 mines per square mile. (Cambodia has about 143, Croatia 137, Egypt 60, and Iraq 59). The mines are usually made of plastic, so metal detectors are of no use in finding them. Methods for removing the mines are crude, slow, and expensive. USA Today pictured a soldier lying prone on the ground, digging with an icepick. Less dangerous methods include driving a tank over the ground to detonate the mines, or throwing out and reeling back hooks in an attempt to set off any tripwires.

Cresson Kearny, an expert in military survival equipment and civil defense, is attempting to interest U.S. military officials in protective methods that have so far been ignored in articles on land-mine dangers. The simple, common-sense method of placing sandbags on the floor of military vehicles prevented several serious injuries due to anti-tank mines during the Gulf War, but is not (at least according to information available Jan. 17) being used in Bosnia.

Mr. Kearny writes: ``While thousands of Americans serving in Bosnia are enduring cold feet, standing and walking in snow and slush while wearing their neat leather boots, a total of 40,000 to 50,000 pairs of excellent insulated rubber boots remain stocked in Alaska, other states, and Germany. Unknown to most officers is one of the most important lessons learned by U.S. Marines who fought in bitterly cold mountains in the second winter of the Korean War. During that winter, tens of thousands of `Mickey Mouse' insulated boots first were issued. Those rubber boots with their unwettable insulation not only kept our soldiers' feet from being frostbitten or frozen, but also almost always prevented feet that stepped on anti-personnel land mines from being so badly mangled that they had to be amputated.''

Kearny cites his own experience working in wet snow and below-zero temperatures. He has walked several hundred miles in the ``Mickey Mouse'' boots that he bought at an Army surplus store. He also reports the recollections of Robert W. Oliver, Lt. Col. USMC (Ret.), who participated in the 1951 assault at Yangu. According to the Regimental Surgeon, ``an individual wearing the new boot who had stepped on a Schue mine...would suffer a badly bruised foot or perhaps a broken bone in the foot area, as his `Mickey Mouse' boot was torn apart absorbing much of the explosive force.''

Studies conducted during 1963-1966 by the Edgewood Arsenal and the Ballistics Research Laboratory at Aberdeen, Maryland, generated a wealth of data. However, the results are classified. Mr. Kearny is asking various military officials to investigate; so far, he has received no acknowledgement of his letters.

Today, these boots cannot be manufactured because no factory is prepared to meet the rigorous specifications. Bata closed its specialized factory in Maryland more than 10 years ago.

Presumably, Americans could build another boot factory. But there is another, perhaps insurmountable obstacle. The EPA has banned Saran, one of the materials used in the insulation. Until three years ago, woven Saran was used in ventilating insoles issued by the military. Such insoles won a U.S. government citation as the ``most important development for foot comfort during World War II.'' They have been worn by millions of American and British soldiers.

DDP has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the EPA to determine the reasons given for forbidding the use of this possibly life-saving material.

Meanwhile, US soldiers suffer unnecessarily from cold feet. Although that condition is supposed to be mitigated by heated tents, the few heaters that were available to bridgebuilders sleeping in a warehouse remained unused because of fear of creating fumes from the abundant rat feces.

Come spring, the soldiers' feet may be warmer, but so will the tick that carries encephalitis. The Pentagon is attempting to obtain FDA approval for a vaccine before spring arrives.

``Based on decades of experience while making efforts to remedy deficiencies in combat equipment,'' Kearny writes, ``I know our military forces cannot promptly correct long-standing oversights─even ones recognized by powerful generals.'' Nonetheless, he has written to the President and other officials about the need to use the boots now held in storage.

Members of the public may also wish to inquire about establishing a Rapid Deployment Force to deliver effective means of reducing casualties to both troops and civilian disaster-response teams─despite military inertia, the EPA, and the FDA.

Cresson Kearny will be a featured speaker at the 14th Annual Meeting of DDP.

The 14th annual meeting of DDP is scheduled for the weekend of August 2-4 at the Airport Hilton Hotel in Salt Lake City, Utah. Civil Defense Volunteers of Utah will host tours of local NBC shelters on Friday afternoon, August 2. Mark your calendars and plan to come a little early!

In a letter to the editor of Emergency Medicine News, former DDP President Gerald L. Looney, M.D., writes:

``Now that former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara has recanted most of his pronouncements from the Sixties, this may be an excellent time for a new generation of physicians to take a fresh look at his nihilistic (MAD) policy of Mutual Assured Destruction....There may be no other medical legacy from this century which is more myth-guided and fallacious and with a greater potential for producing unnecessary mass death and disability.''

Under President Kennedy, McNamara oversaw the beginnings of an extensive civil defense program. But after Kennedy's death, Dr. Looney states, McNamara changed convictions and strongly opposed civil defense, in order to channel funds intended for national defense into international offense in Vietnam. ``To cover his defection and defiance of all prior 20th Century national defense policy, he devised an irrational policy based on nondefense.''

This was not even legal, Dr. Looney states. ``The Constitution requires our government to `provide for the common defense,' not for the common demise.''

MAD never considered the possibility of nuclear accidents, limited or rogue attacks, or acts of terrorism. ``MAD will have disastrous impact in the new century as terrorists improve their weapons...one single successful terrorist attack with a nuclear, biological, or chemical weapon may cause the deaths of more Americans in seven minutes than in the entire seven years of warfare in Vietnam.''

The 104th Congress actually passed a law that appropriated funds to build a missile defense system and required deployment by 2003. Vietnam War opponent Bill Clinton vetoed it, and Republicans removed the provision in a compromise defense appropriations bill. Meanwhile, Beijing is using threats of a missile attack to frighten Taiwanese voters inclined to support pro-independence candidates in the November legislative elections (Intelligence Digest, 1/12/96).