Chemical Warfare Secrets Almost Forgotten
Field Exercises
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In 1970, the last field test was conducted in a wooded area at Edgewood Arsenal. A small squad of men were given various doses of EA 3834 (a fairly short-acting BZ-like agent) and required to work as a team in a varied scenario that included detecting hostile forces and firing tethered rifles at prescribed targets.
In 1964, a semi-realistic exercise was carried out in a desert setting in Dugway, Utah. Men were housed and monitored clinically in an inflatable hospital structure after exposure to a controlled cloud of BZ floated 500 or 1,000 yards downwind from a generator. Ability to perform correctly during a variety of staged military situations was videotaped and scored.
First “field test” - designed to assess ability of volunteers to perform simple military tasks under influence of small doses of LSD (1962)
Although the paper and pencil tasks, such as the “Number Facility” (completing as many easy addition problems, or circling as many words in a matrix of letters as possible, in 3 minutes) were useful in estimating the onset of time, duration and peak degree of ability decrement. Military commanders needed to know whether these measures could accurately predict a soldier’s performance in the field. Initially, we limited such studies to the area in or around the clinical facility. Later we were able to conduct safe tests in a more realistic military setting.
© 2006/2007
J.S. Ketchum
J.S. Ketchum
Documenting a Lost Decade of Clinical Research