Chemical Warfare Secrets Almost Forgotten
Opinions
© 2006/2007
J.S. Ketchum
J.S. Ketchum
Documenting a Lost Decade of Clinical Research
(The writer did secret work in the 1960s)
Since the project was secret I kept no documents. I was working in the Physical Chemistry Research section at IIT Research Institute in Fine Particles Research and Solid State Chemistry from 1960 until 1966, when I transferred to the Institute of Gas Technology (contract research for the natural gas industry). My expertise was primarily in high vacuum and ultra-high vacuum technology. The range of my projects ranged from coatings for satellites to military satellite defense systems, Saturn I and V rocket fuelling integrity (non-volatile particulate monitoring), and even developing thin-film semiconductor materials.
Our work on the CW project was directed toward explosive dissemination of the materials without causing the particle size distribution to change in the process. Also, the bomblets were to be of low energy so as to not be lethal devices themselves. Most of our experiments involved exploding the various bomblet models in a large metal sphere (about 35 feet diameter) and monitoring the particle size distribution through cascade impactors using the LSD and BZ materials. Also, we had a biosciences group exposing animals to the resulting particulate clouds for analysis of the resultant ingestion into the lungs. By the time we ran field trials at Dugway Proving Grounds I had moved on to IGT and, later, building racing cars and working in industry.
One anecdote, I was using large quantities of pure grain alcohol for the chemical quantitative analysis of our particle size distribution. This attracted the attention of the federal ATF agents. They interviewed me to find out where all of this alcohol was going. Since the project was secret and they didn’t have clearance I told them they didn’t have the “need to know”. The lab facility was also secret so they couldn’t inspect my cache. I agreed to save all of the empty bottles for them to collect, for whatever bureaucratic reason. They would have freaked out if they knew I had enough LSD and BZ to send Chicago on a trip.
I had to wear a “dog tag” for a few years during the project in case of accidental exposure. There was a doctor at the 5th Army HQ in Chicago who was our liaison and safety officer. He was to be called, per my tag, if I had an ER experience. As part of my pre-project safety indoctrination he showed me films of some of the army experiments and shared test reports on human subjects. Nothing was too alarming except for that CIA interrogation story I had mentioned.
I still feel it was a real shame that tactical use of the incapacitating agents never occurred. It may have changed the way asymmetrical warfare tactics evolved. Imagine now, if we could use such materials in Baghdad, how many lives could be saved in pacifying an insurgency mingling in a high-density population.
Dick Keller
Since the project was secret I kept no documents. I was working in the Physical Chemistry Research section at IIT Research Institute in Fine Particles Research and Solid State Chemistry from 1960 until 1966, when I transferred to the Institute of Gas Technology (contract research for the natural gas industry). My expertise was primarily in high vacuum and ultra-high vacuum technology. The range of my projects ranged from coatings for satellites to military satellite defense systems, Saturn I and V rocket fuelling integrity (non-volatile particulate monitoring), and even developing thin-film semiconductor materials.
Our work on the CW project was directed toward explosive dissemination of the materials without causing the particle size distribution to change in the process. Also, the bomblets were to be of low energy so as to not be lethal devices themselves. Most of our experiments involved exploding the various bomblet models in a large metal sphere (about 35 feet diameter) and monitoring the particle size distribution through cascade impactors using the LSD and BZ materials. Also, we had a biosciences group exposing animals to the resulting particulate clouds for analysis of the resultant ingestion into the lungs. By the time we ran field trials at Dugway Proving Grounds I had moved on to IGT and, later, building racing cars and working in industry.
One anecdote, I was using large quantities of pure grain alcohol for the chemical quantitative analysis of our particle size distribution. This attracted the attention of the federal ATF agents. They interviewed me to find out where all of this alcohol was going. Since the project was secret and they didn’t have clearance I told them they didn’t have the “need to know”. The lab facility was also secret so they couldn’t inspect my cache. I agreed to save all of the empty bottles for them to collect, for whatever bureaucratic reason. They would have freaked out if they knew I had enough LSD and BZ to send Chicago on a trip.
I had to wear a “dog tag” for a few years during the project in case of accidental exposure. There was a doctor at the 5th Army HQ in Chicago who was our liaison and safety officer. He was to be called, per my tag, if I had an ER experience. As part of my pre-project safety indoctrination he showed me films of some of the army experiments and shared test reports on human subjects. Nothing was too alarming except for that CIA interrogation story I had mentioned.
I still feel it was a real shame that tactical use of the incapacitating agents never occurred. It may have changed the way asymmetrical warfare tactics evolved. Imagine now, if we could use such materials in Baghdad, how many lives could be saved in pacifying an insurgency mingling in a high-density population.
Dick Keller