Were they exposed to dangerous toxins?
Decades after secret chemical tests, veterans want answers

Jerrel Cook was a private first class in 1964 when the Army sought volunteers for classified tests near Fort Greeley, Alaska. Camping in the woods sounded like fun. He signed on.
 
Only after he and others got to Greeley were they told they'd be working with unspecified chemical agents, he said. "None of us had any idea what we were actually getting into," said Cook, 58, who now lives in Joplin, Mo.

Today, veterans like Cook want answers about just what happened during those tests decades ago to measure military defenses against biological and chemical warfare agents. Ever since similar tests came to light in 2000, veterans have been trying to get details declassified. And slowly, their own stories are emerging.

Cook began suffering shortness of breath just before his 30th birthday. Today he has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, emphysema, chronic bronchitis and other respiratory ailments.

Cook is a former smoker, but believes his ill health is related to the tests four decades ago.

"I'm sure it is," he said.

Cook took part in Elk Hunt, a series of tests at Gerstle River in the 1960s. The Pentagon never has spoken publicly about those tests. The only testing information released by Pentagon officials concerns 12 similar Cold War-era tests, all of which took place at sea in Project Shipboard Hazard and Defense, or SHAD.

In those tests, service members were protected against the warfare agents used. Other tests substituted simulants that were thought to be safe at the time but are considered harmful today. Even some of the decontamination solvents used to clean up after the tests have proven dangerous.

"In simulant tests, people may not have been as thoroughly briefed as they were during the agent tests," said Dee Morris, of the Pentagon's Deployment Health Support Directorate.

Project 112's "tentacles"

SHAD was part of a larger program called Project 112, which included more than 100 tests, according to defense officials. So little is known about the project that it isn't even clear whether the Gerstle River tests in Alaska formally were part of Project 112. The Pentagon has not shed any light on the matter.

The Vietnam Veterans of America has been pushing for declassification of the biological and chemical warfare tests to try to piece together the program designed to measure the vulnerability of U.S. equipment and personnel, said Patrick Eddington, VVA's associate government relations director.

The Army tested in different environments, including the Arctic and tropics, and the program involved other agencies, including the Agriculture Department.

"Project 112 had its tentacles in a lot of different places," Eddington said.

At Gerstle River, tests code-named Elk Hunt, Whistle Down, Night Train, Sundown, Devil Hole, Swamp Oak, West Side and Dew Point were conducted between 1962 and 1967. Some used the nerve agents sarin and VX, while others used simulants, according to a 1993 inspection report for the Gerstle River Test Site obtained by Army Times.

The report, prepared for the Army Toxic and Hazardous Materials Agency at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., shows various systems were used to deliver the agents or simulants, including mines, bombs, rockets, artillery shells, bangalore torpedoes and spray tanks.

Cook described seeing movies at Gerstle River of the Elk Hunt tests filmed with remote cameras. A sheep or goat would be tied and the nerve agent would be remotely detonated.

"Almost instantaneously - you'd see the sheep fall over, start quivering and they'd be dead," Cook recalled. "I said, "My lands, this stuff is bad.""

Morris would not confirm information about Elk Hunt nor any other tests that were not included in the 12 SHAD tests declassified to date because defense officials are sorting through the information.

"There were lots of things done at Gerstle River," she said.

The Pentagon began to declassify information about the tests last fall and has turned over to VA more than 2,700 names of veterans who took part in the ones declassified so far.

VA officials have located 622 veterans to inform them they may have been exposed to hazardous agents. They plan to contact more as they're able to find them and as the Pentagon releases more names, VA spokesman Jim Benson said.

Cook and his friends Joshua Willhite and Roy Harwood, who also volunteered, haven't received letters from VA because Elk Hunt has yet to be declassified.

Willhite, also a private first class in 1964, cleared trees and bush for the test sites and drove vehicles. He wore a protective rubber suit under coveralls.

Like Cook, he said he was told after arriving at Greeley that he'd be working with a nerve agent, but only recently has he learned more specifically what agents were used, thanks to Internet research conducted by Cook.

Harwood, now 58 and living in Macon, Ga., said his job was to cut pieces of the outer coveralls and put them in jars to measure their toxicity. He also wore full protective gear.

Cook's job with Elk Hunt was cleaning the protective gear. He worked with a civilian, throwing rubber suits, boots and gloves in washers and dryers and folding them afterward. The civilian used a neutralizing solvent on the suits, and most of the time neither took any special precautions.

Willhite, 62, of Ozark, Ark., sometimes has shortness of breath, but he doesn't know if that's due to the tests. He suffers from a recurring rash on his legs and sinus problems, both of which developed about a year after the tests, he said.

Harwood attributes no health problems to the tests
By Deborah Funk  Navy Times July, 08, 2002