Nine years after he returned, he was diagnosed with lung cancer, and later, brain tumors. Even before then, Mr. Wright, a specialist in the 1148th Transportation Company, had suffered from skin rashes and aching joints.

"I didn't have any problems before I went over," he said in January, "but I had some when I left there."

On May 25, Mr. Wright died of the lung cancer at age 53.

Neither the Department of Defense nor the scientific community can say for sure what's causing some soldiers who fought for the liberation of Kuwait to become sick and die. The lack of answers raises concern as the Bush administration pushes for another war against Iraq.

An unidentified member of the 1148th Transportation Company looks in the burned hull of an Iraqi tank. The U.S. used depleted uranium in shells, which contains low levels of radiation that some say my cause cancer. SPECIAL

There are many theories, and they are as diverse and complex as the symptoms.

"I believe it came from the depleted uranium they were exposed to while in the gulf," Mr. Wright's widow, Katrina, said recently at her Atlanta home.

U.S. forces used depleted uranium, a heavy metal that is slightly radioactive, on bullets and shells because of its effectiveness in piercing armor. They also used it to enhance armor protection on some M-1 Abrams tanks. When uranium weapons burn, uranium oxide dust is created.

The 1148th didn't fight on the front lines, but it hauled fuel into war zones. On the way, members of the unit often passed burned-out Iraqi vehicles and tanks destroyed by U.S. artillery.

Mrs. Wright believes that her husband and other soldiers breathed in particles of uranium oxide dust.

Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammed Aldouri, said depleted uranium used by the United States and Britain is to blame for high rates of cancer among Iraqi troops who fought in the war, in addition to citizens of southern Iraq. He said it's also the source of American veterans' health problems.

"At that time, we had chemical weapons" but didn't use them, Mr. Aldouri said in an interview with The Augusta Chronicle. "Your people used this depleted uranium in Iraq during the war. I think the whole area has been affected by the depleted uranium."

Doctors discovered Mr. Wright's lung cancer in October 2000 and found brain tumors seven months later. Mrs. Wright acknowledges that her husband of 18 years was a longtime smoker but says his other afflictions strengthen her argument that his death is related to the gulf war.

The health problems eventually cost him his job of 20 years at a Scottdale, Ga., steel fabrication plant because he was physically unable to perform his duties, she said.

Mr. Wright's brain tumors were removed in September 2001, but an MRI last March revealed more cancerous growths. His condition worsened, and on May 20 he was taken to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. He never left alive.

Ten days later, Mrs. Wright and the couple's five children buried him in his uniform, adorned with the medals and pins he had earned.

"I knew he wasn't coming back home," she said, "and I think he knew it, too."

Willie Wright is seen with his wife, Katrina, at their Atlanta home during his battle with lung cancer. He died May 25. SPECIAL

Low-level fallout

Through the end of the current fiscal year, the federal government will have spent more than $200 million on at least 200 gulf war research-related projects. They cover the spectrum, ranging from $617,000 spent on the effects of gulf war service on military dogs to nearly $14 million on chronic, multisymptom illnesses.

The cost to taxpayers for projects dealing with gulf war illnesses, including funds for research, registry programs, investigations and public relations, is estimated at more than $500 million.

Dr. Robert Haley, one of the better known researchers on gulf war illness, has been studying the problems of Desert Shield/Desert Storm vets for eight years. Dr. Haley, a professor of internal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, said he believes afflicted soldiers have neurological damage caused by exposure to low levels of chemicals and nerve agents during the war, which is why years later they're experiencing body pain, cognitive problems, rashes and other symptoms.

His original benefactor was Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot, who wanted to fund research independent of the government. The search for answers has led Dr. Haley to develop new brain-imaging techniques. Brain scans of gulf war veterans have found cellular abnormalities and deep brain damage, he said.

The government acknowledged that sarin gas was released when the Army blew up munitions sites near Khamisiyah, Iraq, but Dr. Haley said the real damage was done a few days into the air war, when U.S. planes bombed hundreds of Iraqi chemical-weapons stores, creating a cloud that drifted over coalition troops and fallout that rained on them for weeks. That would explain the frequency of chemical alarms triggered in base camps but ruled false because no one got sick or died.

