Ben MortonLeadership Trainer, Coach and Speaker

Two man sniff test

9 Apr 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:52

Ben Morton recounts a tense moment while stationed in northern Kuwait, just before crossing into Iraq after a suspected chemical bomb. He describes being ordered to perform a two‑man sniff test: soldiers, wearing gas masks, inhale a full breath, break the mask seal with two fingers, take a tiny sniff of air, then reseal the mask while watching each other for signs of nerve‑agent poisoning. The procedure felt risky and surreal, but the alarm later proved to be false. The anecdote highlights the psychological strain of chemical‑threat protocols and the close‑quarters observation among soldiers during the test.

Chapters

I find myself in northern Kuwait, just about to cross the border into Iraq. Suspected chemical bomb has taken place, and I was basically told to go and do the two-man sniff test, which was like, oh, really? We're actually doing this? Got a soldier either side of me kind of looking at each other and looking at me. Basically, they take, with a respirator or gas mask on, they take a massive breath of air through their mask to almost completely fill their lungs, and they basically take two fingers of each hand, break the seal on their mask, and then just take a tiny sniff of air. And they put the mask back down, and then basically they're looking at each other. I'm looking through the little kind of eyepieces on the respirator into their eyes, watching for signs of nerve agent poisoning, basically. It turned out to be an entire false alarm. But in that moment, I, we, they thought we were doing a real two-man sniff test.