User:IvoShandor/sandbox/sandbox6

• This is simply a workpage/sandbox for chemical-biological weapons work.

Articles to be created

General

• United States chemical weapons program: [1], [2]

• History: -World War I, -Interwar period, -World War II, -Post War,
• Agents and weapons: VX - [3]
• Binary weapons program

• Camp Detrick Special Operations tests: NY subway, greyhound terminal
• Baker Lab: laboratory at Granite Peak
• Padeye bomb

Agents

• Methyl chlorosulfonate: [4], [5],
• Bromomethyl ethyl ketone: [6], [7]
• Ethyl iodoacetate: (SK) - [8], [9], [10]
• Diphenylcyanoarsine:

Articles in desperate need of help

• Edgewood Arsenal experiments
• United States biological weapons program

New article

History

Early history

The use of chemical weapons in an offensive context by the United States military did not actually begin until World War I but discussion of the topic dates back to the American Civil War. A letter to the War Department dated April 5, 1862 from New York City resident John Doughty proposed the use of chlorine shells to drive the Confederate Army from its positions. Doughty included a detailed drawing of the shell with his letter. It is unknown how the military reacted to Doughty's proposal but the letter was unnoticed in a pile of old official documents until modern times. Another American, Forrest Shepherd of New Haven, also proposed a chemical weapon attack against the Confederates. Shepherd's proposal involved hydrogen chloride, an attack that would have likely been non-lethal but may have succeeded in driving soldiers from their positions. Shepherd was a well-known geologist at the time and his proposal was in the form of a letter directly to the White House.

World War I

The United States War Department's first interest in providing individual soldiers with personal protection against chemical warfare came in 1915 and they tasked the Medical Department with developing the technology. Despite this early interest, troops were neither supplied with masks nor trained for offensive gas warfare until the U.S. became involved in World War I in 1917. By 1917 use of chemical weapons by both the Allied and Central Powers had become commonplace along the Western, Eastern and Italian Fronts, occurring daily in some regions. In 1917, Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane, directed the Bureau of Mines to assist the Army and Navy in creating a gas war program. After the Director of the Bureau of Mines formally offered the bureau's service to the Military Committee of the National Research Council, the council appointed a subcommittee on noxious gases.

1st Gas Regiment

On July 5, 1917 General John J. Pershing oversaw the creation of a Gas Service Section. The predecessor to the 1st Gas Regiment was the 30 Engineer Regiment (Gas and Flame). The 30th was activated on August 15, 1917 at Camp American University, Washington, D.C. An October 17, 1917 memorandum from the Adjutant General to the Chief of Engineers directed the Gas Service Section consist of four majors, six captains, 10 first lieutenants and 15 second lieutenants. Additional War Department orders established a Chemical Service Section that included 47 commissioned officers and 95 enlisted personnel.

Before deploying to France in 1917 many of the soldiers in the 30th Engineer Regiment (Gas and Flame) spent their time stateside in training, training that did not emphasize any chemical warfare skills. Much of the training stateside for the members of the army's only chemical unit focused on drill, marching, guard duty, and inspections. Despite the conventional training, the public perceived the 30th as dealing mainly with "poisonous gas and hell fire". By the time those in the 30th Engineers arrived in France most of them knew nothing of chemical warfare and had no specialized equipment.

The 30th Engineer Regiment (Gas and Flame) was redesignated the First Gas Regiment in 1918 and deployed to assist and support Army gas operations, both offensive and defensive. The Chemical Warfare Service (CWS), the predecessor to the Chemical Corps, was officially formed on June 28, 1918 and encompassed the Gas Service and Chemical Service Sections. By November 1, 1918 the CWS included 1,654 commissioned officers and 18,027 enlisted personnel. Major General William L. Sibert was appointed as the first director of the CWS on the day it was created. He served in that post until he resigned in April 1920.

Interwar period

In the interwar period, the Chemical Warfare Service maintained its arsenal despite public pressure and presidential wishes in favor of disarmament. Major General Amos Fries, the CWS chief from 1920–29, viewed chemical disarmament as a Communist plot. Through his leadership, the CWS and its various Congressional, chemist, and chemical company allies were able to halt the U.S. Senate's ratification of the 1925 Geneva Protocol. Of significance, even those countries who had signed the Geneva Protocol still produced and stockpiled chemical weapons, since the Protocol only forbid "first use" of chemical weapons - not retaliation in kind.