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- (CBS) 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.
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- When Robert Bates and the other crewmen on the USS Navarro
were ordered to Hawaii in 1963 it seemed like a vacation.
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- "It was basically an R&R cruise," says
Bates.
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- There was rest, relaxation and a mystery.
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- "There were people with chemical suits on the ship
with some kind of apparatus apparently monitoring what was going on,"
explained Bates.
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- "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."
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- 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.
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- Target Ships
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- Operation Autumn Gold USS Navarro APA 215 USS Carpenter
DD 825 USS Hoel DDG 13 USS Tioga County LST
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- 158*Lab Ship: USS Granville S. Hall YAG 40
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- Operation Copper Head USS Power DD 839
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- The Hawaii mission was code-named Autumn Gold. A similar
operation off Newfoundland was called Copper Head.
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- According to a Pentagon briefing film obtained by CBS
News, the goal was to test the vulnerability of Navy ships to germ warfare
attack.
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- Nine times within a month jets sprayed clouds of a biological
weapons simulant in front of the ships.
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- According to the film, "A biological tracer, BG,
was disseminated by a 4-C jet aircraft."
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- BG, a bacteria considered harmless by the military, is
used to simulate the deadly anthrax germ.
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- The briefing film explains, "Immediately following
the BG release another plane flying the identical flight path released
fluorescent particles."
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- 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."
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- "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.
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- Arnold wonders why didn't the military spray empty ships?
Why were men on board? He thinks he has the answer.
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- "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.
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- 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.
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- "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.
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- 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.
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- "We weren't given any information, we didn't know
anything," says Bates.
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- 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."
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- "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.
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- "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."
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- Thirty-five years later much about the tests remains
classified. More is known about the substances used.
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- 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.
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