Secret Germ Warfare Experiments?
Source: CBS News
May 16, 2000
(CBS News) - Even in peacetime, military life can be
risky -- it goes with the territory. But regulations say U.S. troops
must agree to be used as test subjects. And, as CBS News Correspondent
Vince Gonzales reports in an exclusive investigation, thousands of
U.S. sailors may have been unaware that they were exposed during
secret germ-warfare experiments.
When Robert Bates and the other crewmen on the USS
Navarro were ordered to Hawaii in 1963 it seemed like a vacation.
"It was basically an R&R cruise," says Bates.
There was rest, relaxation and a mystery.
"There were people with chemical suits on the ship with
some kind of apparatus apparently monitoring what was going on,"
explained Bates.
"They wouldn't talk to you," he added. "You'd try to
carry on a conversation, try to find out what was going on, they just
flat ignored you. It always bothered me."
Target Ships USS Navarro APA 215 Operation Copper Head What Bates didn't know and what has never been made
public is that his ship was part of a series of secret biological
warfare tests conducted in the 1960s.
The Hawaii mission was code-named Autumn Gold. A similar
operation off Newfoundland was called Copper Head.
According to a Pentagon briefing film obtained by CBS
News, the goal was to test the vulnerability of Navy ships to germ
warfare attack.
Nine times within a month jets sprayed clouds of a
biological weapons simulant in front of the ships.
According to the film, "A biological tracer, BG, was
disseminated by a 4-C jet aircraft."
BG, a bacteria considered harmless by the military, is
used to simulate the deadly anthrax germ.
The briefing film explains, "Immediately following the
BG release another plane flying the identical flight path released
fluorescent particles."
They were particles of zinc cadmium sulfide. This
compound, sprayed in the Copper Head test, was thought to be safe, but
the military later stopped outdoor spraying after an army researcher
warned it was "highly toxic."
"I remember an airplane flying over and I could see it
sprayed something and then a little later I felt this mist on my
face," says George Arnold who was on the deck of the Navarro during
Autumn Gold.
Arnold wonders why didn't the military spray empty
ships? Why were men on board? He thinks he has the answer.
"They were doing that just to see how much they could
get stuff absorbed into our body, probably in the amount it would take
to kill us if they were to use something like anthrax," says Arnold.
Most of the test reports remain classified but in
documents obtained by CBS News, sailors on the "target ships" are
called "test subjects." Only eight men wore gas masks. They were the
"control group" in this experiment. Other crewmen including Arnold
were ordered to give throat swabs or gargle
samples.
"They would call back from the bridge and tell us to
take out a specific bottle and use it as a mouthwash or a gargle then
spit it back into the jar and seal it up," says Arnold.
In a written statement the Pentagon tells CBS News the
sailors "were not exposed to any harmful chemical and biological
compound" and they all "were fully informed about the details of each
test." That's news to the dozens of sailors we spoke with.
"We weren't given any information, we didn't know
anything," says Bates.
If, as these men tell CBS News, they were not informed
and never gave their consent, then it doesn't matter that the military
thought the materials were harmless. The tests violated government
policies in place for the last 50 years which state: "The voluntary
consent of the human subject is
absolutely essential."
"I don't think when a person joins the armed forces
they're giving their body up for science. I don't think that's suppose
to be done. I'm very, very mad about them doing this. Its not right,"
says Bates.
"I think you're in there to serve your country do what
needs to be done to protect it, and I don't think being used as a
guinea pig..." says Arnold, "is one of those jobs."
Thirty-five years later much about the tests remains
classified. More is known about the substances used.
Watch Tuesday when the CBS Evening News takes a closer
look at exactly what was sprayed on hundreds of U.S. sailors during
operations Copper Head and Autumn Gold.
Operation Autumn Gold
USS Carpenter DD 825
USS Hoel DDG 13
USS Tioga County LST 1158
*Lab Ship:USS Granville S. Hall YAG 40
USS Power DD 839