history

TEST TUBE REPUBLIC: Chemical Weapons Tests in Panama and U.S. Responsibility

II. History of Chemical Weapons Programs in Panama

A. The Panama Canal Defense Project

        Chemical weapons were a component of U.S. canal defense tactics from the canal's early years. The canal was completed only days before the outbreak of the World War I, in August 1914, the war in which mustard gas was used for the first time ever in battle. General William Sibert, the Army engineer who had designed the Gatun locks in Panama, commanded the first division of American troops to go overseas in the war, sailing for France in June 1917. Without gas masks of its own and with chemical warfare activities fragmented in four departments, the United States was not well prepared to face massive gas attacks.

        Within a year, Sibert was made director of a newly consolidated Chemical Warfare Service. A "staunch advocate of all forms of chemical warfare,"¹ Sibert brought the agency's disparate activities together, so that by the end of the war the United States was producing more lethal gas than all the other belligerents combined.

        After the war Sibert became a vocal proponent of the continued development of chemical weapons. "When the armies were provided with masks and other defensive appliances, something less than four percent of the gas casualties were fatal," Sibert ruminated. "These figures, I think, meet one of the chief objections brought against the use of gas -- that of humanity. So far from being inhumane, it has been proved that it is one of the most humane instruments of warfare, if we can apply the word humane to the killing and wounding of human beings."

        In 1921 the Chemical Warfare Service, like the Army's seven other supply arms and services, was told to draw up plans for defense of the Canal Zone and other U.S. outlying possessions.² The first chemical defense plans were thus drawn up in 1923 and would be updated every year through at least 1946. "As unusually favorable conditions exist in Panama for the employment of chemical agents in defense of the canal, maximum use of chemical and anti-gas equipment is anticipated," according to the doctrine. The plan involved bombing with mustard gas the trails and routes that led inland from landing beaches on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, spraying the beaches, and firing chemical mortars at military targets as well.

        Another chemical weapons supporter, Major General Preston Brown, came to the helm in Panama in 1930. At this time the military maintained a chemical company of two officers and 77 men. "I have long been of the opinion that the hot, damp, breathless tropical jungle offers ideal conditions for the use of persistent gas," Brown wrote to Washington in March 1931. Brown believed that in case of a land invasion, troops could use gas defensively as they retreated through the jungle. His belief had been demonstrated by a two-week set of maneuvers by the First Chemical Company in La Chorrera -- 30 miles east of the Canal -- in February 1931. Troops employed chemical simulants, not live chemical agents, in the exercises.³

        The United States' entry into World War II both increased military sensitivities to the Canal's vulnerability to attack, and brought with it whole new areas of responsibility and control.

        Besides defending the canal using chemical munitions, the military planned to use smoke pots which burned oil or chemical blends in order to visually screen the canal should enemies attack the canal by air. Several hundred of the smoke pots were sent to the Canal Zone in 1942, where they were operated by Chemical Warfare Service troops.⁴

B. The San Jose Project

        The United States, Great Britain and Canada collaborated closely in the 1940s on testing and development of chemical weapons. The collaboration included sharing data from test sites in Australia, India, the Canadian province of Alberta, and Bushnell, Florida. Anticipating possible defensive or offensive use of chemical weapons against the Japanese, the Allies sought an understanding of how chemical weapons could be used in case of further invasions of the Japanese-occupied Pacific islands. Field data were then analyzed by the tri-partite Advisory Committee on the Effectiveness of Gas Warfare Materiel in the Tropics.⁵

        In searching for a jungle testing ground for chemical weapons, the Chemical Warfare Service sought a jungle site with "lack of human habitation, safety distances to nearby islands, tropical jungle, good water, absence of disease and poisonous snakes," and accessibility to nearby airfields controlled by the U.S. military. In October 1943, Colonel Robert McLeod searched up and down the coasts of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Peru, Panama, and the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador. Discarding Panama's penal colony on Coiba Island because the presence of prisoners might have "complicated our problems," and other areas because of the distance from airfields, McLeod settled on San Jose Island, the second largest island of Perlas group in Panama Bay.⁶

