www.dugway.net last updated - 29 April 2009

^{100,000th Visitor}

Aiming to expose and highlight the problems of the military personnel who participated in the US Army's atmospheric testing of chemical, biological and radiological warfare agents.

Norman  A. Grimsley "REB" - Sig C Met Team member specializing in data interpretation at Dugway Proving Ground.  Reb was trained at the 905.1 surface observation school at Fort Monmouth in New Jersey and was assigned to DPG from 1959 to 1961. Toward the end of his tour of duty he was allotted to the test grids as a micro meteorologist to gather data in support of the CBR warfare agent releases to the open air. The Reb was the best roommate and friend one could have and we shared a lot of good times that broke the monotony of a duty station that should have been paying hazardous and isolation pay.

^{Dugway Finds Old BW Bomblets}

^{Toxic Utah: A land littered with poisons}

^{Dugway security called sloppy}

^{Judge Rules in Whistleblower Case}

^{Army Admits To Secret Tests}

^{Former Dugway Scientist Tells All}

^{Army pressed for test data}

^{Medical Data Withheld by Pentagon}

^{GOP kills bill for oversight at Dugway}

^{Ex-Soldier links horses' malady to ill health}

^{Beverly White caps life of public service}

^{Twisted Judgment Overturns Hall Award}

^{Watchdogs shun "secret lab" plan}

^{Army may open can of worms}

^{Army may be off the land cleanup hook}

US Army Dugway Proving Ground: Basin for Bio-testing by Steve Erickson

Over the past two decades, Steve Erickson has spent many days in his aged truck visiting the scattered ranches and dry valleys of Utah’s West Desert. Erickson has fought dozens of schemes to make the West Desert the receptacle for some of the U.S. government’s most unpleasant projects, including nuclear bomb and biological warfare testing.

^{Dugway Survivors Poll}

^{Germs on the loose}

^{Test Docs Listed for Dugway}

^{Test Trends and Totals}

^{Army Dodges Blame}

^{Dugway - The Early Days}

^{Lethal Breeze}

^{Open Air Testing Testimony}

^{MS Linked to Dugway???}

The Yellow Jacket Ranges  were used by Dugway Proving  Ground to, according to the record in this case, fire over 3,000 rounds of ammunition containing either chemical or incendiary weapons and drop over twenty-three tons of chemical bomb weapons. The incendiary weapons tested included butane, gasoline, and napalm. Chemical weapons tested included the choking agent phosgene, the blood agent hydrogen cyanide, and the blistering agent mustard. The Army also dropped conventional type bombs filled with high explosive materials.  Despite public access to the  former range that is littered

DoD CBR files and file remnants were given to public access on the internet by the Clinton administration but then withdrawn after  President

Bush took office.  I doubt that this was to conceal  warfare technology of the 50s and 60s but more likely to conceal the lethal consequences of CBR atmospheric testing on  veterans,  downwinders,  and  the environment.

Cowboys in Gas Masks: Find a Damn Good Place to Dump Used Razor Blades.

Series #1:  ^{The Road to Dugway Proving Ground}

 

Series #2:  ^{All Around Dugway Proving Ground}

 

Series #3:  ^{From Out of the 50s at DPG}

 

Series #4:  ^{Contaminants of Concern}

 

SECRETS AT SEA

 

Cloud of secrecy lifting on Dugway Navy's tests of germ and chemical agents in the Pacific during the Vietnam war.

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"The Deseret News and victim groups have for years continually found pieces of the puzzle to what happened in such tests - including at least 328 open-air germ tests at Dugway Proving Ground, the release of 15,000 pounds of nerve agent at tests there and tests that intentionally exposed soldiers to such weaponry."

Jerrel Cook was stationed at Fort Wainwright, Alaska (HHC 171st Inf Bde (M)) before going to Fort Greely to participate in the ELK HUNT I testing. ELK HUNT I & II were conducted near Fort Greely, Alaska during 1964 and 1965.

Jerrel is bringing attention to the land based open-air testing of project 112/Shad with projects like his contribution to Operation Homecoming 2005 and the information webpage Project 112 / Elk Hunt I & II.

Letters of Appreciation from the Commanding General of the Desert Test Center to soldiers who had no previous experience or training with the most dangerous of the warfare nerve agents, training that would have probably avoided health problems the veterans of ELK HUNT are having today.

Navy Times staff writer Deborah Funk interviews "Jerrel Cook" veteran of open-air VX warfare agent tests.

