A U.S. Army project that ended over 25 years ago is once again the subject of scrutiny. Project Whitecoat was the Army's code name for a series of germ warfare studies conducted on about 2,300 Seventh-day Adventist servicemen from 1954 to 1973. Now the Army is investigating the long-term effects the project may have had on participants. Whitecoat veterans gathered recently for a reunion in Frederick, Maryland. Most are proud of the role they played in the nation's defense and report little or no adverse impact on their health, according to recent stories by the Associated Press[1] and National Public Radio[2]. While there may be few who support the use of human guinea pigs in biowarfare research, there are larger issues that are once again emerging from Project Whitecoat. They center around the role the Seventh-day Adventist Church played in the U.S. Army's development of chemical and biological weapons (CBW) of mass destruction.
Under strict secrecy, the U.S. Army established Camp Detrick outside of Frederick, Maryland during World War II for the sole purpose of developing germ weapons. The program was controlled by the Army's Chemical Warfare Service, a branch that had worked with gas weapons that were used by the U.S. in World War I. The Army began to study both the offensive and defensive aspects of biowarfare.
In 1952 the Army Medical Corps stationed a medical unit at Fort Detrick and in 1954 this unit began using Seventh-day Adventist soldiers in its research, presumably in the defensive aspects of germ warfare. In 1956 the medical unit was reorganized into a permanent and independent unit named the United States Army Medical Unit, Fort Detrick. In 1969 the name was changed again to the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID). Fort Detrick was home to what became known as "Project Whitecoat," the code name for the group of Seventh-day Adventist soldiers who were used as human guinea pigs in biowarfare research.
http://www.thewinds.org/1998/11/project_whitecoat.html
Under strict secrecy, the U.S. Army established Camp Detrick outside of Frederick, Maryland during World War II for the sole purpose of developing germ weapons. The program was controlled by the Army's Chemical Warfare Service, a branch that had worked with gas weapons that were used by the U.S. in World War I. The Army began to study both the offensive and defensive aspects of biowarfare.
In 1952 the Army Medical Corps stationed a medical unit at Fort Detrick and in 1954 this unit began using Seventh-day Adventist soldiers in its research, presumably in the defensive aspects of germ warfare. In 1956 the medical unit was reorganized into a permanent and independent unit named the United States Army Medical Unit, Fort Detrick. In 1969 the name was changed again to the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID). Fort Detrick was home to what became known as "Project Whitecoat," the code name for the group of Seventh-day Adventist soldiers who were used as human guinea pigs in biowarfare research.
http://www.thewinds.org/1998/11/project_whitecoat.html
