The class-action lawsuit was filed by Vietnam Veterans of America, Swords to Plowshares and individual veterans seeking medical care for troops who participated in the programs at Edgewood Arsenal and Fort Detrick in Maryland. The Edgewood Arsenal Rod and Gun Club was a club that included U.S. Army officers and Department of the Army civilian personnel stationed at the Arsenal as well as their families and guests. Everyone I have dealt with at your firm has been very professional and courteous. The soldiers deposition also stated that participants were given no warnings about side effects or potential long-term health risks that might be associated with the experiments. "I'm glad to be talking to you about it. At the Armys request, The Institute of Medicine, an independent nonprofit organization that is the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences, produced a three-volume report in the 1980s on the long-term health of Edgewood veterans. The Maj. Richard Star Act would eliminate the dollar-for-dollar offset on retirement pay that combat-disabled vets with less Capt. "No Social Security numbers, no addresses, no way of identifying them. "It's sobering to hear the words and discussion that was happening about setting this program up," Hancock said. The purpose was to evaluate the impact of low-dose chemical warfare agents on military personnel and to test protective clothing and pharmaceuticals. A Government Accounting Office report of May 2004, Chemical and Biological Defense: DOD Needs to Continue to Collect and Provide Information on Tests and Potentially Exposed Personnel (pp. At the end of the second hour, the officer ordered Cavell back to his barracks and to continue wearing his gas-saturated uniform. Please click here for a free evaluation of your claim, Civil/Human Rights Settlements and Legal News, Personal Injury Settlements and Legal News. "This is not an easy, not a simple thing," Flohr says. The IOM study also concluded that "available data suggest that long-term toxic effects and/or delayed sequellae are unlikely" for this type of compound.[15]. In order to best serve veterans and their families, VA continues to study the possibility of long-term health effects associated with in-service exposure to chemical and biological weapons, the letter promised. Fort Hoyle was established on October 7, 1922, and was created from a portion of the Edgewood Arsenal. Please switch auto forms mode to off. hide caption, Former CIA Director Porter Goss says the VA has mishandled these claims. The National Academy of Sciences, which oversees the IOM, sent a questionnaire to all of the former volunteers that could be located, approximately 60% of the total. Many official government reports and civilian lawsuits followed in the wake of the controversy. Naval Research Laboratory The idea was they would test new Army field jackets, clothing, weapons and things of that nature, but no mention of drugs or chemicals.. "You can't coordinate anything you know. The judges in 2015 rejected a district courts earlier argument that the Army didnt have to provide medical care for the veterans because some of them receive VA care, The judges instead ruled the Army has a duty to provide them care. Josephs says he now takes two dozen pills daily. Josephs said he didnt know what drugs he was getting. If you are concerned about exposures during Edgewood/Aberdeen chemical tests, talk to your health care provider or local VA Environmental Health Coordinator. File a claim online. If you are concerned about exposures during Edgewood/Aberdeen chemical tests, talk to your health care provider or yourlocal environmental health provider. Whether you're looking for news and entertainment, thinking of joining the military or keeping up with military life and benefits, Military.com has you covered. Hit enter to expand a main menu option (Health, Benefits, etc). Attorney James Hancock works with the California law firm Morrison & Foerster, which filed a class action lawsuit back in 2008 against the CIA and Department of Defense. The test subjects who are still alive are now in their 80s and 90s. Did you encounter any technical issues? The Institute of Medicine (IOM) published a three-volume report on the Edgewood research in 19821985, Possible Long-Term Health Effects of Short-Term Exposure to Chemical Agents.[16]. While I understand the premise of the lawsuit as stated, I have a question, I and my parents moved to Jolla in 1964. Subscribe to the Military.com newsletter to have military news, updates and resources delivered straight to your inbox. visit VeteransCrisisLine.net for more resources. "It just did not look like a military base, more. In the midst of the Cold War, the military was concerned chemical agents could be used against U.S. soldiers. But Bollinger says that time in his life is tainted: by the pain he felt as a human test subject in military experiments, and by the VA that told him it wasn't real. After an hour, the officer released six of the men back to their barracks. 