Comments by Jerrel Cook on his denied VA disability claim to Washington Post staff writer Christopher Lee.

"Trying to cover up a bad story is like tying a skunk to a flagpole, the longer you leave it there, the more it's  going to stink." - Mike Cast,

"Dugway Proving Ground, a massive firing range that for fifty years was the U.S. Army testing ground for some of the most lethal chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons man ever made.

A slope of the mountains to the east is pockmarked with hundreds of fortified bunkers storing enough toxin to eradicate mankind. 

 

This was where the Cold War was waged, not on battlefields in foreign lands but in factories and laboratories and testing ranges."
 

                                                       TONY FREEMANTLE / Houston Chronicle

Workers exposed to chemical     warfare agents suffer from similar symptoms as Gulf War     veterans with Gulf War Illnesses (or medically unexplained     illnesses). This has been noticed by many medical researchers     who are investigating the link between low-level chemical     exposures in the Persian Gulf and poor health in Gulf War     veterans today." -     - - - - MATTHEW L. PUGLISI * Assistant Director *     Persian Gulf Task Force

The Tuite Reports

A recently uncovered Army report  from 1972 about the March  14,    968  chemical weapons   test  at   Dugway Proving  Ground  that  went awry    and    6,400     sheep keeled  over in their  fields,

suggests  the sheep died from a lethal combination of nerve-gas traces and pesticides.

 

Gulf War  veterans,  who were  exposed  to  insecticides,  oil-fire smoke  and  possibly chemical agents as the Iraqi stockpile was blown up, are suffering from chronic ailments similar to those found near Dugway Proving Ground.
 

"Does low-level exposure to  nerve agent  amount to  overexposure to pesticides?  Basically,  all we know is that a certain percentage of people subjected to these substances have health problems."

Jim Tuite, a researcher with the Chronic Illness Research Foundation.

 

Work in progress:

Dugway Dirty Bombs

In 1959 the USAF tried to assess the hazards from a reactor meltdown in a nuclear-powered aircraft at Dugway Proving Ground.  They did not try to assess the heath hazards created for Utahans by sending clouds of radiation toward highway U.S. 40 (now Interstate 80) and the  communities of Wendover and Knolls.

The testing between 1949 and 1953 at Dugway was a full-scale radiological warfare program that released more than 153,000 curies of radioactive products produced from a atomic pile for the purpose of killing man, animals and plants.

The use of various radioactive materials on the test grids included tantalum. Among the the common radioactive material of the day, only plutonium was more dangerous. Tantalum 182 was more cancer-causing than such elements as cesium and strontium 90. It was hot stuff, with acceptable exposure of just 7 microcuries.

Once major hostilities had ended in Korea in January of 1953, the 2^nd Chemical Battalion was redesignated as Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, and restationed at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah. Although not noted in the Battalion History this was a significant Cold War deployment for the atmospheric testing of chemical, biological and a radiological warfare agents. Kenneth Nolte (pictured at right) was a weather observer with the 2^nd Chemical Battalion who's duties placed him on the radioactive dust swept test grids of Dugway. His life was cut short as a result of exposure to those tests in August 1967.

Report of Field Test 291: The real ramifications of wide spread radiological contamination from a "Dirty Bomb" detonation as recorded at Dugway Proving Ground or how to remove 8" of dirt.

1954 Report indicates the extent of US Navy and USAF involvement in the testing at Dugway.

      Ken Verdoia is the senior    producer of public affairs for      KUED Channel 7    

"If we take it up north to Dugway Proving Grounds and Tooele Army Depot you find people in a fierce sense of loyalty and attachment to those locations for two reasons. First they believe they were truly engaged in serving the national defense. Secondly, all employees at the Dugway Proving Grounds work under a code of assured non-compliance with inquiries, and what that means is, you work here, what you do here stays here, or you run the risk of termination, loss of benefits, loss of health care, and therefore you don't hear a lot of whistle blowing. One or two isolated instances but you don't hear a lot of whistle blowing going on about what has taken place there over the years. You have kind of a mixed bag. It's a very problematic, very troubled aspect of the history of this region, and what's most compelling is that we still are not fully up to speed on what's taken place in our back yard in the name of national defense."

$400,000 was spent to research the danger of
burning artillery-propellant bags, but no one seems to know the results

Micrometeorological Survey Sites at the top of  Six Horse Pass and  Cane Spring  in the Cedar Mountain.

