WHAT had been a noisy epic of heavy armour and heavier bombs in a distant desert suddenly yesterday became a human story of two soldiers, one dignified, the other villainous.

One refused to be intimidated by captors who tried to humilitate him on television. The other killed one of his own officers and wounded 16 more when he lobbed grenades into three 101st Airborne Division tents in Kuwait.

Five alleged US captives were paraded on Iraqi television. Four appeared frightened and confused, caught unwillingly in headlights. Two appeared wounded. They gave their names, home states, units, and assurances that they had no wish to kill Iraqis. They were patently petrified.

The fifth, Specialist Joseph Hudson 585650287, gave his name and number, told them he came from El Paso, Texas — and nothing more. He looked straight at the camera with a steady eye, protested that he could not hear or did not understand questions barked at him in heavilyaccented English by an unseen inquisitor, and even managed a half-smile.

These were no high-adrenalin assault troops. Two other captives said they were from 507 Maintenance Unit, US Army. They don’t kill people, they mend things. But their comrade showed that calm courage is not the exclusive preserve of the front line.

Specialist Hudson’s performance was all the more gratifying for coming in the thick of grotesque television pictures showing another captive, clearly wounded and lying on his back on a bed, having his head forcibly turned to the microphone. The Geneva Convention forbids the parading of prisoners of war for the purposes of propaganda or for weakening the resolve of the prisoners’ own side.

Morale in the theatre of war will have taken a knock with the incident involving a disgruntled US soldier who is a Muslim convert. The attack caused first confusion, then disbelief when it became clear that the bloodshed had been inflicted by a fellow soldier.

The man, a sergeant from an engineering platoon, had been disciplined for insubordination and told that he would be left behind in Kuwait when his unit moved into Iraq. He had been under observation for potentially erratic behaviour and put on low-level sentry duty.

The incident had resonances of the mental unbalance to which so many combatants were driven in the Vietnam war three decades ago, when so-called fratricide attacks were not uncommon.

An official at the 101st Airborne’s Kentucky headquarters said: “Death is a tragic blow. But when it comes from a fellow comrade it does even more to damage morale.”

But when a humble army maintenance man can be forced on to his captors’ television channel and maintain his dignity, morale swells.

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