From 1955 to 1975, military researchers at Edgewood were using not only animals but human subjects to test a witches brew of drugs and chemicals. "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. We closely follow guidance from the World Wide Web Consortium. Watching soldiers suffer through delirium and panic attacks while older survivors describe their experiences makes for powerful viewing. Nine workers, of whom eight were African-American, were killed in the . Of those involved in the experiments: Most of these experiments involved tests of protective equipment and of subjects' ability to perform military tasks during exposure. 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. 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. Blisters that eventually increased to the size of half dollar coins started to grow in the same places. The court resolved all of the remaining claims in the case and vacated trial. "Until we actually got into the process of being in that room and realized, wait a minute, we can't get out of here.". 2004 GAO report A Warner Bros. CV-09-0037-CW, U.S.D.C. "Shortly after receiving the drug, he is grossly impaired," a narrator said as a soldier struggled through an obstacle course. In more than 20 years, the VA attempted to reach just 610 of the men, with a single letter sent in the mail. Oakland, CA: A Veterans disability class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of several Veterans Affairs associations including Vietnam Veterans of America as well as individual Vietnam. Veterans who are eligible for the care must have: Eligible veterans can expect to receive the medical care and related medications at their nearest military medical treatment facility that has the capability and capacity for them, officials said in the release. [3] In the 1950s, some officials in the U.S. Department of Defense publicly asserted that many "forms of chemical and allied warfare as more 'humane' than existing weapons. Building 509 at Edgewood Arsenal in Harford County, Maryland was a production facility for the assembly of phosphorus igniter assemblies for incendiary bombs, employing a female staff of about 135 assemblers. CampBell's Complaint says that after execution of the real estate contract between McGill and the Abrahams, "on October 27, 2020, Sherry Abraham, acting as an Edgewood Town Councilor, filed an Emergency Motion to Intervene in the McGill lawsuit (D-101-CV-2020-00328).". This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The purpose was to evaluate the impact of low-dose chemical warfare agents on military personnel and to test protective clothing and pharmaceuticals. And in this case I'm afraid the answer is not yet. Attention A T users. 877-222-8387, TDD (Hearing Impaired) 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. From this point on, APG was the common identifier for both areas. To apply, eligible veterans must have: . It forced the Army to locate soldiers who were in the testing program and send them documentation detailing what happened to them. 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. The testing took place at Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland from 1955 through 1975. "[6], The Edgewood Arsenal human experiments took place from approximately 1948 to 1975 at the Medical Research Laboratorieswhich is now known as the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense (USAMRICD)at the Edgewood Area, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. 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. Bollinger gave up appealing VA rejections in 1994, after four years of traveling back and forth 30 miles to a VA office office in Pittsburgh. 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. Find out if you qualify for VA health care. Kathleen Curthoys is editor of Army Times. Hunt, Secret Agenda: The U.S. Government, Nazi Scientists and Project Paperclip 1945-1991. "It's important that these soldiers who served their country are honored and get to the tell their story," Hancock said. "If I were back in Congress, I'd be asking that question.". The VA has been accused of bias in these claims denials due to its self-interest in the issues. Copyrights 2002-2022 YourLawyer.com. None of the requested materials were cleared for public release as of this writing (2016).[19]. "But the only thing we can do is follow our statutes and regulations.". Long-term psychological effects are possible from the trauma associated with being a human test subject. Not enrolled in the VA health care system? 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. 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 lack of a detailed record hampered the investigation. In 2015, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said the Army, and not Veterans Affairs, should provide veterans with medical care related to the testing. Did you encounter any technical issues? So, when I received the shot, we went into a heat room," Paul said. My mom eventually transferred to Edgewood Arsenal shortly later. 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. "But we have done everything that we could do, I definitely believe that.". 2. 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 was pregnant with my daughter while there, this was also when they were digging up old cluster bombs while excavating to build some new buildings, the same time the commander was indicted from the environmental agency, the same time they found out the water was not suitable for consumption. 