Typical BW Aerial Spray Test of the 1950s and 60s. 

 

Map of DPG showing test area locations.

 

Aerial view of Dog Area

Pictures of a Chemical Warfare Training Unit

 goat gassing exercise

With the CK filled LC50 bombs and sampling equipment used to determine dosage in place, the bombs are detonated. CK (cyanogen chloride) is a heavier than air blood agent that once inhaled, will take effect immediately. Victims will gasp for air, froth or vomit, and then lose consciousness and die. Examining the goats after the test the Unit conclude the goats are indeed dead.

 

Partial list of the Sanitized Test Grids of the 90s.

Pesticide Management:

Could this program have a spooky side?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Could it be a loaded gun?

The Army's Incapacitating Agent Tests in the Cold War Era

In 1952, the Army Chemical Corps began a classified medical research program for developing incapacitating agents that continued until 1975. This program involved testing chemicals, including nerve agents, nerve agent antidotes, psychochemicals, irritants, and vesicant agents. The chemicals were given to volunteer service members at Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland; Dugway Proving Ground, Utah; and Fort Benning, Bragg, and McClellan. In total, Army documents identify 7,120 Army and Air Force personnel who participated in these tests. The Army's Medical Research and Development Command in Fort Detrick, Maryland, has the names and service numbers of all test participants and listings of the chemicals to which the service members were exposed.   GAO/NSIAD-93-89 Military Human Experiments

  Fort McLellan, AL 

                      Camp Bullis, TX

Memorandum from the Army Chief of Staff to the Surgeon General outlining the use of Volunteers for research with atomic, biological and chemical warfare agents.

Wilson Memorandum - Adopted after years of debate by the medical and scientific community with the Department of Defense.

    BATTELLE EDGEWOOD OPERATIONS

The data sheets of "Disclosed Agent Events" were provided by Battelle Edgwood Operations.  Colonel Weiner, Battelle Program Manager for the Edgewood office, has not responded to a written request to provide the missing information on the sheets they sent. The data that was very surprisingly released is probably just the tip of the iceberg of chemical and biological exposure problems of personnel working with CBR agents.

An outbreak of Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis (VEE) occurred in a unit of military personnel who had gone to  Panama  for jungle

training in 1981.  Exposure was linked to training in a previously implicated area of Fort Sherman.

Before "Whistle Down," (Dec. 1962 - Feb. 1963) which was the first nerve gas test in Alaska  that the DoD has admitted took place, there was the open-air testing of VX at Gerstle River by the Chemical Arctic Test Activity. The tests were manned by Chemical Corps troops with Signal Corps meteorological personnel and directed from/by Dugway Proving Ground which the Chemical Corps had made responsible for the atmospheric testing of all CBR warfare agents. The pictures provided of the test site were taken in the spring of 1960.

Website Home of the 20th Support Command (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and High Yield Explosives) a fairly new asset of the U.S. Army Forces Command.   Prior to the establishment of this Command (CBRNE), the Army had no single organization to effectively train, integrate, coordinate, deploy, and manage its specialized CBRNE technical assets.

Will this be the next generation of CBR servicemen to get swept under the Pentagon rug?

According to veterans like Jerrel Cook fighting for recognition of past CBR exposures, "It would be a good idea for modern day soldiers to keep a diary of  events, retain copies of all orders, and keep track of service friends that can provide buddy verification."

The testing of chemical, biological, radiological, and exotic agents by the DOD and the CIA might have been credible under the guise of national security.

The way the veteran and civilian victims have been treated is unconscionable.

Records are conveniently lost by the Army (in one case mysteriously disappeared from a civilian medical office) and in the expert opinion of James E. Starrs, a George Washington University professor of law and forensic science, have eliminated conceived trouble makers (germ-warfare researcher Frank R. Olsen).

Intimidation of physicians; "I thought I had found a M.D. in Salt Lake City but when he heard I was exposed at Dugway he backed off. He was harassed by the DOD when he treated civilians from Dugway! He wanted no part of me." says Dugway survivor.

GAO-04-410: If you think the DoD is actively seeking to identify veterans and units that may have been exposed to chemical or biological agents other than on Project 112, (such as normal test operations at Dugway Proving Ground) call 1 800 497 6261.

It's business as usual. You have to provide the evidence that you were at a test site despite what you may have assumed from the perceived initiative of the document.