The Defense Department has reported that two chemical-weapons depots were destroyed during the bombing - at Muhammadiyat and Al Muthanna in central Iraq - but concluded that, with the exception of forward-deployed Special Forces, the fallout could not have reached troops in high enough concentrations to have long-term health effects.

Many of the symptoms gulf veterans are listing have been reported by soldiers in conflicts dating back to the Civil War, said Dr. Luis Montalvo, a primary care physician at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Centers in Augusta. He said that stress may be a factor in the illnesses but that it could also be something else.

"I've been working with veterans for almost 10 years, and I can tell you I've seen some people with some real problems, to the point that they cannot function, can't work, lost their jobs," said Dr. Montalvo, who spent five months in the Persian Gulf area after shipping out with the 382nd Field Hospital unit from Augusta. "My opinion is that it might still be something that we haven't been able to find out yet."

There is little research left to do on the subject, except for one project, said a researcher at the Medical College of Georgia.

"One last thing to do is to look at these people on autopsy," said Dr. Jerry Buccafusco, the director of MCG's Alzheimer's Research Center. "Cells die in different ways, and you may be able to tell something from the way the cells die or if the cell death is specific to certain brain regions that control various aspects of behavior or physiology.

"That's the other experiment that needs to be done, to look at autopsy tissue, and that will really depend on the willingness of the veteran to allow the tissue to be looked at."

Cancer and dying

At least two other 1148th veterans, Doug Scott and John O'Donnell, have died of illnesses since the war.

Mr. O'Donnell died March 31, 2000, at age 51. His wife, Jane, spoke to The Chronicle briefly about his death but would not elaborate because of potential litigation against the government.

He was diagnosed with liver cancer about three weeks before he died. Mrs. O'Donnell said he died of a blood clot in a leg.

Mr. Scott, a state probation officer, died last fall. He was 25 during the gulf war, when he served as a lieutenant, and 35 when he succumbed to brain cancer.

Before his death, the VA had determined that his illness was connected to his military service. Mr. Scott was on 100 percent disability, unable to work, unable to walk and in his last days confined to his home.

His brain tumor was discovered in 1995, after he lost muscle control in his right leg and stubbed his toe. His doctor told him the tumor had been present for two years, his mother said.

During his final weeks, his mother, Martha Scott, bathed him, dressed him and put baby monitors in her room and his. An only child, Mr. Scott was fiercely independent. Being in a wheelchair frustrated him. Those closest to him said he never spoke about what might have made him sick - he just kept saying he would get better.

Doug Scott presents a saber to the Academy of Richmond County Army JROTC Battalion commander, Brandon Brantley. The saber was dedicated in honor of Mr. Scott on May 9, 2001. He died of brain cancer five months later on Oct. 1. JONATHAN ERNST/FILE

"I remember him, just days before he died, sitting on the foot of his bed and saying, 'I'm going to beat this thing."' Mrs. Scott said.

On Oct. 1, she woke up at 5:30 a.m. and went into his room to check on him. His hands and body were warm, but his face was white, and she knew he had gone.

Mrs. Scott has two U.S. flags, folded into triangles and encased in glass, above the fireplace in her sun room, one for her son, the other for her husband, Rudolph Scott. The elder Mr. Scott, a Vietnam veteran, died of lung cancer about a month before his son.

"I don't think he ever regretted going to the gulf war," Mrs. Scott said of her son. "He just said he didn't want to die."

Return to Iraq Veterans' advocates fear that the government will repeat how it has treated gulf war soldiers if the United States again sends troops to the region to oust Saddam Hussein.

"The real question is, if (the government) cannot tell the truth and right the wrongs of the past, how can the military of today and their families expect them to do the right thing?" said Rick Weidman, the director of government relations for the Vietnam Veterans of America.

U.S. Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., a member of the Senate Armed Forces Committee and head of the Veterans Administration during the Carter administration, said that the Pentagon and the VA health care system are not prepared to deal with massive casualties from biological and chemical warfare.

