There is a facility in Maryland, mostly used for housing military members and civilian
workers.
But in the past, it was a testing ground - as people were exposed to some of the deadliest
substances around.
And the test subjects?
American soldiers.
It was the late 1940s, and the United States and its allies were still sorting through
the rubble after their victory in the Second World War.
The two World Wars had introduced a terrifying new element to warfare - chemical weapons
that could incapacitate, disable, or even kill soldiers simply by releasing a spray
or gas into the battlefield.
While the use of these weapons had decreased in the Second World War due to treaties, the
Nazis had continued developing the deadly tools of war.
And the United States wanted to understand them - and how to stop them.
The government obtained the formulas for a trio of nerve gases developed by the Nazis
- deadly chemical agents that could interrupt the flow of signals between the brain and
the body.
These could have long-term debilitating effects and were more dangerous than many other chemical
weapons, which were primarily irritants or caused respiratory distress.
The gases, named tabun, soman, and the soon-to-be-notorious sarin, all had the potential to be fatal.
At the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, the government
started doing tests on the gases and how to prevent and treat their effects.
But there would soon be a shocking twist to these early tests.
It was only 1948 when the government first started involving human test subjects in their
experiments.
While it doesn’t seem any test subjects were exposed deliberately to these deadly
gases, technicians were exposed to trace amounts - and the government learned a lot from these
accidents.
While the amounts the employees were exposed to wasn’t enough to be fatal, it was more
than enough to cause psychological distress - and that gave the government a potentially
risky idea.
What if the weapons could be refined into something less deadly - but still powerful?
Luther Wilson Greene, the technical director of a specialized division at Edgewood, published
a classified report in 1949 about the possibility of psychochemical weapons.
Based partially on the experiments that showed the psychoactive effects of the nerve gases
in small doses, Greene argued that this weapon could change war forever.
What if instead of creating deadlier weapons that would leave carnage in their wake, the
US developed chemical weapons that could cause mental incapacitation and end battles without
a shot being fired?
It wouldn’t be long before the experiments took on new importance.
Harvard anesthesiologist Henry K. Beecher was soon recruited to work on experiments
at Camp King in Germany - working with many illegal drugs that could earn someone a hefty
prison sentence for civilian use.
Could LSD and mescaline have military implications?
The government also interviewed former Nazi physicians to learn everything they could
about these tools, and many in the military brass thought that these weapons could actually
be more humane than bombs and other traditional weapons.
But to find out, the government needed test subjects.
It was 1948 when the government first authorized what would be known as the Edgewood Arsenal
human experiments - a series of tests of chemical substances on human volunteers at their Aberdeen
facilities.
In total, they would experiment on around eight thousand people over close to three
decades, and test over two hundred and fifty chemicals.
Most would be midspectrum incapacitants, or drugs that cause a mental effect without much
in the way of long-term physical consequences.
For airborne gases, the government would use a wind tunnel to deliver the compound in a
way similar to how it would be blown by the wind on the battlefield.
Now, the government just needed to get volunteers.
While the use of human subjects in experiments on potential chemical weapons was controversial,
the government tried to stay above board with how they conducted it.
No enlisted men were ordered by their commanding officers to be part of these experiments.
Instead, the government conducted a series of recruitments at Army installations.
The soldiers would be shown a short film and given some handouts to explain the experiment,
and those who showed interest were given a medical and psychological screening.
The Army wanted men who were healthy and able to withstand the effects of the compounds,
but they also needed to be in the right frame of mind and know their limits.
Men who were too enthusiastic and wanted to see how much they could handle were usually
rejected, but those with an interest in science were prime recruits.
It was surprisingly easy to get the men they needed.
By the time the military had gone through ten Army bases, they would often be given
four to six hundred applications.
They would be winnowed down to no more than one hundred, and these soldiers would be brought
to Edgewood where they would serve one to two months as test subjects.
There were perks for volunteering - a small allowance, free weekends, and only light duty
while volunteering.
But it still wasn’t for the faint of heart - because these test subjects would be spending
some very unpleasant hours being exposed to substances that could cause chaos in large
amounts.
So what substances were tested?
The government was particularly interested in the effects of popular drugs and if they
could be weaponized.
LSD, a psychoactive drug notorious for causing intense hallucinations and altered thoughts,
was thought to be a potential way to send an opposing army into a panic.
THC, one of the key components in marijuana, had no known lethal dose and was seen as a
possible tool for slowing down enemy soldiers and reducing their aggression levels.
The same goes for benzodiazepines, which lower brain activity and are commonly used to treat
anxiety and insomnia.
Making an entire enemy army fall asleep would certainly be an effective tool in a war.
But there was one drug that was considered of particular interest.
BZ, also known as 3-Quinuclidinyl benzilate, is an odorless and stable powder that can
survive a lot - even being spread by hot munitions.
It can dissolve in most subjects, and has powerful effects - including a state of delirium.
Subjects exposed become confused, start to hallucinate, and find it challenging to perform
even basic tasks.
It can also cause some uncomfortable and distracting physical effects, including temporary blindness,
a high heart rate, overheating, dry mouth, and skin disorders.