2004 GAO report "I remember him laying up in the bedroom up there," she says. For example, certain types of 'psychochemicals' would make it possible to paralyze temporarily entire population centers without damage to homes and other structures. 1, 24), stated: [In 1993 and 1994] we [] reported that the Army Chemical Corps conducted a classified medical research program for developing incapacitating agents. Decades after the U.S. Army used soldiers to test the effects of potent chemical and biological warfare agents - including some prohibited by the Geneva Protocol - it has begun notifying veterans. In the suit, Vietnam Veterans of America, et al. This program involved testing nerve agents, nerve agent antidotes, psycho chemicals, and irritants. "Shortly after receiving the drug, he is grossly impaired," a narrator said as a soldier struggled through an obstacle course. NPR Investigations Research Librarian Barbara Van Woerkom contributed reporting and research to this investigation. Tim clearly had adverse health effects because they gave him such high doses that he ranged from overdose with one substance to the antidote, back and forth, and he actually had to get a very powerful antipsychotic drug because, in the vernacular, he flipped out.. 1, "Anticholinesterases and Anticholinergics" (1982). He blames his time at Edgewood for all this, and he has joined a lawsuit on behalf of Edgewood veterans seeking medical benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs. 1. The use of troops to test nerve gas, psychochemicals, and thousands of other toxic chemical or biological substances. The announcement applies to testing that took place from 1942 to 1975, officials said. It also released soldiers from their oath of secrecy. hide caption. Josephs had volunteered for a two-month assignment at Edgewood, in Maryland, lured by three-day weekends closer to home. She says they didn't know that he was eligible for disability benefits when he died of a heart attack in 1995. All Rights Reserved. Two TV documentaries, with different content but confusingly similar titles were broadcast: In 2012, the Edgewood/Aberdeen experiments were featured on CNN and in, This page was last edited on 30 November 2022, at 16:44. It concluded that "Whether the subjects at Edgewood incurred these changes [depression, cognitive deficits, tendency to suicide] and to what extent they might now show these effects are not known". 1942-1945: U.S. Navy initiated poisonous Mustard Gas and Lewisite (derivative of arsenic) experiments to test protective clothing and anti-blister ointments at the Naval Research Laboratory and at the Army's Edgewood Arsenal. Nine workers, of whom eight were African-American, were killed in the . Schnurman and his. Blisters that eventually increased to the size of half dollar coins started to grow in the same places. Tim Josephs arrived at Edgewood Arsenal in 1968, he knew there was something different about the place. We will strive to make that page accessible. The release of the new document comes after a year in which the Navy saw several major clusters of suicides. Ariel Zambelich/NPR Edgewood Arsenal Chemical Agent Exposure Studies FAQs. Although, we tried.". About 7,000 soldiers took part in these experiments that involved exposures to more than 250 different chemicals, according to the Department of Defense (DoD). [10], According to a DOD FAQ, the Edgewood Arsenal experiments involved the following "rough breakout of volunteer hours against various experimental categories":[11]. Further, GAO concluded that precise information on the scope and the magnitude of tests involving human subjects was not available, and the exact number of human subjects might never be known. Edgewood Arsenal Medical Experiments Compensation. And you just wouldnt think they would give you something that would harm you intentionally.. And yet Flohr insists the VA still needs proof in order to grant claims. Boxes of medical records his and those of other veterans fill the attic, along with handwritten notes and appeals to the VA. The Army is now required to provide medical care to veterans if they can prove their health issues are the result of the testing. All rights reserved. The plaintiffs collectively referred to themselves as the "Test Vets". "Weekends off and relaxing that's why I took it," Paul remembered. They had detailed the length of time he spent inside a gas chamber and the level of mustard gas in the air. But now he just wants people to know what he and others endured. A previous version of this story misidentified Nat Schnurman's wife. Erspamer said he sees a connection between Josephs Parkinsons disease and the drugs he received at Edgewood. Blocks of ice sat on shelves overhead with fans blowing across them to increase the humidity in the room, which intensified mustard gas's effects on the body. His symptoms vary from day to day. Congress has intervened in similar