"The point made in the second paragraph, that identifying the gas would make it essentially useless for future operations, is so obvious and correct that I'm embarrassed that it never occurred to me while I was complaining about the secrecy."

Not so fast, there, Pancho. The Russians had to know that sooner or later, probably sooner, the type gas would be found out. So the antidote would be known, too, before someone did this again.

My guess on the thing is that the Incident Commander who was in charge of resolution decided to "attack" and may have even had more ambulances available (which seems true). However, he or she could have considered using gas a "tactic", and the rescue people didn't have a need to know. Or may have assumed that in practices the rescue people learned what type of gas. The Incident Commander may not have even known people wouldn't just "wake up" after the gas was applied. The tactical people may not have had the slightest idea what it was themselves.

After that, no one who knew what the gas was felt as if they had the authority to tell. In fact, most of 'em could have been confined to barracks, and not even known there was a fuss.

It just had to work its way up the political ladder.

I do wonder if people in that position would carry naltrexone after all this.

Arf