        An internal military history offers insight into how the military understood the tropical terrain they were entering. Acknowledging that historians had written little about San Jose, and that the story "may or may not be true," the Army recounted the following "frankensteinian folklore":

Some eighty years ago, around 1857, an Englishman with his wife and young daughter built a homestead on the island, bringing also a stock of hogs. Indians came across the water from Darien and "scalped" the man and woman, but somehow the girl managed to escape into the jungle, where she was found soon afterward, white-haired and demented, by some kindly negroes from the neighboring island of Pedro Gonzales. Taking her along with them, they set sail for Panama, but she died en route. From that time on the island was unofficially marked "haunted", and natives could not be persuaded to return there.7

        For the military, the story pointed up the dangers of entering a jungle "beset by gnarled and venomous manchineel trees," an "island of mystery" whose "beautiful little bays" and "kindly negroes" belied potential revenge and dementia. Brigadier General Egbert F. Bullene, who had been tapped to run the San Jose Project, paid a personal visit to the island in November 1943, and reaffirmed it as a site. But in a twist on environmental values, the Army's General Staff delayed approval of San Jose Island as a site for chemical experiments until they were assured that they would not harm rare flora or fauna. The National Museum testified that no rare wildlife existed on San Jose, after which the General Staff gave its go-ahead.⁸

        The military acted quickly. On December 20, 1943, the U.S. Consul proposed to conduct "certain chemical warfare tests under existing jungle conditions" for 60-day renewable periods on San Jose Island. The agreement had to be made with both the government of Panama and the island's private owners, a Panama City firm called Huertematte & Co. A rental fee of $15,000 a year was agreed. The United States also sought Panama's consent to build trails and wharves, and to incorporate the agreement into the 1942 base agreement signed the year before.

        The project formally began on January 6, 1944, two days after Panama gave permission to the United States to conduct "chemical warfare tests" on the island.⁹ Within days hundreds of Army engineers arrived on the island to clear roads and an airstrip and build the many buildings for operations and housing the project would use. More than 400 enlisted men were stationed on the island by mid-1945, as well as nearly 200 officers and civilians (from the United States, Panama and other countries). Many of the Army troops were Puerto Rican soldiers.¹⁰ We describe the tests carried out on San Jose below.

C. Chemical Weapons Programs in the 1950s

        From February 1953 through February 1957, the Tropical Test Team, a Chemical Corps unit under the command of the Dugway Proving Ground's Environmental Test Laboratories in Utah, conducted tests of distilled mustard gas every three months in Panama. The tests included pressure tests of one-ton containers of mustard, as well as freezing of the distilled mustard.¹¹

        The test team included 20 personnel, who arrived in Panama in November 1952. The team conducted most tests of toxic materials in Curundu, as well as some on a knoll on the Chiva-Chiva Trail. Toxic materials were stored in a large open building in Cerro Tigre, while munitions were kept nearby in igloo-type magazines. Non-hazardous test materials were kept in Building 1004 of Curundu. According to the report:

The chemical demolition area, located on a knoll on the Chiva-Chiva Trail, is utilized for large-scale testing of screening smoke devices and for a few tests of hazardous materials. This section, which is also used for the disposal of all materials of a hazardous nature, is restricted and well marked to prevent the entry of unauthorized persons. [Emphasis added.]12

        The report clearly indicates that tests included detonation of chemical mines. The report added that "The toxic gas building at Cerro Tigre is used for limited testing of toxic gases and liquids."¹³ Today, this area apparently is no longer either restricted or well marked. A visit to Cerro Tigre in April 1998 showed that the area was grown up with vegetation, without fences or signs. In 1961, the U.S. Army Chemical Corps participated in a transport exercise called Swamp Fox I, which took place primarily in the Darién region of Panama, not far from Colombia. The exercise involved firing 58 CN tear gas grenades in the jungle, though the report obtained for this study did not specify exact locations."¹⁴

        A second Swamp Fox exercise, sponsored by several Army agencies, was carried out in Panama in 1964.¹⁵ The U.S. Army Tropic Test Center used a site on Empire Range to test tear gas grenades in 1965, according to an assessment of the active ranges. "The U.S. military also constructed a chemical test site at this approximate location during the same period," according to the assessment.¹⁶