situations. Similarly, cholinesterase reactivators antidotes such as 2-PAM were tested on about 750 subjects. By the early 1950s, Edgewood Arsenal, which became part of the larger complex at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, produced numerous biological agents, developed protective equipment and prophylactic treatments, and shaped US combat policy and practice.In the aftermath of WWII tensions between the US and the USSR prompted scientists, military officials, and policy advisors to increase the number of . Declassified military films show soldiers being given drugs and then being monitored to see their impacts. A classified report entitled "Psychochemical Warfare: A New Concept of War" was produced in 1949 by Luther Wilson Greene, Technical Director of the Chemical and Radiological Laboratories at Edgewood. CV-09-0037-CW, U.S.D.C. 7 Jun 2022 Military.com | By James Barber From 1955 to 1975, the Army conducted chemical weapons testing on volunteer soldiers at the Edgewood Arsenal facility in Maryland in pursuit of an. However, the declaration was an effective deterrent, and the Axis powers did not use . A deliberate destruction of evidence and files documenting their illegal actions, actions which were punctuated by fraud, deception, and a callous disregard for the value of human life. Nashville veteran Dennis Paul, 79, discussed his experience in the program with NewsChannel 5 Investigates, saying he it impacted him long after he left the Army. Secret World War II Chemical Experiments Tested Troops By Race. Since I grew up in close proximity to Edgewood with obvious chemical testing, how much can I have transferred birth defects to him? The Marine Corps is eliminating the scout sniper program as part of the service's big Force Design 2030 overhaul. Eight individual isomers numbered EA-2233-1 through EA-2233-8. However once the experiments were uncovered, the US Senate also concluded questionable legality of the experiments and strongly condemned them. Paul retired from the military and went on to raise a family in Nashville. The letter granting him benefits made no mention of Edgewood. 3, "Final Report: Current Health Status of Test Subjects", Health Outcomes Among Veterans of Project SHAD (Shipboard Hazard and Defense) (2016), "United States v. Stanley, 483 US 669 - Supreme Court 1987", "Vietnam Veterans of America v. Central Intelligence Agency", "THE HUMAN ASSESSMENT OF EA 1729 AND EA 3528 BY THE INHALATION ROUTE", "Assessment of Potential Long Term Health Effects on Army Human Test Subjects of Relevant Biological and Chemical Agents, Drugs, Medications and Substances", "King's Collections: Archive Catalogues: Military Archives", "Operation Delirium: Decades after a risky Cold War experiment, a scientist lives with secrets". The IOM committee requested declassification of 21 additional elements from at least nine documents from DoD in August 2012. A recent class action lawsuit filed by the Vietnam Veterans of America required the U.S. Army to provide medical care to veterans who volunteered to contribute to the advancement of the U.S. biological and chemical programs. The heart of the film is interviews with a group of veterans who participated in the testing program, mostly during the Vietnam War era. She previously worked as an editor and staff writer at newspapers in Columbus, Georgia; Huntsville, Alabama; Bloomington, Indiana; Monterey, California and in Germany. Other times it was a pill, Josephs told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. 1,073 subjects were exposed to aerosolized CS; 82 subjects had both skin applications and aerosol exposures; and finally. From Edgewood, Josephs said he went to an Army installation in Georgia, where he experienced tremors so severe, he had to be admitted to the base hospital and given muscle relaxers. The agents tested included chemical warfare agents and other related agents (inactive substances or placebos such as saline were used): There are no tests today that can confirm exposure to agents from decades ago. The Army colonel had no regrets about the experiments and believed he was acting in the best interests of the nation as it faced a Cold War threat. Lieberman, while acknowledging that "most of the military data" on the research ongoing at the Army Chemical Center was "secret and unpublished", asserted that "There are moral imponderables, such as whether insanity, temporary or permanent, is a more 'humane' military threat than the usual afflictions of war. The experiments involved at least 254 chemical substances, but focused mainly on midspectrum incapacitants, such as LSD, THC derivatives, benzodiazepines, and BZ. After receiving the drug, soldiers were monitored to see if they could do basic tasks like run an obstacle course. Greene called for a search for novel psychoactive compounds that would create the same debilitating mental side effects as those produced by nerve gases, but without their lethal effect. CNN The moment 18-year-old Army Pvt. Court documents show that the Veterans Benefits Administration rejected 84 of 86 health claims related to chemical or biological exposure. After a stint at a defense company in Tennessee, Carl Gepp got a job in 1965 as an engineer working on the Honest John missile back at the Edgewood Arsenal. 