THE CHEMICAL BIOLOGICAL RADIOLOGICAL STORY

[Music] it was shortly before noon when I arrived at Washington Airport it had been a quick trip only a few hours before I had left the University campus and now here I was ready for the chemical core assignment I had been called down to Washington for [Music] I knew very little about the assignment except that it was top secret of course I was aware the Army chemical Corps works closely with scientists in the industrial and academic world so I could guess it had something to do with my being a professor of biochemistry but beyond that I would just have to wait and see the colonel who met me at the airport told me the first order of business would be a meeting with the chief chemical officer United States Army then the short orientation survey of some of the key installations before getting down to work I was glad to have an orientation because well in my mind I had two questions about the work of the chemical core questions I know a lot of people have questions that have to be faced up to an answer the first question with the development of modern atomic warfare was there any real need for this sort of thing after all we're CBR weapons in the same league so to speak as the nuclear bomb and the second big reservation bothering me was the impression I had about this kind of warfare is something cruel and uncivilized was it even morally debased [Music] oh I know war is no tennis match but I think I echoed the reluctance of most people to face up to such activities as chemical biological and Radiological warfare [Music] ten minutes later along with the other special consultants I met the chief chemical officer and the orientation had begun even then the two questions I had asked myself still gnawed away insistent probing always there we were here as consultants and would do the best we could of course but I knew myself well enough to feel those questions would have to be answered if it were really to be my best well it didn't take me long to realize nobody of men was more anxious to face up to those questions and the army chemical Corps and the chief chemical officer United States Army gentlemen you've been asked to act as consultants on a project we have the chemical core of developed which bears on your specialized scientific and industrial backgrounds we regard this as an opportunity to bring to bear a fresh viewpoint an independent critical standard on a phase of our operation we appreciate your taking time from your busy schedules to serve as consultants for the next few weeks now I don't have to belabor the point here that the Army's job together with the Air Force and Navy is to maintain the peace and security of the United States our job in the chemical Corps is to make available one set of tools for this job of maintaining peace the set of tools consists of chemical biological and Radiological munitions and defensive equipment so that we'll all be thinking along the same lines that's very as I listen to the chief chemical officer I began to have an idea of the vast scope the tremendous array of military potential summed up in the letters C B R [Music] the sea of CBR chemical warfare involves the military use of chemical compounds in more down-to-earth language using and protecting yourself against the war gases chemical warfare also includes the use of flamethrowers portable or mounted incendiary materials placed on a target from the air the employment of obscuring smokes is another example of chemical warfare the B of CBR is biological warfare the deliberate used by man of microorganisms germs to cause disease among humans to cause disease among animals and to cause disease among crop plants radiological warfare the our of CBR involves the use of radioactive materials on a specific target area this includes the fallout from nuclear weapons military and civilians alike may face this problem the event of a nuclear the chief chemical officer continued to outline the overall picture of C B and our perhaps it was grim stuff to hear but then again what manner of fighting a war is not I began to see that it is all very well for some to decry CBR warfare but the fact remains that CBR weapons and tactics just as much within the capabilities of our potential enemies as other modern methods of warfare we were shown evidence of their efforts in this field said the Soviet defense minister in 1956 that the Communist Party Congress in Moscow port any future war will be characterized by the mass use of air power various types of rockets atomic thermo nuclear chemical and biological weapons end quote the warning is right out in the open for everybody to see in the event of war CBR is just as likely to be used against us as the nuclear weapons the army chemical Corps provides assistance to the Navy Air Force and civilian defense authorities [Music] as the only agency of its kind in government the core must carry out the CBR research and development it must carry out the manufacturing must carry out the procurement the advantages of using CBR weapons are just disappearing to any potential enemy as they are to us in the next few days I was to learn a great deal about those advantages for example aggressive military leaders know this advantage chemical and biological agents cannot ordinarily be detected by the human sensory organs you can't smell anything taste anything wrong but the effect can be deadly burrowing into the ground is the normal means of protection against explosive type munitions but military leaders of any would-be aggressor nation know the protection afforded by underground fortifications and trenches can be circumvented or penetrated by CBR agents these agents are usually released in a heavier-than-air aerosol form