D. Nerve Agent Tests

        Documents show at least four tests in Panama with live chemical munitions from 1964 to 1968 (VX gas mines, rockets and projectiles, and sarin (GB) rockets).¹⁷ The tests were part of a range of tests under Arctic, desert and tropical conditions to which chemical munitions were usually subjected. In the case of the VX-filled M-23 mines, the test aimed "to determine the effects of environment on the storage and functioning of the ABC-M23 mine in the climates represented by the Arctic, Desert, Temperate and Tropic Test Sites." Twenty-four VX mines were shipped to each site in late 1963 or early 1964 after undergoing engineering tests at Dugway Proving Ground.

        The M23 mine is five inches high and 13 inches in diameter, weighing 23.75 pounds when unfuzed, including 10.5 pounds of VX agent. Since ten milligrams of VX agent constitutes a lethal dose, each of these VX mines had enough nerve agent for nearly half a million lethal doses.

        The mines were stored outdoors on pallets during the test; storage cycles ranged from 30 days to more than two years, depending on the "storage cycle" assigned to each mine. Monitoring of the mines during storage included periodic sampling and analysis of VX agent and leak tests of the mines. Finally, each mine was detonated.

        The report available indicates that the VX mines may have been detonated with live agent inside. The report states:

During each cycle, three mines (VX or simulant-filled) will be subjected to a firing test to determine the functionability of mines and components. The procedure will be as follows: a. The mine (with full complement of firing components) will be electrically fired through the side burster, using an M1 activator and an adapter...

DISPOSITION OF TEST ITEMS: At the conclusion of each cyclic test, the area contaminated by the detonation of the mines will be decontaminated and the munition remnants will be disposed of in accordance with References 9, 10, and 11, Annex B.18

        Despite the reference to simulant, the materials list for this test does not include any simulant. Some warheads may have been shipped to test sites with simulant, as a control on the experiment. "If this work plan was implemented, one can feel sure that 24 VX rounds were studied and detonated in this test," according to Theodore Henry, a toxicologist with experience analyzing reports of chemical weapons tests.¹⁹

        Other tests from 1964 to 1968 included "environmental tests" of VX- and sarin-filled M55 rockets. "Environmental tests" include subjecting munitions or equipment to specific environmental conditions (usually tropic, desert, Arctic or temperate) for specific periods of time to understand how those climates affect the materials. The tests don't necessarily include firing of munitions.

        The United States discontinued production of VX agent, as well as the M55 rocket, in 1968. Sarin production ceased in 1957, but it has remained in the U.S. stockpile until the present day.²⁰

E. Post-1968 Activity

        We have no found documentation of the storage or testing of live lethal chemical agents in Panama since 1968. On November 19, 1969, Congress passed Public Law 91-121, which prohibited deployment, storage or disposal of lethal chemical or biological agents outside the United States unless the host country was first notified. For overseas locations under U.S. jurisdiction, the law required prior notice to Congress.²¹

        There is one exception to the use of chemical agents in Panama since 1968: tear gas. The U.S. military has acknowledged "limited, controlled laboratory testing of some tear gas agents" in Panama since 1979.²²

        At chemical test sites, Army policy since 1980 requires the use of only simulants, which appears to have been the case at the "NBC-12" site on Empire Range, along Road K6, the only known post-1980 site for chemical activities.²³ "NBC" stands for nuclear, biological and chemical. In the 1980s, chemical activities included tests of protective equipment and defensive exercises. A 1985 project conducted by the Tropic Test Center tested the "AH-64 Chemical Biological (CB) Protective Mask."²⁴

        In 1987, the Army's 193d Infantry Brigade conducted a training exercise in Panama called "NBC Stakes," designed to prepare soldiers for potential chemical combat. Soldiers had to pass through simulated contamination by chemical agents and nuclear radiation while keeping their gas masks and other protective gear on. The exercise was probably carried out on one of the range's maneuver areas.²⁵

        The Tropic Test Center (TTC) continues in the 1990s to test equipment designed to detect and defend against chemical agents under tropical conditions. "There has been a significant increase over the past two years in testing of this type of equipment," the TTC wrote in July 1997. The TTC emphasized that "testing of this type of equipment involves no use of actual agents," but uses simulants instead.²⁶

¹ Donald Richter, Chemical Soldiers: British Gas Warfare in World War I, (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1992), p. 195.