2. In the Army's tests, as with those of the CIA, individual rights were subordinated to national security considerations; informed consent and follow-up examinations of subjects were neglected in efforts to maintain the secrecy of the tests. If, at any time, you have difficulty using this website, please contact us. He filed a federal lawsuit for compensation in 1979, but was unsuccessful because of a legal doctrine that protects the military from being sued for service-related injuries. With regard specifically to BZ and related compounds, the IOM study concluded that "available data suggest that long-term toxic effects and/or delayed sequellae are unlikely". Dr. James Ketchum led the experiments, and we've got a clip in which he defends his methods. There, Ketchum was administering psychotropic drugs on young. To access the menus on this page please perform the following steps. Treatment will be in addition to the comprehensive medical care that plaintiffs are entitled to receive through Veterans Affairs because of their status as veterans, the release said. For 20. Terms Of Use | Privacy Policy | Disclaimer | Accessibility Compliance Policy | Library | Diversity StatementWe are committed to making this website accessible, and as consistent with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 as possible. You will now be able to tab or arrow up or down through the submenu options to access/activate the submenu links. Josephs applied for veterans benefits based on chemical exposure at Edgewood. Expert meeting report. "If I were back in Congress, I'd be asking that question.". v. Central Intelligence Agency, et al. And instances when she told me when the office people had to stay indoors instill all cleared. These men make a convincing case that they were not briefed about the risks involved in the program and did not understand the potential for the long-term effects they've endured. "These were active-duty U.S. service members being used as human guinea pigs," Hancock said. But the VA didn't uphold those promises, an NPR investigation has found. Other exposures included tear gas, and hallucinogenics like LSD. According to at least one class action lawsuit filed on behalf of Edgewood Arsenal veterans, other substances tested on soldiers there included mescaline, amphetamines, mustard gas, CS (riot control agent), a THC analog called red oil, anthrax, botulism, plague, tularemia, Q fever, and crop destruction agents such as dioxin, used in Agent Orange. There's a reason we have such incredible details about the program available now, and this film makes excellent use of the truths revealed during a massive lawsuit. In the 1990s, the law firm Morrison & Foerster agreed to take on a class-action lawsuit against the government related to the Edgewood volunteers. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) A top-secret military program treated active-duty U.S. soldiers like they were guinea pigs according to a class action lawsuit that shed light on what happened. Ariel Zambelich/NPR. In secret chemical weapons experiments conducted during World War II, the U.S. military exposed thousands of American troops to mustard gas. "[4] Soviet advances in the same field were cited as a special incentive giving impetus to research efforts in this area, according to testimony by Maj. Gen. Marshall Stubbs, the Army's chief chemical officer. But Bollinger says he wouldn't go back to the agency after the way he was treated there. The VA has been accused of bias in these claims denials due to its self-interest in the issues. In September 1975, the Medical Research Volunteer Program was discontinued and all resident volunteers were removed from the Edgewood installation. According to a CNN report that aired in March 2012, from 1955 to 1975 more than 7,000 soldiers each spent two months at Edgewood Arsenal, where they were exposed to as many 250 different chemical and biological agents as part of secret medical experiments. Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way, Donate to the Salvation Army Red Kettle Challenge, Storm 5 Alert: Several waves of storms though Friday afternoon (3.1.23). According to the lawsuit, some of the volunteers were even implanted with electrical devices in an effort to control their behaviour. Vets used in secret tests make progress in court, MCPON: Sailors need speedier, easier access to counseling, Tricare now covers new costly insulin device for Type 1 diabetics, Army artillery officer dies during assignment in Thailand, Veterans Affairs deputy secretary to leave post on April 1, China sends 25 planes, 3 ships toward Taiwan, Tax scams How to report them Money Minute, Capitol Hill weighs action on two controversial topics: medical marijuana and abortion, Lockheed wins hypersonics contract | Defense Dollars, Go inside a secret nuclear fallout bunker sealed for decades, The time is now to prepare for China conflict, Army leaders say, Dismissal of 3rd MARSOC 3 defendants case to be weighed by court, At Army experiment, experts tinker with tanks and communications kit, Pentagon sets deadline for services to stop enforcing vaccine mandate. Relics from Nat Schnurman's activism still decorate the family home where his wife, Joy (pictured, far right), lives. For assistance, eligible veterans may call (800) 984-8523 or go to the Army website for participants of medical research programs. Greene, L. Wilson, "Psychochemical Warfare: A New Concept of War", U. S. Army Chemical Center, Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland; August 1949. Charlie Cavell at his home in Virginia. Youre going to do it. Learn more from the Department of Defense.A2016 report to the DoD on long-term health effects due to participation in these tests concluded that although effects of the individual agents had been established in the literature, test subjects would have endured lower concentrations for shorter durations and no significant effects had been observed in the health of test subjects in the years since the tests occurred. "Dr. Delirium & the Edgewood Experiments" gives ample airtime to theories that Edgewood hosted Nazi scientists given asylum under the Pentagon's notorious Operation Paperclip program, but never quite manages to tie the Germans to Ketchum's experiments. Long-term follow-up was not planned as part of the DoD studies. he says. This top secret Cold War research program initially looked for ways to defend against a chemical or biological attack by the Soviet Union, thought to be far ahead of the United States in psycho-chemical warfare. Researchers there had recorded his full name in neat handwriting on lined paper. Others were locked in gas chambers, like Cavell. Officials say they can't explain why the benefits weren't granted sooner. Erspamer said the government has reached very few of the 7,000 or so Edgewood veterans, and the VA has turned down almost all Edgewood-related health claims. But until NPR inquired about his case, all of those claims had been denied. "And as far as the secretary and I are concerned, we're about to do right by them.". My mom eventually transferred to Edgewood Arsenal shortly later. Rochelle, 60, who has come back to live in Onslow county, said in an interview that there were about two dozen volunteers . Parker Waichman LLP is offering free lawsuit evaluations to any former soldier who was subjected to medical experimentation at Edgewood Arsenal between 1955 through 1975. I was a MRVP at Edgewood Arsenal Chemical in 1964/1965. These experiments with mustard gas were conducted by the Army and Navy at more than a dozen locations. 27), then 19, volunteered for the military's secret chemical testing program in exchange for two weeks' vacation. He was told never to talk about his experiences at Edgewood and to forget about everything he ever did, said or heard at the Maryland base. [9] The safety record of the Edgewood Arsenal experiments was also defended in the memoirs of psychiatrist and retired colonel James Ketchum, a key scientist:[18]. have hearing loss, Anticholinesterase nerve agents (ex., sarin and common organophosphorus (OP), and carbamate pesticides), Nerve agent antidotes atropine and scopolamine, Nerve agent reactivators (ex., the common OP antidote 2-PAM chloride), Psychoactive agents (ex., LSD, PCP, cannaboids, and BZ). He showed a black and white photo of a large group of soldiers in front of a sign "Medical Volunteers.". "U.S. Navy, Guinea Pig. In the late 1940s and early '50s, the U.S. Army worked with Harvard anesthesiologist Henry K. Beecher at its interrogation center at Camp King in Germany on the use of psychoactive compounds (mescaline, LSD), including human subject experiments and the debriefing of former Nazi physicians and scientists who had worked along similar lines before the end of the war. The Edgewood Arsenal human experiments took place from approximately 1948 to 1975 at the Medical Research Laboratories which is now known as the U.S. Army Medical . An "Independent Study Course" for continuing medical education produced by the US Department of Veterans Affairs, Health Effects from Chemical, Biological, and Radiological Weapons (October 2003),[12] presents the following summary of the Edgewood Arsenal experiments: Renewed interest led to renewed human testing by the Department of Defense (DoD), although ultimately on a much smaller scale. The truth about the CIA is quite another story, one that should've been a huge news story a decade ago but gets fully recounted here for anyone who missed the truth the first time. This includes receiving medicines or vaccines under the Armys investigational drug review. Served as a