Formerly "Secret" Report from the military's center for bio, chemical, and radiological warfare

Acrobat document, part one
(PDF format | 80 pages | 7.8 meg)

Acrobat document, part two
(PDF format | 80 pages | 8 meg)

Acrobat document, part three
(PDF format | 70 pages | 8 meg)

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Report was issued as one document, but has been divided
by The Memory Hole to keep the file size smaller.

>>> Issued November 1956 by the Historical Office, within the Office Chief Chemical Officer, US Army Chemical Corps. Originally "Secret" with "Restricted Data (Atomic Energy Act 1954)"; all but restricted/secret data was downgraded to unclassified on 8 Jan 1990; secret/restricted data was declassified on 24 August 1995. Completely unredacted. Obtained and kindly given to The Memory Hole by Susan L. Maret, PhD.

Pages 79-80, 115-6 discuss the Chemical Corps Intelligence Agency (CCIA).

Pages 81-2: "(S) The concept of TRAC - Thermal Radiation, Attenuating Cloud, involved the use of a blanket of smoke from mechanical generators to protect an area from the thermal effects of the atomic bomb. This smoke, made up of myriads of tiny oil droplets, would disperse and absorb the heat from a bomb in the same manner as droplets of water in a cloud scatter the heat rays of the sun."

Page 86: "(S) The Chemical Corps' major field test during FY 1956 consisted of exercises at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, to determine the adequacy of the 4.5-inch rocket battalion as a conveyor of crash concentrations of chemical agents."

Pages 88-9: "[T]he Corps aided CONARC [Continental Army Command] in contingency plans for the employment of an airborne division and an airborne corps in the Middle East."

Page 94: "(S) As of 30 June 1956, the Chemical Corps had a total of fifty-seven active units.... The officers and men in these 57 units numbered 4,763."

Pages 117-25 contain organizational charts.

Page 127: "(C) The research and development program included 41 projects and 135 subprojects in chemical warfare, 1 project and 4 subprojects in radiological warfare, and 25 projects in biological warfare. The funds obligated for research and development as of 30 June 1956 totaled $41,953,000 (44 percent of the Corps' actual obligations)..."

Page 128-9: "In the closing months of the previous year, the Corps established a new subproject, 4-08-03-016-05, Psychochemical Agents, in an effort to uncover compounds that would cause temporary mental and/or motor incapacitation of enemy soldiers or civilians."

Page 130: "(S) During FY 1956 a number of new compounds of the V-agent type were prepared and screened for toxicity."

Page 138: "(S) At Fort Detrick the screening and evaluation of bacteria, fungi, viruses, and rickettsiae produced additional information on C. immitis, M. mallei, M. pseudomallei, Myco. Tuberculosis, R. rickettsiae, Japanese B encephalitis, and variola. Genetic research led to the detection and isolation of a salt-resistant strain of Brucella suis which had much greater aerosol stability than the parent type. The virulence and stability of Pasteurella pestis was increased. Research was started to apply large scale tissue culture as a technique in the production of viruses and rickettsiae."

Page 140: "Cereal rusts received the greatest emphasis among anticrop agents, particularly in regard to dissemination and spread."

Page 140: "In tests at Dugway Proving Ground thirty volunteers were exposed to an aerosol containing Coxiella burnetii, the cause of Q fever."

Appendix E (pages 52-70 of the third PDF file) is a long list of names of the key players of the Chem Corps, from the Chief Chemical Officer to the executive director of the Advisory Council to the commanding officer of the biowarfare lab to the ROTC instructors who taught CBR warfare.

Other substances mentioned: VX, GB, GA

Some weapons mentioned: radiological weapons, one-shot flame throwers, amphibious BW aerosol generator, 1/2-pound biological bomb, biological bomb for balloon delivery, BW mine, M116A1 fire bomb

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