Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
(1953); Camp Detrick (1950s); and Dugway (1950s). 80 The experiments
were clothed in secrecy. The inhabitants of San Francisco, Minneapolis,
and St. Louis were unaware of what was being done.
Most of the Detrick trials were carried out in the 8 Ball facility. The
tests used hot agents like Francisella tularensis, the causative agent for tula-
remia, on monkeys, goats, sheep, mice, rabbits, and guinea pigs. More
than 2,000 rhesus monkeys were exposed in this testing chamber. 81 At
Dugway, tests of the M33 bomb, charged with Brucella suis, were designed
to evaluate the highly sought agent-munition combination. The Air
Proving Ground Command delivered a tepid verdict, comparing the sim-
ulated BW attack so unfavorably with a nuclear attack that any military
leader or official would wonder: Was it worth it? 82
During the Truman administration and the first year of the Eisenhower
administration, field tests, designed for defensive equipment and offen-
sive weapons, were carried out at several installations besides Dugway. 83
Later in the Eisenhower administration, BW testing accelerated. A major
program carried out at Dugway Proving Ground was the 1954 St. Jo proj-
ect, designed to test an agent-weapon combination, bomb clusters loaded
with anthrax, against an unprotected population. It was a success: a large
number of animals were infected, and the aerosolized agent spread “up to
40 miles downwind.” 84 Challenged by a wide variety of environmen-
tal conditions, the agent-weapon combination worked well when deliv-
ered by aircraft. The CmlC concluded that “although development of the
agent component of the 'St Jo' program is still in progress, acceptance and
identification of the munition proper is considered a timely step in estab-
lishing DOD BW readiness as required.” 85
Operation Whitecoat, the first testing project to use human volunteers,
was carried out from 1955 through 1973 at Dugway and at Detrick. Re-
sponsibility was shared between the CmlC and the Office of the Surgeon
General. The aim of the program was to assess human vulnerability to
BW aerosolized agents. Its justification was that no “direct experimental
evidence” was available regarding the vulnerability of field troops to a
BW attack. 86 Historian Ed Regis reveals that during this period 2,200 U.S.
Army Seventh-day Adventists were exposed to a variety of diseases: “Q
fever, tularemia, sandfly fever, typhoid fever, Eastern, Western, and Ven-
ezuelan equine encephalitis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and Rift Val-
ley fever.” These experiments resulted in no deaths, relapses, permanent
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