US Army accidentally tear-gasses thousands of soldiers during 'morale boosting event'

Around 8,000 soldiers in the U.S. Army were accidentally tear-gassed on the day before Thanksgiving at Fort Carson in Colorado, Fox News reports.

The Army's 4th Infantry Division were participating in a physical morale event where they scaled obstacles, ran up hills, and crawled through trenches when the incident took place. The soldiers had no prior knowledge that tear gas would be used during the event. Division leaders took the unusual step of marking the boundary of the course with tear gas, but the wind then caused the gas to drift over and settle on the soldiers doing the course -- who were not wearing any kind of protective gear.

"The purpose of this event was to build unit cohesion. Leaders at echelon participated in this event with Soldiers," Fort Carson spokesperson Dee McNutt said in a statement to Military.com. "The limited use of CS [gas] was not intended to interfere with the formations but to deter participants from leaving the course."

Read the full report over at Fox News.