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. "Incapacitating chemical agents": Law enforcement, human rights law and policy perspectives. What's the use?" 1982-85 IOM report According to the lawsuit, some of the volunteers were even implanted with electrical devices in an effort to control their behaviour. All Rights Reserved. That won't be too long now probably.". "Weekends off and relaxing that's why I took it," Paul remembered. While I understand the premise of the lawsuit as stated, I have a question, I and my parents moved to Jolla in 1964. v. Central Intelligence Agency, et al. She has been an editor at Military Times for 20 years, covering issues that affect service members. 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. "And these people should have long been appropriately provided for. The letter granting him benefits made no mention of Edgewood. After receiving the drug, soldiers were monitored to see if they could do basic tasks like run an obstacle course. The 1945 Edgewood Arsenal explosion killed twelve munitions workers and injured more than fifty on May 25, 1945. . In a statement, the Defense Department said that it has made it a priority to identify all service members exposed to chemical and biological substances and the VA has contacted and offered free medical evaluations to thousands of veterans.. Gordon Erspamer, lead attorney in suit against VA. During experiments that began on February 19, 1968, Josephs experienced Parkinsons-like tremors after receiving Prolixin, an antipsychotic medication, Erspamer said, prompting the Edgewood medical staff to give the young soldier Congentin and Artane, two drugs used to treat Parkinsons symptoms. Berzellini says every winter her husband spent weeks in bed with chronic bronchitis an illness government studies have linked to mustard gas exposure. "I don't think there's an explanation for why this program wasn't more successful," Goss says. II. 2009), the plaintiffs did not seek monetary damages. The court granted the plaintiffs partial summary judgment concerning the notice claim: summarily adjudicating in plaintiffs' favor, finding that "the Army has an ongoing duty to warn" and ordering "the Army, through the DVA or otherwise, to provide test subjects with newly acquired information that may affect their well-being that it has learned since its original notification, now and in the future as it becomes available". Over a period of 20 years, more than 7,000 volunteers spent an estimated total of 14,000 months at Edgewood Arsenal. The VA created a list of illnesses that are linked to mustard gas exposure such as skin cancer, leukemia and chronic breathing problems. Schnurman and his. 2, "Cholinesterase Reactivators, Psychochemicals and Irritants and Vesicants" (1984), Vol. After all, the Edgewood experimenters were focused on disabling soldiers in combat, where there would be tactical value simply in disabling the enemy.[8]. CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. But the VA didn't uphold those promises, an NPR investigation has found. Hancock said the class action lawsuit led to nearly 10 years of litigation. Credit: Edgewood Arsenal. The documentary was produced by Zero Point Zero Production, the production company behind Anthony Bourdain's "Parts Unknown," so there's more visual flash and on-camera time for reporters than PBS viewers might expect. In 1988, Cavell requested copies of his records from the experiments he was in at the Naval Research Laboratory. However, a good history and physical examination can provide valuable information and help determine a Veterans risk of developing health problems related to the exposure. On the other side is an in-depth and wide-ranging interview with Ketchum filmed shortly before his death in 2019. The document acknowledges his participation in mustard gas experiments. Read the lawsuit complaint document (PDF), Read about an Edgewood volunteers widow who blames the VA for his death, Gordon Erspamer, lead attorney in the suit, has reviewed the partial Edgewood medical records that Josephs was able to obtain with the help of his wife. As late as 2014 incomplete information due to the failure to declassify and release relevant classified documents prevented IOM from conducting adequate medical studies related to similar former US biowarfare programs. And this goes to the essence of 'Can you trust your government?' "I remember him laying up in the bedroom up there," she says. Fed the "F" up. "That's going to be on my tombstone," Bollinger says. However, much of that flash comes from recordings made during the actual experiments. Records indicate that between 1955 and 1965, of the 6,720 soldiers tested, only 147 human subjects underwent exposure to mustard agent at Edgewood (NRC 1982). [The VA] has made it a priority to identify all service members exposed to chemical and biological substances. However, the declaration was an effective deterrent, and the Axis powers did not use . Hit enter to expand a main menu option (Health, Benefits, etc). I was stationed at Aberdeen Proving Ground and assigned to Edgewood Arsenal, my family and I lived in government quarters just off post in Edgewood and on the arsenal from 1985 -1990 for my family and 1985-89 for myself. 3, "Final Report: Current Health Status of Test Subjects" (1985). The Army is required to provide medical care to veterans who took part in classified Army testing of chemical and biological substances decades ago, officials say. 