© 2006/2007
J.S. Ketchum
J.S. Ketchum
Documenting a Lost Decade of Clinical Research
Chemical Warfare Secrets Almost Forgotten
Review by Benjamin C. Garrett, Ph.D.
I finished reading your book recently. I have recommended it highly to friends, including several who worked at Edgewood in the 1970-1990 periods. All these Edgewood folks would have begun work after you departed for San Antonio but worked with or otherwise knew major characters from your superbly told story: Van Sim and Fred Sidell, in particular. I suspect they will enjoy the book as much as I did. I recommend it without reservation to anyone who wants to gain a feel for the work done by dedicated scientists and support personnel engaged in the then-novel field of incapacitating agent research.
In my personal opinion, I believe it is important to capture the feel of the times when chemical warfare research was being pursued briskly and, in many ways, brilliantly in the USA. I think you have captured this feel. The systematic studies conducted by you and your colleagues in the period from ~1950-70 contrast with the absurdly "ad hoc" work done by the CIA during that same period and with the more limited scope studies permitted or possible at Edgewood today.
Your use of human subjects was exemplary, by your account and in the opinion of the various NAS panels that studied this topic. With regard to the use of human subjects, I feel you could have come down harder on Kligman and his operation, but that story is well told in Acres of skin, which you cite (and which cites you). Kligman never did grasp the improper nature of his activities, nor do his colleagues in medicine, to judge by the testimonials offered in 2006 on the occasion of Kligman's 90th birthday. (He is still living - or was, as of a few days ago when I last checked on the Internet.)
The CIA's Sidney Gottlieb "almost" got away with his activities - in one sense, he did. He passed away while legal matters were still underway on the part of one (I know for certain) or possibly two victims of his non-consensual administration of LSD. While Gottlieb's career in the CIA never suffered as a result of his cowboy antics, his final years saw him under attack as he was subject to law suits for civil damages. His defense became expense, and his family was unable to settle his estate owing to the uncertain nature of these damages, which survive the defendant. Maybe there will be some measure of justice after all for the families.
The work of the CIA, as revealed in the MK-ULTRA hearings, damaged the work of the military, I think, in that the distinction between what and how the CIA was doing versus what Edgewood was doing got lost on a public that saw it all as "the government."
I had many experiences during my brief service in the Chemical Corps - 3 years (1975-78), most of it served at Dugway. I knew "Project Dork" well, at least in terms of the stories. My stories are fewer and less rich than yours, but the memories are similar. For instance, I worked with a man who had splashed GB in one eye and got a particle of BZ lodged in the other - all on the same day, giving him "big eye" and "small eye" at once.
One of the more interesting situations at Dugway developed because we had a blind man assigned as a chemist to the Chem Lab, where we worked with vast quantities of chemical warfare agents. This blind man was designated the operator of our mass spectrometer (MS) - only in the Army could such a thing as this assignment happen and be viewed as sensible! Our MS was inoperative, so the man's job performance was never an issue. He was permitted to work in the Chem Lab because he was an alcoholic, contending that any effort to remove him from the Lab was unlawful retaliation for his alcoholism, to which he admitted and for which he was in treatment. This farce played out over my entire time at Dugway and demonstrated the poorer side to government service. He spent his time in the Lab drinking, smoking and wandering into lab suites where agent work was underway. He died one day on the ride home (he was not driving), the victim of his assorted habits.
In March 1976, the DPG Post Commander was asked in a public forum to comment on a rumor that Dugway was to be subjected to a Reduction-in-Force on April 1. He responded in writing "There is no truth to the rumor that there will be a RIF on April 1." He announced the RIF on April 2 and defended his earlier statement as correct. His attitude captured a great deal that was dysfunctional to the system.
In closing, let me thank you again for writing this book. On a strictly personal level, I am pleased that your memories have been captured and can be shared with a larger audience.
Regards Benjamin C. Garrett, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist, FBI Laboratory, Quantico, VA
In my personal opinion, I believe it is important to capture the feel of the times when chemical warfare research was being pursued briskly and, in many ways, brilliantly in the USA. I think you have captured this feel. The systematic studies conducted by you and your colleagues in the period from ~1950-70 contrast with the absurdly "ad hoc" work done by the CIA during that same period and with the more limited scope studies permitted or possible at Edgewood today.
Your use of human subjects was exemplary, by your account and in the opinion of the various NAS panels that studied this topic. With regard to the use of human subjects, I feel you could have come down harder on Kligman and his operation, but that story is well told in Acres of skin, which you cite (and which cites you). Kligman never did grasp the improper nature of his activities, nor do his colleagues in medicine, to judge by the testimonials offered in 2006 on the occasion of Kligman's 90th birthday. (He is still living - or was, as of a few days ago when I last checked on the Internet.)
The CIA's Sidney Gottlieb "almost" got away with his activities - in one sense, he did. He passed away while legal matters were still underway on the part of one (I know for certain) or possibly two victims of his non-consensual administration of LSD. While Gottlieb's career in the CIA never suffered as a result of his cowboy antics, his final years saw him under attack as he was subject to law suits for civil damages. His defense became expense, and his family was unable to settle his estate owing to the uncertain nature of these damages, which survive the defendant. Maybe there will be some measure of justice after all for the families.
The work of the CIA, as revealed in the MK-ULTRA hearings, damaged the work of the military, I think, in that the distinction between what and how the CIA was doing versus what Edgewood was doing got lost on a public that saw it all as "the government."
I had many experiences during my brief service in the Chemical Corps - 3 years (1975-78), most of it served at Dugway. I knew "Project Dork" well, at least in terms of the stories. My stories are fewer and less rich than yours, but the memories are similar. For instance, I worked with a man who had splashed GB in one eye and got a particle of BZ lodged in the other - all on the same day, giving him "big eye" and "small eye" at once.
One of the more interesting situations at Dugway developed because we had a blind man assigned as a chemist to the Chem Lab, where we worked with vast quantities of chemical warfare agents. This blind man was designated the operator of our mass spectrometer (MS) - only in the Army could such a thing as this assignment happen and be viewed as sensible! Our MS was inoperative, so the man's job performance was never an issue. He was permitted to work in the Chem Lab because he was an alcoholic, contending that any effort to remove him from the Lab was unlawful retaliation for his alcoholism, to which he admitted and for which he was in treatment. This farce played out over my entire time at Dugway and demonstrated the poorer side to government service. He spent his time in the Lab drinking, smoking and wandering into lab suites where agent work was underway. He died one day on the ride home (he was not driving), the victim of his assorted habits.
In March 1976, the DPG Post Commander was asked in a public forum to comment on a rumor that Dugway was to be subjected to a Reduction-in-Force on April 1. He responded in writing "There is no truth to the rumor that there will be a RIF on April 1." He announced the RIF on April 2 and defended his earlier statement as correct. His attitude captured a great deal that was dysfunctional to the system.
In closing, let me thank you again for writing this book. On a strictly personal level, I am pleased that your memories have been captured and can be shared with a larger audience.
Regards Benjamin C. Garrett, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist, FBI Laboratory, Quantico, VA