But can it kill?
Unlike many other chemical weapons, it has a very high lethal dose - with people needing
to ingest around 450 milligrams to die from it, although testing is inconclusive.
This makes it very different from other powerful chemical weapons, which could wipe out an
army or kill a scientist with a minor spill.
BZ had the potential to change the face of warfare, letting armies win battles by rendering
the opposing side “Mad as a hatter, red as a beet, dry as a bone, and blind as a bat”,
as a famous mnemonic put it.
But this wasn’t a drug invented for combat.
BZ had actually been developed by a Swiss pharmaceutical company as an attempt to treat
gastrointestinal ailments and ulcers, but was repeatedly ruled out due to its severe
host of non-lethal but highly unpleasant side effects.
While it was quickly dropped as a drug, it was soon picked up by the US military for
potential weaponization and was extensively tested on the Edgewood subjects.
It even became the first chemical authorized for military use and was weaponized to be
released by cluster bombs - but these plans would never be realized as the bombs were
destroyed in 1989 when the government downsized the program.
But BZ wouldn’t be the only substance that the government would test on the Edgewood
volunteers.
Not all documents relating to the experiments are public, but the government did keep a
detailed list of the time the volunteers spent on different subjects.
Almost a third of volunteer hours were spent on incapacitating compounds, but another fourteen
percent were spent on riot control techniques.
This likely became much more prominent in the 1960s, as protests swept the nation.
Sometimes typical crowd control methods didn’t work, but the government didn’t want to
resort to lethal force.
They needed to find compounds like pepper spray and tear gas that are non-lethal in
most cases but can cause pain and discomfort - and usually send large groups running for
cover and a place to wash their eyes out.
Not all experiments involved direct exposure to chemicals.
Sometimes the goal was to see how to avoid this exposure.
Some volunteers tried out new protective equipment and clothing.
Others were subject to sleep deprivation to determine how well they could function under
different circumstances.
Some of these tests may have been combined - as the government was likely interested
to see how the presence of drugs like BZ could impact mental performance on tests.
The government even tested alcohol and caffeine’s effects on soldiers.
But for 14.5% of the hours at Edgewood, the tests took on a darker note.
The roster is simply listed as “lethal compounds”, but it’s believed that this involved some
of the deadliest weapons ever created for war.
This includes some of the deadly nerve agents like Sarin that created the project, as well
as the notorious mustard gas that burned the soldiers of the First World War.
Industrial-strength pesticides were also tested - but the US had no apparent intention of
re-introducing any of them to the battlefield.
So why did they introduce them in testing?
Many of the tests involved nerve agent antidotes and reactivators, indicating that the US Army
may have been trying to figure out how to best prepare for these substances if they
were introduced in combat by an enemy.
By testing them in small amounts and seeing how to bring soldiers back from the brink
if they were poisoned, the government could equip its soldiers to survive a sudden chemical
attack.
But the government’s secret testing ground would eventually come to an end.
It was the 1970s when the government began investigating the program after more reports
of long-term side effects of exposure began to surface.
In 1975, the program was terminated and all the current volunteers were removed.
The founder of the program, Dr. Van Murray Sim, had the run of the place for decades
- but soon he had been hauled before Congress to testify before lawmakers enraged that the
government had been experimenting on soldiers.
The Army defended themselves, claiming that there were no serious injuries or deaths associated
with the program.
However, top brass did admit that their recruitment process may have taken advantage of the soldiers.
But future investigations of the program’s documents would tell a different story.
Once all the documents were unsealed, the government took action to help the soldiers
who had been exposed.
Many had not even been told what substance they were being exposed to during the tests,
simply being placed in a wind tunnel as a substance was blown towards them.
It would have been difficult if not impossible for them to address any side effects they
had from the chemical agents in the years after their testing - but for the first time
they had information and could seek help.
While most of the tests were of irritant agents only without side effects, the percentage
who had been exposed to nerve agents or other lethal compounds were given extra attention.
But for some, it might have been too late.
The government would continue to investigate the experiments through 2004, and uncover
the classified secrets.
In the 1993 report, it was authorized to grant restitution to the families of test subjects
who may have died of causes related to the experiments.
But while over seven thousand test subjects were identified, the full number may never
be known - and with decades past since the tests, there is no way to investigate those
who had died since for links to the experiments.
But debates continue over the program’s legacy.
In the 1990s, lawsuits were filed over the program by veterans’ rights organizations,
but they were initially dismissed.
In 2013, a judge ordered the government to provide the test subjects with all information
related to their well-being, but denied other claims of liability against the government.
Psychiatrist Col. James Ketchum, who worked with many of the subjects, denied most of
the claims against the government - saying that any who died during their test periods
likely died of unrelated causes.
Ketchum claimed that Edgewood was probably the safest military location in the world
to spend two months.
But for the soldiers staring into the wind tunnel as the unknown and potentially deadly
came towards them, they might have a different perspective.
For more on the deadliest weapons of war, check out “Weapons Even the Military Made
Illegal”, or try “Why Life of a WWI Soldier in the Trenches SUCKED” for an in-depth
look at the era of chemical warfare.