which flows over the ground like water seeking and hugging the low places the user of CBR can put a victim out of action for a period rather than maim or kill but perhaps to an aggressor Nations military leaders another advantage is paramount unlike many other powerful weapons in the arsenal of modern warfare CBR is not a weapon of total destruction and destruction for destructions sake is seldom the purpose of a military attack from the viewpoint of the attacker the rubble is only a byproduct you Tiger much prefers to occupy an undamaged target then control and use its productive facilities [Music] our steel mills and industrial plants are prized by would-be aggressors we remember how the Soviet forces were so quick to remove industrial machinery from Germany and Manchuria at the end of World War two to be of use to an aggressor these industrial plants would have to be left standing CBR weapons can accomplish this and still inflict enough casualties to win wars without a doubt if it were to their advantage our enemy might use CBR for this purpose there in a nutshell is why we can't ignore CBR the briefing from the chief chemical officer was over now I was ready for a short on-the-spot orientation have worked in the field before starting my assignment [Music] first stop the army chemical Center at Edgewood Maryland here are employed hundreds of qualified scientists men and women in and out of uniform with many more that number of technicians and skilled workers while most of the installation is off-limits to the casual visitor the chemical museum on the post welcomes guests before observing the work at the center the colonel told a visit to the museum would be valuable well one thing I got an idea of how past hostile powers had stressed chemical warfare I saw the display counters of world war ii german protective masks for soldiers the germans took chemical warfare seriously so did the Japanese a particularly interesting item was a world war two Japanese incendiary bomb carried by balloons as far as Michigan in the chemical museum there is also a display of Soviet chemical warfare equipment but the bulk of displays deal with American equipment protective devices and weapons since chemical warfare became a reality of modern combat in World War one but chemical warfare goes back a long time before World War one incendiaries date back to caveman days when flame and burning coals were used to drive off the enemy primitive flamethrowers were used before 400 BC by the Spartans against the Athenians the Spartans also melted down pitch charcoal and sulfur so the fumes would be carried downwind to the enemy in the year 1700 Swedish forces set up smoke screens from burning wet straw to cover deployment for battle against the police action money World War one saw the first use of aircraft incendiaries with the German Zeppelin raids on London in 1915 the same year the Germans used chlorine gas against a British rifle brigade near Ypres [Music] approximately one-third of the American casualties in World War one were caught however only two percent of the gas casualties died compared to a mortality rate of 25 percent among the non gas casualties world war q incendiaries played an important role in the German blitz of London in 1940 [Applause] in the Korean War napalm a jellied gasoline used as an incendiary often drove the enemy from well entrenched positions [Music] I thought about all this the past of chemical warfare as I went on to observe the present at the army chemical Center in well-equipped scientific laboratories highly competent chemists physicists microbiologists and engineers explore many important lines of inquiry their primary purpose to cope successfully with chemical warfare [Applause] and coping with chemical warfare means coping with chemical agents substances employed in chemical warfare for tactical purposes to defend ourselves against their use we have to understand everything about them how chemical agents are prepared and how the munitions are prepared which will disseminate them [Applause] first the munition is carefully worked-out on paper then models are built precisely to scale pilot plants are designed to test the feasibility of large-scale production of both the agent and the munition hand-in-hand with basic research and development on chemical agents goes the never-ending job of working of practical detection and protection devices devices which indicate the presence of nerve gas in the atmosphere by sounding a warning loud and clear [Music] telling a man agents are in the air is one thing but he must continue to function go on with his work the chemical Corps has designed a new lightweight canister 'lest mask just one of many developments in the field of individual protection many different types of protectors have been developed I saw just a few of these special masks [Music] one for military personnel one for non-combatants an infant protector one for hospital cases and many others [Applause] I saw many developments that day at Edgewood I began to gain a sense of how the chemical core does not ignore any possibility in the defense against potential CBR attack in one laboratory I watched a demonstration of clothes treated to protect the skin against the vapors and spray droplets of blister gases the contrast between clothing which had not been specially impregnated and the chemically treated clothing was strikingly apparent drops that had soaked into the cloth before just rolled off like water from a duck's back [Music] a surprise alert at the chemical Center gave me a hint of progress made in the development of protective shelters [Music] it was midway in a typical working morning when the building was exposed to a mock CPR attack reacting