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Portsmouth News Journalist David Cragg on the chemical warfare kit issued during the Gulf War. (RNM)

Transcript: “It wasn’t as scary putting them on as thinking what it would have been like not having them there if you see what I mean. It didn’t worry me at that stage. What did worry me was the fact that we went to Brize Norton, the air base, to fly out and we had possibly 20 minutes training on the use of a nuclear chemical biological warfare suit, gas mask, something called Combat Pens, which were a sort of type of needle which you have to push into yourself and its like an antidote to a particular type of gas. But they are not exposed needles, they are contained in a cylinder and you have to hit yourself quite hard with the point of this thing, which as I say, is called a Combat Pen, thrust it in and then the needle will shoot out and dose you with whatever you need. So that’s Combat pens, and there were various forms of tablets which you were also given which you can take which will suppress the effects of gas and biological weapons on you should you be infected.”

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