volunteer for medical research in a U.S. Army chemical or biological substance testing program from 1942 to 1975. The IOM decided in the end there wasnt enough information to reach definitive conclusions.. It was like a plum assignment, Josephs said. In 1968, Tim Josephs was told he would be testing gas masks, boots and other clothing, he said. VA decides these claims on a case-by-case basis. From this point on, APG was the common identifier for both areas. [22], Material Testing Program EA (Edgewood Arsenal) numbers. (N.D. Cal. But he's haunted by what happened to him at Edgewood. Paul was serving at Fort Bliss in Texas in 1968, when he volunteered for what he thought would be an easy assignment. the common OP antidote, other ocular and respiratory irritants; and. Three test subjects enter a gas chamber, which will fill with mustard gas, as part of the military's secret chemical warfare testing in March 1945. Days before his Edgewood duty ended, in February 1968, Josephs was hospitalized for days with Parkinsons-like tremors, symptoms he said have followed him on and off throughout his adult life. What types of tests were conducted at Edgewood? The website has details about applying for medical care through this program. A third type of test exposed troops to gas outdoors in simulated combat settings. While the soldiers were given the option to decline the drug testing, there were innuendos of bad punishments if they did not participate, the former soldier said, according to CNN. [] At Edgewood, even at the highest doses it often took an hour or more for incapacitating effects to show, and the end-effects usually did not include full incapacitation, let alone unconsciousness. . Other times, he experiences numbness in his joints or or tremors. He says he tires easily. Hancock said the class action lawsuit led to nearly 10 years of litigation. But the research expanded into offensive chemical weapons, including one that could, according to one Army film obtained by CNN, deliver a veritable chemical ambush against an enemy. Edgewood Arsenal was a classified US army facility in Maryland where recruits were subjected to sarin, VX, teargas, LSD and PCP. But instead, the military deliberately exposed them to chemical and biological agents. Home U.S. Army Edgewood Arsenal Medical Experiments. Josephs has not received any health benefits related to his time as a human test subject at Edgewood. The tests evaluated protective equipment like gas masks and suits. "That's going to be on my tombstone," Bollinger says. This is Part 2 of a two-part investigation on mustard gas testing conducted by the U.S. military during World War II. [17], The official position of the Department of Defense, based on the three-volume set of studies by the Institute of Medicine mentioned above, is that they "did not detect any significant long-term health effects on the Edgewood Arsenal volunteers". And this goes to the essence of 'Can you trust your government?' 800-829-4833, Veterans Crisis Line:
In total, Army documents identified 7,120 Army and Air Force personnel who participated in these tests. Bollinger still has chronic breathing problems and breaks out in eczema in places where he was burned as a young Navy recruit: "Around my privates and under my arms and face and everywhere else," he says. ", Flohr tells NPR his agency has followed federal statutes in its handling of claims for mustard gas exposure. Read the secret (now unclassified) Army document revealing BZ tests on soldiers (PDF). Documents reveal after getting BZ, Paul was put in temperatures of 105 degrees then 125 degrees for up to seven hours, to see if the drug impacted the way soldiers sweated. Hunt, Secret Agenda: The U.S. Government, Nazi Scientists and Project Paperclip 1945-1991. The 1945 Edgewood Arsenal explosion killed twelve munitions workers and injured more than fifty on May 25, 1945. [The VA] has made it a priority to identify all service members exposed to chemical and biological substances. This kind of behavior toward our veterans would not be allowed to happen, Erspamer said. After World War II, U.S. military researchers obtained formulas for the three nerve gases developed by the Nazistabun, soman, and sarinand conducted studies on them at the US Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center. 2. They decided to live in the country. "And that's what I have problems with today. And in this case I'm afraid the answer is not yet. You couldn't get out," he says. NPR interviewed more than 40 living test subjects and family members, and they describe an unending cycle of appeals and denials as they struggled to get government benefits for mustard gas exposure. Now he just wants people to know what drugs he received at.! For veterans benefits based on chemical exposure at Edgewood can I have problems with.... Retirement pay that combat-disabled vets with less Capt now takes two dozen pills daily effective... 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