quickly the office workers set up chemical core designed diffusion barriers the room must be made airtight to prevent the seepage of gas into the enclosure the diffusion board is composed of fiber and active impregnated charcoal which filters out CBR material while at the same time allowing the carbon dioxide and moisture created by the occupants to diffuse outwards [Music] within two and a quarter minutes the room had been made safe from CBR contamination the diffusion board is again just one of various chemical core approaches toward the problem of protecting our population in the event of all-out war [Music] the medical problems and implications of chemical warfare present a tremendous challenge to the doctors researchers and scientists at Edgewood to defend against CBR warfare one must know about CBR warfare how for example the vital functions of the human body can be affected biochemists and biophysicists spend long periods of intensive work alone in a laboratory or as a part of a coordinated group effort in clinical and physiological laboratories doctors investigate the effects of chemical warfare agents on the human body and develop medical treatment to counteract these effects [Music] yes to defend against one must know and the roads to knowledge of varied in one laboratory a striking experiment of the effects of a certain harmless chemical compound took place a cat's reaction to the presence of a mouse was just about what can you expect at first a typical hunters instinct a harmless chemical agent was introduced the cat's behavior became temporarily timid frightened defensive contrary to his normal behavior [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the head of a group of research chemists explained to me some of the means of protecting against chemical warfare agents and how his group prepares chemical treatment kits for use in the field [Music] a few minutes later I was shown a demonstration of one of the many ways developed for the detection of chemical agents in water and food [Music] medical researchers at Edgewood worked constantly in cooperation with the Army Surgeon General on the development of means and methods to counteract their effects the primary purpose of the research work at Edgewood is successfully coping with chemical warfare but these time benefits have also come out of the work of the chemical Corps in researching for new chemical agents intensive studies must be made on how these chemicals affect the human body just as an example Chemical Co researchers discovered that one of the body effects of the nitrogen mustard bore gases is a reduction of the white blood cells why not then study the use of these gases for treatment of those forms of cancer where there is an abnormal increase in white blood cells this line of inquiry has led to work of value in the treatment of leukemias and certain cancerous growths another example anointment developed originally by the british to counteract the effects of lewis sight and other arsenical war gases has been found to be an effective antidote for many of the common metal poisonings in industry studies of nerve gas effects on the body have also led to the adoption of a more effective form of artificial respiration fresh air is forced into the lungs of a person being revived directly through a special mask designed by the chemical Corps [Music] glaucoma is an eye disease which can now be treated by a method developed by chemical Corps medical scientists even in the short time I was at Edgewood it became clear to me that there are few branches of the military with activities more readily reflected in peacetime benefits than those activities carried out under the name of chemical warfare in all more than 300 contributions of medical and agricultural significance have been made is the result of chemical Corps research much of it at the army chemical center not very far from Edgewood in historic Frederick Maryland are the biological warfare laboratories many well-qualified scientists are employed here backed up by an even greater number of technicians and skilled workers these men of science are doing basically the same type of work that is being carried out in other government University and industrial laboratories a combination of medical and public health research [Music] while I was at Fort Detrick I was able to follow partway through an experiment to determine the effectiveness of an agent volunteers are important to the testing picture for many years information has been needed on the effect of a biological warfare attack on man so that we can have a better understanding of how to defend ourselves against it the volunteers were a picked group they had received psychiatric interviews to determine their maturity and reliability as well as mental up [Music] medical histories and laboratory checks on the volunteers had been extremely stringent any history of a chronic disease any allergic reaction or nervous disorder was a cause for rejection volunteers were given the opportunity to drop out at any time with no stigma attached [Music] I wish to watch the progress of the experiment from the control room [Music] the volunteers had been positioned in cubicles on the outside of the test sphere a hollow steel ball 40 feet in diameter the spear is so designed to enable a controlled aerosol a cloud of biological warfare agents might say to be generated within it through a series of controllable valves and a facemask it was possible to expose the person in each cubicle to a measured volume of the biological aerosol from the sphere I said before I was able to follow partway through the experiment the final part as was expected the volunteers were temporarily incapacitated but within a short time