NP? 60s nerve gas tests

[Doug Millison]

Some of you will find this interesting:

Military Used Nerve Gas in '60s Tests
Thu May 23, 6:32 PM ET

By MATT KELLEY, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. military used two kinds of nerve gas and a
biological toxin in tests on Navy ships in the 1960s, the Pentagon (news -
web sites) acknowledged for the first time Thursday. Officials said
veterans harmed by exposure to the agents could be eligible for health
benefits.

The four tests in the Pacific from 1964 to 1968 used either the deadly
nerve agent sarin, the nerve gas known as VX, or a biological toxin that
causes flu-like symptoms, Defense Department statements said.

The tests, conducted on barges, tugs, destroyers and other ships, were to
test the weapons themselves, protective gear and decontamination procedures.

Sketchy records of the tests and ships' logs do not indicate any of those
involved in the tests suffered serious health problems at the time, said
Dr. Michael E. Kilpatrick, a Defense Department health official.

"It may not be the best, but we believe if anything catastrophic happened
or if there were large numbers of ill people, it would be in the log," said
Kilpatrick, who was involved in reviewing the records. "There's no
indication on any of these tests that that had occurred."

The Department of Veterans Affairs (news - web sites) has mailed letters to
about 600 veterans who may have taken part in the tests, VA Secretary
Anthony Principi said Thursday. Any who were harmed by the chemicals could
be eligible for VA benefits.

"There's always been a question whether veterans and active-duty service
members became ill as a result of that testing," Principi said in an
interview with The Associated Press. "It's been controversial, so we were
sending out letters to veterans to ask them to take a physical and to see
if they are entitled to any benefits."

The Pentagon released details about six tests from a 1960s program to
evaluate chemical and biological weapons and defenses against them. The
Defense Department had agreed two years ago to begin releasing details
about the tests and contacting participants after pressure from Rep. Mike
Thompson (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., and veterans who
participated.

"I'm somewhat alarmed by it," Thompson said. "It seems to me enough time
has passed that someone over there should have known who was involved and
what was going on."

The tests also used chemicals and bacteria meant to simulate weapons, as
well as fluorescent or radioactive chemicals used as tracers, the Defense
Department said. One type of bacteria used to simulate germ weapons was
later found to cause infections, and a separate test where that germ was
sprayed on San Francisco is believed to have caused an infection that
killed a man.

The tests were among 113 conducted as part of a project called SHAD, or
Shipboard Hazard and Defense. The Pentagon has acknowledged using chemical
and biological simulants before, but has not admitted using the actual
weapons agents themselves.

Sarin, the deadly nerve gas used by a cult to kill a dozen people in a
Tokyo subway in 1995, was used in a 1964 test code-named Flower Drum Phase
I off the coast of Hawaii. Both sarin and a chemical simulant were sprayed
onto the USS George Eastman from a turbine on the ship's bow and injected
into the ship's ventilation system, the Pentagon statement said.

Crew members wore gas masks during the tests, and those who worked most
directly with the sarin wore chemical protection suits, the statement said.

Monkeys were used as test subjects during the exercises using nerve gas and
were later "sacrificed" to determine whether they were exposed to the
weapons, Kilpatrick said. Although records do not say how potent the sarin
was, the fact that participants used protective gear indicates it was in a
harmful or deadly form, Kilpatrick said.

Tests in 1964 and 1965 used VX, another deadly nerve gas. For the "Fearless
Johnny" tests in 1965, the George Eastman was sprayed with VX and a
simulant to test decontamination procedures. In the Flower Drum Phase II
tests, VX gas tagged with radioactive phosphorus was sprayed on a barge to
test decontamination procedures.

That second test used a compound that was 90 percent VX - "the most lethal
nerve agent" and one that can linger for weeks, Kilpatrick said. But there
is no evidence any people were on the barge sprayed with VX, which was
towed nearly a half-mile behind a tugboat, he said.

A 1968 test used staphylococcal enterotoxin Type B - a poison produced by
bacteria that causes flu-like symptoms such as fever, muscle aches, cough,
vomiting and diarrhea.

During that test, the toxin was sprayed from tanks on airplanes over five
tugboats, the USS Granville S. Hall and some parts of the Eniwetok Atoll in
the Pacific. The test was to evaluate how the toxin - meant to incapacitate
soldiers for up to two weeks without killing them - could be spread from
the air.

The Granville S. Hall also acted as a support vessel for the tests using
nerve gas.

___

On the Net:

Descriptions of the tests are available at:
http://deploymentlink.osd.mil/current_issues/shad/shad_intro.shtml