The Canadian Government (www.forces.gc.ca) has recognized its veterans involved in chemical warfare agent experiments between the 1940s and the 1970s. It might be a little late for most of them but a lot more than our exposed veterans will ever get.

Environmental consultant is pictured collecting animal specimens for contaminant analysis and ecological risk assessment at the U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. The respirator mask is being worn as a precaution against the deer mouse that carry the Hanta virus.

The Top Secret development of small arms biological weapons, including the spore-forming bacteria that causes anthrax, an acute infectious disease, was carried out at Dugway in 1960. The test area for the anthrax shot was expected to be contaminated for months. However, it was found that in the soil at Dugway, survival persisted beyond three years and that salts with other chemicals in the soil enhanced the infectivity of Bacillus anthracis spores.

1955 - 56 Infectious

Disease Survey . . .  with the appropriate obliterations.  Just count the spaces and see what fits.

In the 1950s, the US military released into the atmosphere at Dugway Proving Ground bacterium that causes a debilitating flu-like disease in humans. In this series of tests a pathogen typically found in pigs called Brucella suis and the goat pathogen Brucella melitensis (a nasty bug with hidden credentials for virulence) were used to determine how they spread in human populations. Today, over a half-century later, some experts claim that we are all infected with these agents as a result of these experiments.

Documented Nerve Gas Exposures at Dugway Proving Ground, 1953-1954

Former DPG assigned Air Force officer "Jack Gibson" Provides Documentation Source for Exposure Victims

Veterans and civilians who served at Dugway Proving Ground may need this documentation to prove that nerve gas exposures actually occurred in the 1953-1954 period.

 Frank Cesta and Jack Gibson

 in Las Vegas in Febuary 1953

1st Lt. John D S Gibson, USAF was the coauthor to "Report of Mild Exposure to GB in 21 Persons," dated March 19, 1954 by Capt James F. Gammill, USA MC and Capt Eugene Cutuly, USA MC.

Military veterans and personnel assigned to Dugway Proving Ground fired chemical and biological munitions on the Proving Ground test grids. Additionally, personnel involved in biological agent testing did receive vaccinations against these agents. Moreover, Service members and civilian personnel assigned to Dugway Proving Ground acted in the roles of test administrators and data recorders during various experiments. Army personnel manned downwind instrument sites, retrieved data from hot test grids, and maintained and installed instrumentation.  Unfortunately, documentation identifying these individuals, their potential exposures and the role they played in testing at Dugway is limited. The names of individuals identified in any existing documentation are included in the Cold War database.

Webmasters Note: Text from the above link was edited to reflect the experience of Sig C Met veterans. Any document that placed a veteran at a CBR test site would be invaluable for a VA claim.  It's likely that for most Pre-Shad 112 veterans the Cold War database will be a postmortem.

 John DeBusk's Atomic Vets        Keith Whittle's Atomic Vets

Former Sig C Met instructor at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey "Paul A. Roales" is the contact point and roster keeper for all former team members and era weather associated military personnel. He is presently conducting a survey to determine if former service meteorological and micro meteorological people would like to form a formal or informal association to perhaps chronicle the lost record of their service in the history of Army Meteorology.      So please report in for roll call.

This site includes some materials that contain offensive or negative stereotypes reflecting the rationalizations of the period and place. The Dugway Proving Ground Survivors is presenting these items as part of the historical record. At the time of producing this page, the Internet sites listed were current, but due to the dynamic nature of the Internet, some may no longer exist while others may simply have moved. You follow these links at your own risk. The Dugway Proving Ground Survivors takes no responsibility for any offensive sites that you might encounter. The DPG Survivors Page ---------------------- The Index(Home)Page interface has no menu system. It has been designed to be as intuitive as possible. Click on any item that displays a pointed finger and you should be able to find your way around easily. There may be more than one page per section, so don’t forget to scroll down to the bottom to see more. Re-using The DPG Survivors Web Page ------------------------------- The easiest way to re-use any of the web pages is to create a bookmark (or favourite place) within your web browser. You can then click on this bookmark or favourite place to return to this page any time. Site Details ------------ * Web site name Dugway Proving Ground Survivors * Web site type HTML with public access (no security is available). * Web addresses http://www.dugway.net ------------------------------------------------------ Web Designer: Kenneth Knowlton 3 Knbowlton Rd Boscawen, NH 03303 Telephone: 603-513-1626 ======================================================

^{WEBMASTER: Kenneth Knowlton}