they were up and around completely recovered they had the satisfaction of having played an important part in obtaining information which would immediately be given to the Public Health Service to bolster our defenses against disease [Music] even when out of the laboratory's over coffee at lunch the shoptalk goes on endlessly for here are people who are enormous ly interested in their work both because of its importance to the National Defense and the many contributions to the cause of everyday human welfare an intensive military research and development program has resulted in many scientific findings beneficial to mankind one area of contribution is development of methods for the rapid and accurate detection of disease producing agents worker Dietrich has also contributed the knowledge of the control of airborne disease producing agents progress has been made in working up immunity in human beings and animals against certain infectious diseases as well as their treatment methods have been developed for production and use of certain vaccines one of the more recent developments at Detrick is a perfected vaccine for controlling industrial anthrax and infectious and usually fatal disease of cattle and sheep still another accomplishment has been the development of protective devices for the safe handling of disease-causing microorganisms and their harmful products [Music] special photographic techniques have been designed for the study of airborne microorganisms and laboratory safety procedures filtering devices have been perfected which will aid the food industry and rapidly determining the bacterial count of their products and just another example the now-familiar weed killer - 4 D was a byproduct of biological warfare research from Fort Detrick I went by train to Anniston Alabama where Fort McClellan home of the US Army chemical Corps Training Command and chemical Corps school is located [Music] i sat him on a few classes I noticed along with chemical Corps personnel at the school were representatives of the other services [Music] there are representatives of public health civilian defense and other agencies officers of the military forces of friendly foreign nations are also present [Music] I noticed too that a heavy emphasis was placed on the are in CBR radiological warfare along with learning how to deal with the Ottoman peacetime a steady program of laboratory exercises teaches chemical core students the fundamental procedures involved in the handling of radioactive materials [Music] calibration exercises train the students in the maintenance of the radiation detection devices they will use in the event of a nuclear emergency [Applause] [Music] [Applause] at Fort McClellan the techniques of survey and monitoring are taught to selected noncommissioned officers who will return to their units as instructors in these same subjects [Music] the technique used were developed by the chemical Corps during bombing tests in Nevada and the Pacific practice gives the students the confidence and know-how they need to cope intelligently with any nuclear emergency that may arise in the future students have the opportunity of visiting atomic testing grounds where they monitor radioactive fallout by ground and air means [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] also at Fort McClellan is the first radiological safety Support Unit [Music] a mobile organization it is on a 24-hour standby alert ready to go anywhere in the world to provide technical assistance in dealing with radiation hazards I had one more visit to make before returning to Washington to the large test site of the Corps at Dugway proving ground Utah where the chemical Corps holds field trials to determine the effectiveness of CBR munitions [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the trial runs conducted here duplicate the actual conditions in the event of emergency sampling devices positioned throughout the test area yield valuable information to Chemical Co researchers also a dug way is one of the processing stations for atomic wastes established by the Department of the army use of the Ataman the search for better sources of power in research medical treatment and in national defense it resulted in the accumulation of hazardous radioactive wastes in many areas the chemical Corps in collaboration with the Atomic Energy Commission collects and processes this waste material and ensures it's effective and permanent disposal for the safety of everyone the wastes must be controlled [Music] currently the army quartermaster is using the hot cell to study new methods of preserving food without the need for refrigeration the cell is a complex installation designed for the remote handling of high-intensity sources of radiation in complete safety [Music] I sampled meats which had been kept for many months with no refrigeration and I'll tell you something it was very tasty too next morning I was back in Washington my orientation finished ready for work only a few days before I had come here for the first time and since then a lot of doubts had been swept out of my mind I was beginning to grasp the mission of the Army chemical Corps more important than ever in the era of the attribute something else to about this business of CPR being uncivilized I realized now in the context of war with its inevitable cruelties and tragedies CBR warfare is not the horror often pictured if one has a true understanding of it in any case we must be prepared that's the surest way of never being a target for CBR perhaps you can understand then why as I stepped into the consultation room to start work I was determined to give everything I had to the crucially important program of the Army chemical Corps [Music] [Applause]