Project 112

Project 112

Between 1963 and 1970 under Project 112, 109 tests were planned. To date, DoD has published 12 fact sheets that chronicle ships and units involved in the SHAD tests, when the tests took place, and the substances to which the crews may have been exposed

From 1963 through 1970, the Department of Defense (DoD) conducted tests to determine the effectiveness of shipboard detection and protective measures against chemical and biological threats and to determine the potential risk to American forces. The tests were conducted under the broad heading of Shipboard Hazard and Defense (SHAD).

While much about the tests is still classified, DoD has begun to declassify the information VA would need to evaluate a veteran's application for benefits. Medically significant information from twelve tests with 4,300 participants -- "Autumn Gold," "Copper Head," "Shady Grove," "Eager Belle" (phases I and II), and "Scarlet Sage," "Fearless Johnny," "Flower Drum" (phases I and II), "DTC Test 68-50," "DTC Test 69-32," and "Purple Sage," -- has been declassified and released to VA.

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Aug2002/b08132002_bt419-02.html

DOD RELEASES DESERET TEST CENTER/PROJECT 112/PROJECT SHAD FACT SHEETS

Pentagon to Disclose Dugway Tests of 1960s
Wednesday, August 14, 2002

Stung by criticism that the Pentagon has been slow to investigate, the Department of Defense on Tuesday announced it will disclose information on 1960s chemical and biological weapons tests overseen by Dugway Proving Ground as soon as documents are declassified.
A team will visit Dugway next week to review records from the Deseret Test Center weapons and vulnerability testing program, which ran from 1963 to 1970.

http://www.sltrib.com/2002/aug/08142002/utah/761795.htm

UNITED STATES SENATE COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES

NEW! FACT SHEETS >>Updated September 11, 2002

Project 112 Fact Sheets to be Released Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) William Winkenwerder, Jr., will hold a news conference to release 28 detailed fact sheets on 27 Cold War-era chemical and biological warfare tests identified as Project 112.
The briefing will take place tomorrow, Oct. 9, 2002, at 1 p.m. EDT in the DoD Briefing Room, Pentagon 2E781. These documents will supplement information already posted on the World Wide Web at click here  if not working Click Here. The Conference was to be televised on CNN and was pre-empted for the Robert Blake hearing.

Project 112 Fact Sheets adobe .pdf format  web based--here  download to your computer here

http://www.projectshad.org/

Soldiers exposed in 109 chemical tests, Pentagon says

WASHINGTON - Pentagon investigators have found the names of 109 tests from the 1960s and 1970s that may have exposed American servicemen to chemical and biological warfare agents.

A spokesman for the Pentagon said it has so far given the Department of Veterans Affairs the names of about 2,800 former servicemen who participated in the tests and who may need medical help.

"Undoubtedly there will be more," said Austin Camacho, a spokesman for the Department of Defense's Deployment Health Support Directorate.

The Pentagon on Monday posted the names of the tests on a Web site devoted to the testing program inquiry. Many went by colorful names such as "Night Train," "Big Thunder" and "Clay Pigeon." The list indicates that 52 of the 109 tests were canceled, 45 were completed, and the status of 12 remains unknown.

But unlike the initial disclosure in May of a dozen Cold War-era chemical tests, no other details, such as the substances used and where the testing occurred, were available. Camacho said more information would be forthcoming.

"It's easy to understand the concerns of the veterans," Camacho said. "We're just moving as fast as we can."

For months, veterans' groups and several members of Congress have been pushing the department to disclose details about the program, whose overall name was Project 112.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miami/news/nation/3854989.htm

U.S. secretly tested bioweapons

The United States secretly tested chemical and biological weapons on American soil during the 1960s, newly declassified Pentagon reports show.

The tests included releasing deadly nerve agents in Alaska and spraying bacteria over Hawaii, according to the documents obtained Tuesday.


The United States also tested nerve agents in Canada and Britain in conjunction with those two countries.

The summaries of more than two dozen tests show that biological and chemical tests were much more widespread than the military has acknowledged previously.


The Pentagon released records earlier this year showing that chemical and biological agents had been sprayed on ships at sea. The military reimbursed ranchers and agreed to stop open-air nerve agent testing at its main chemical weapons center in the Utah desert after about 6,400 sheep died when nerve gas drifted away from the test range.

The tests described in the latest Pentagon documents include:

• Devil Hole I, designed to test how sarin gas would disperse after being released in artillery shells and rockets in aspen and spruce forests. The tests occurred in the summer of 1965 at the Gerstle River test site near Fort Greeley, Alaska. Sarin is a powerful nerve gas that causes a choking, thrashing death. The Bush administration says it is part of Iraq's chemical arsenal.
• Devil Hole II, which tested how the nerve agent VX behaved when dispersed with artillery shells. The test at the Gerstle River site in Alaska also included mannequins in military uniforms and military trucks. VX is one of the deadliest nerve agents known and is persistent in the environment because it is a sticky liquid that evaporates slowly. Iraq has acknowledged making tons of VX.
• Big Tom, a 1965 test that included spraying bacteria over the Hawaiian island of Oahu to simulate a biological attack on an island compound, and to develop tactics for such an attack. The test used Bacillus globigii, a bacterium believed at the time to be harmless. Researchers later discovered the bacterium, a relative of the one that causes anthrax, could cause infections in people with weakened immune systems.
• Rapid Tan I, II, and III, a series of tests in 1967 and 1968 in England and Canada. The tests used sarin and VX, as well as the nerve agents tabun and soman, at the British chemical weapons facility in Porton Down, England. Tests at the Suffield Defence Research Establishment in Ralston, Canada, included tabun and soman, the records show.
• Elk Hunt II, involving 11 trials between Oct. 27 and Dec. 17 of that year. Army vehicles were used to trigger mines loaded with VX nerve agent, a liquid that can cause death within 15 minutes of exposure.
• DTC Test 69-12, took place at Edgewood in the spring of 1969. It involved four nerve agents, including VX and sarin. The latter is a deadly agent that was used in the 1995 subway attack in Tokyo. The two other nerve agents, tabun and soman, are also lethal. Soman is a persistent agent that can easily remain in an area for a day or longer, according to the Pentagon.

Tabun and soman are chemically related to sarin and produce similar effects.

http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2002/10/09/bioweapons/?x

Links:

Project SHAD

Pentagon slow to study chemical tests
VA HASN'T TOLD ALL SOLDIERS INVOLVED IN 1960S

Soldiers exposed in 109 chemical tests, Pentagon says

US Used Deadly Sarin in Hawaii Test-Pentagon

Pentagon: No More GI Guinea Pigs

The Pentagon gassed American soldiers and civilians in 1960s tests

History of Biological Warfare