ARIZONA DAILY STAR -- May 5, 2004 http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/metro/20735.php

Davis-Monthan remains silent on February tear-gas drift

By Carol Ann Alaimo

Kathy Rizk thought terrorists had struck in Tucson when passers-by burst
through the door of a Southeast Side coffee shop gasping that something
toxic was in the air.

"Their throats were burning and their eyes were tearing and they were having
a hard time breathing," recalled Rizk, 35, a mother of three who quickly
called home and warned her husband to keep the kids indoors.

"It was scary," she said of the Feb. 25 incident, which prompted numerous
calls to paramedics and nearly 30 reports of breathing problems in the Rita
Ranch area, near East Valencia and South Nexus roads.

"We didn't know what it was or where it was coming from," Rizk said. "With
all the terrorist stuff going on, that was just something you think about."

More than two months later, Rizk and her neighbors still aren't sure why it
occurred and whether anything is being done to see that it doesn't happen
again.

The chemical, it turned out, was tear gas from nearby Davis-Monthan Air
Force Base, where a training drill reportedly went awry that evening.

That's all D-M has revealed about the incident. Base officials have not
disclosed why their normal wind-monitoring procedures apparently failed or
what, if anything, they plan to do differently to prevent future mishaps.

D-M spokeswoman Maj. Ange Jaskiewicz told the Arizona Daily Star in early
April that D-M had finished an investigation of the incident, but couldn't
release results until the base commander reviewed them.

That still hadn't happened, and Jaskiewicz couldn't say when it would. She
said delays are not uncommon.

"The investigation took several weeks - and it's not unusual for an
investigation to be months in the making," she said.

At this point, D-M has already taken longer to account for the tear gas
episode than it took the Tucson Police Department to report on what went
wrong in the 2001 Fourth Avenue riots.

Some Rita Ranch residents are rankled that D-M didn't act quickly to allay
public concern.

"I definitely think the community is owed some answers," said Michael Tone,
32, president of the neighborhood association in Rita Ranch, where some
residents feel vulnerable because of their proximity to the base.

"We have a right to know what sort of measures they put in place to prevent
it from happening in the future," said Tone.

"My grandfather lives out here, and he has a really hard time breathing. He
wasn't affected (on Feb. 25), but I worry about the older people."

Anne Lopez, 56, a Rita Ranch Neighborhood Association board member, wants
D-M to fess up and apologize.

"The Rita Ranch association tries to be a good neighbor" to the air base,
said Lopez.

"Good neighbors don't accidentally gas one another without an explanation
and an apology."