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. Even a book critical of the program, written by Lynn C. Klotz and Edward J. Sylvester, acknowledges that: Unlike the CIA program, research subjects [at Edgewood] all signed informed consent forms, both a general one and another related to any experiment they were to participate in. including tests designed to look for racial difference. 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. A lawsuit brought by a veterans' advocacy group, Vietnam Veterans of America, resulted in the requirement that the Army give medical care to eligible veterans who took part in testing that. Ariel Zambelich/NPR. 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. Then, in 1996, Bollinger received a military commendation in the mail. Josephs applied for veterans benefits based on chemical exposure at Edgewood. That adds up to 1,167 man-years of survival. In the suit, Vietnam Veterans of America, et al. 27299 Riverview Center Boulevard, Suite 108. See Vietnam Veterans II, 811 F.3d at 1076-78 (discussing the Army's failure in its ongoing "duty to warn" Edgewood Arsenal volunteers under AR 70-25), 1080-81 (discussing the Army's failure in its "duty of care" to Edge-wood Arsenal volunteers under AR 70-25); see also Vi-etnam Veterans I, 2013 WL 6092031, at *2 (explaining . About 260 subjects were experimentally exposed to various psychochemicals including phencyclidine (PCP), and 10 related synthetic analogs of the active ingredient of cannabis (NRC 1984). He is very knowledgeable about the law and extremely professional. "[5] This was alarming enough to a Harvard psychiatrist, E. James Lieberman, that he published an article entitled "Psychochemicals as Weapons" in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in 1962. The announcement applies to testing that took place from 1942 to 1975, officials said. Read the secret (now unclassified) Army document revealing BZ tests on soldiers (PDF). 1. The tests evaluated protective equipment like gas masks and suits. [22], Material Testing Program EA (Edgewood Arsenal) numbers. An officer took him aside. 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. The personal injury attorneys at Parker Waichman LLP offer free, no-obligation case evaluations. Veterans who became Army guinea pigs for secret drug and chemical experiments are suing the VA, the CIA and the Defense Department. They gave him such high doses that he in the vernacular, he flipped out. I really felt a duty to my country to go and serve, he said. 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. Krenzer, John Miller, Jacobi Natarelli, G. E. EA 1464 and Related Compounds, I. Synthesis of EA 1464, EA 1473, and Their Homologs. Ariel Zambelich/NPR. He was asked "Did you have pain every time you took a breath? Served as a volunteer for medical research in a U.S. Army chemical or biological substance testing program from 1942 to 1975. Tim Josephs arrived at Edgewood Arsenal in 1968, he knew there was something different about the place. "There was no handle on the door. A refusal to satisfy their legal and moral obligations to locate the victims of experiments or to provide health care or compensation to them. It also released soldiers from their oath of secrecy. 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". 1, "Anticholinesterases and Anticholinergics" (1982). "About 7,000 soldiers took part in the experiments that involved exposures to more than 250 chemicals," it stated. [7][8][9] A concrete result of these experiments was that BZ was weaponized, although never deployed. 1,073 subjects were exposed to aerosolized CS; 82 subjects had both skin applications and aerosol exposures; and finally. The soldiers were induced to become part of the experiments by program representatives who said they were looking for soldiers to test Army gear, vehicles, and military combat equipment, CNN said. For example, in 1970, DEFENDANTS provided Congress with an alphabetical list showing that they had tested 145 drugs during Projects Bluebird, Artichoke, Case4:09-cv-00037-CW Document180 Filed11/18/10 Page6 of 76 Sometimes, he has trouble swallowing. The IOM committee requested declassification of 21 additional elements from at least nine documents from DoD in August 2012. [21], On appeal in Vietnam Veterans of America v. Central Intelligence Agency, a panel majority held in July 2015 that Army Regulation 70-25 (AR 70-25) created an independent duty to provide ongoing medical care to veterans who participated in U.S. chemical and biological testing programs. But he's haunted by what happened to him at Edgewood. Original photo: Courtesy of Charlie Cavell NPR Photo Editor Ariel Zambelich and reporters Christopher Groskopf, Jani Actman and Lydia Emmanouilidou also contributed to this story. Edgewood Arsenal Medical Experiments Compensation. [13] Some additional information in the section cited from the Course was based on a 1993 IOM study, Veterans at Risk: Health Effects of Mustard Gas and Lewisite. "There was no identifying information," he says. But until NPR inquired about his case, all of those claims had been denied. 27), then 19, volunteered for the military's secret chemical testing program in exchange for two weeks' vacation. Two autobiographical books from psychiatrists conducting human experiments at Edgewood have been self-published: Journalist Linda Hunt, citing records from the. Thank you. Updated The process typically relies on evidence, but most of the men in these experiments have none because the tests were done in secret. CNN Sans & 2016 Cable News Network. 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