"If you're going to go for regime change, and commit (200,000 or 300,000) or 400,000 troops to Iraq, it would be extremely bloody, very long, very costly to this country, to our economy, to our forces, and I hope we don't have to do that," Mr. Cleland said.

Heeding lessons of the first war with Iraq, the Defense Department has since tightened up its record keeping, hoping to avoid the confusion and lack of information that has frustrated research into gulf war illnesses.

In any future conflict in the Persian Gulf, vaccines given to troops in the field would be electronically archived, and the Defense Department would compile data on units' locations and any symptoms reported by soldiers before, during and after deployment, according to Michael Kilpatrick, deputy director of the Deployment Health Support Directorate.

The military has also become more cognizant of environmental hazards, including those created when chemicals are dispersed from bombed factories. In Afghanistan, environmental monitoring teams check for toxins in the air, soil and water before ground troops are moved into an area, Dr. Kilpatrick said.

Mr. Aldouri, the Iraqi ambassador, said his country won't be using chemical or biological weapons if there is another conflict because it no longer has any.

Katrina Wright believes that her husband, Willie, was exposed to depleted uranium during the Persian Gulf War, which she says caused the lung cancer that killed him in May. U.S. troops used the metal on bullets and shells to pierce armor. MICHAEL HOLAHAN/STAFF

"Right now, of course, we will not use any unconventional weapons because we don't have any chemical weapons or other kinds of weapons which are forbidden," he said. "All facilities, all factories, all sites have been destroyed by inspections and by the Iraqi government itself, so we are no more belonging to the club of this mass destruction. I find it ridiculous that we are a threat to the American people.

"If there will be another illness phenomena as there was before, I think you will have to blame yourself."

Broken up

The 1148th that deployed to the gulf war was effectively split up in 1995 when the Army moved its parts to Thomasville and Bainbridge, both in southwest Georgia.

Some members of the unit retired. Some joined the Army Reserve at Fort Gordon. Some joined up with the 878th Engineer Battalion, housed in the armory near Lake Olmstead that was once the 1148th's.

Some recall their time in the unit as some of the best of their lives. The 1148th was particularly close, made up of brothers, cousins, husbands and wives, fellow church members and lifelong friends.

"The time I spent in the unit and the time I spent in the military, I treasure that," said Richard Germany, who left the National Guard in 1995. "And I would go anywhere in the world today with these people. This was the tightest bunch of people for any military organization that existed."

Some veterans say that, despite everything that has happened since the war - the sickness, the uncertainties over the cause, the battles with the VA, the deaths - they would still go back to the Persian Gulf if their country needed them.

That's how Dale Sanders, a sergeant in the 1148th, feels. Mr. Sanders has had throat surgery to help with sleep apnea and has had four biopsies taken from his left ear. He said his father was a Vietnam veteran who died because of exposure to Agent Orange.

"I'd do it all over again. That's part of war, I guess," Mr. Sanders said of his ailments. "If you're not willing to fight for your country to be free, you don't need to be here."

ABOUT THE SERIES

The Augusta Chronicle tracked down 102 of the 166 men and women who served with Augusta's 1148th Transportation Company during the Persian Gulf War and looked at what has happened to its members and their families since, and what could happen if U.S. forces return to the gulf.

SUNDAY: The 1148th Transportation Company's job of hauling fuel during the war put its reservists all over the theater of combat, exposing them to almost every hazard associated with Desert Storm.

MONDAY: On Jan. 12, 1991, members of the 1148th were injected with the anthrax vaccine, in some cases against their will.

TUESDAY: When their bodies began deteriorating after the gulf war, some veterans say, they didn't get the help they needed from the federal agency charged with caring for them.

WEDNESDAY: There is growing evidence that the men and women who served in Desert Storm are not the only victims of gulf war-related health problems.

THURSDAY: Some fear another war with Iraq could bring a repeat of the health problems plaguing so many Persian Gulf War veterans.

Reach Mike Wynn at (706) 823-3218 or Johnny Edwards at (706) 823-3225.