² Leo P. Brophy, Wyndham D. Miles and Rexmond C. Cochrane, The Chemical Warfare Service: From laboratory to field,

Washington: Department of the Army, Office of the Chief of Military History, 1959, p. 227.

³ Brown to Army Adjutant General, March 13, 1931, in National Archives (hereafter cited as NARA), RG175/290/3/16/2-3, Box 159.

⁴ Ibid., pp. 208-209.

⁵ Minutes of meetings of the Advisory Committee on the Effectiveness of Gas Warfare Materiel in the Tropics, March 4, 1944, May 17, 1944, July 19, 1944, and December 7, 1944, in NARA, RG 175, 290/3/28/142.

⁶ Robert D. McLeod, Jr., "In the wake of the Golden Galleon," Armed Forces Chemical Journal, IX (March-April 1955), pp. 36-39.

⁷ "A Historical Record of the San Jose Project," c. 1945, NARA (RG 338/290/40/17/2, Box 1), p. 1.

⁸ Leo P. Brophy and George J.B. Fisher, The Chemical Warfare Service: Organizing for War, Washington: Department of the Army, Office of the Chief of Military History, 1959, p. 136.

⁹ Exchange of diplomatic notes, cited in Herasto Reyes, "Contaminaciones militares en Panamá: El caso de la isla de San José," La Prensa, July 3, 1997.

¹⁰ Headquarters, San Jose Project, "General Order Number 11," 6 July 1944, report on San Jose Project, in NARA, College Park, MD.

¹¹ "Chemical Corps Tropical Test Team, Fort Clayton, Canal Zone," Dugway Proving Ground, January 25, 1956, p. 33.

¹² Ibid., pp. 9, 11, 13.

¹³ Ibid., p. 11.

¹⁴ U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command, Dugway Proving Ground, "Chemical Corps Participation in Project Swamp Fox I,"

November 1962, p. 6.

¹⁵ U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command, Dugway Proving Ground, "Chemical Corps Participation in Project Swamp Fox I," November 1962 (AD #896503); Army Ballistic Research Lab, Aberdeen Proving Ground, "Swamp Fox II, Republic of Panama, Volume VIII, Target Acquisition," April 1964 (AD #440862).

¹⁶ PRC Environmental Management, Inc., "Unexploded Ordnance Assessment of U.S. Military Ranges in Panama: Empire, Balboa West and Piña Ranges," January 1997, p. 25.

¹⁷ Ibid.; list of Tropic Test Center tests, with report numbers, compiled by Rick Stauber, EOD specialist, while under contract with PRC Environmental Management, Inc. for the study cited here.

¹⁸ Ibid., pp. 9, 11. The references were not available for review at the writing of this report.

¹⁹ Communication to author from Theodore Henry, Managing Director of the Community Health Assessment & Public Participation (CHAPP) Center, July 17, 1998.

²⁰ Ibid. and Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Chemical Disarmament: New Weapons for Old, (New York: Humanities Press, 197_), pp. 81.

²¹ Public Law 91-121, November 19, 1969, as Amended, paragraph 1513.

²² Letter from Col. Michael Debow, Co-chairman, Environmental Subcommittee, Joint Committee, to Lic. Ramiro Castrejón, Co-chairman, Environmental Sub-committee, DEPAT, August 18, 1997.

²³ PRC Environmental Management, Inc., op.cit., p. 25.

²⁴ R.H. McIntosh, et al, "Development Test II (Prototype qualification test-government (Tropic Environmental Phase) of AH-64 Chemical Biological (CB) Protective Mask," May-Dec. 1985. (AD# B102800)

²⁵ Cpt. Jerzell L. Black, "NBC Stakes in Panama," CML, Army Chemical Review, September 1987, pp. 32-35.

²⁶ Graham Stullenbarger, "Proposal for Tropic Test Center Membership in the City of Knowledge," July 21, 1997, p. B-2.

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