Editing Fort Detrick (section)

===Camp Detrick (1943–56)===
On 9 March 1943, the government purchased {{convert|154|acre|ha}} encompassing the original {{convert|92|acre|ha}} and re-christened the facility "Camp Detrick".<ref>{{Cite web
|url=http://www.detrick.army.mil/cutting_edge/chapter03.cfm
|title=Cutting Edge, The History of Fort Detrick, Chapter 3 Building an Installation
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131005110001/http://www.detrick.army.mil/cutting_edge/chapter03.cfm
|archive-date=2013-10-05
|quote=In 1943, the government purchased 154 acres encompassing the original 90 acres and established Camp Detrick, perpetuating the name, Detrick Field.
}}</ref> The same year saw the establishment of the [[U.S. Army Biological Warfare Laboratories]] (USBWL), responsible for pioneering research into [[biocontainment]], [[decontamination]], [[Sterilization (microbiology)#Chemical sterilization|gaseous sterilization]], and [[chemical agent|agent purification]]. The first commander, [[Lieutenant colonel (United States)|Lt. Col.]] [[William S. Bacon]], and his successor, [[Colonel (United States)|Col.]] [[Martin B. Chittick]], oversaw the initial $1.25 million renovation and construction of the base.<ref>{{Cite web
|url=http://www.detrick.army.mil/cutting_edge/chapter04.cfm
|title=Cutting Edge, The History of Fort Detrick, Chapter 4 Birth of Science
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140404072115/http://www.detrick.army.mil/cutting_edge/chapter04.cfm
|archive-date=2014-04-04
|quote=Lieutenant Colonel William S. Bacon, the first commander, and his successor, Colonel Martin B. Chittick, oversaw the renovation and construction first estimated to cost $1.25 million.
}}</ref>

====World War II and BW research (1943–45)====
{{main|United States biological weapons program}}
During World War II, Camp Detrick and the USBWL became the site of intensive [[biological warfare]] (BW) research using various [[pathogens]]. This research was originally overseen by pharmaceuticals executive [[George W. Merck]] and for many years was conducted by [[Ira Baldwin|Ira L. Baldwin]], professor of bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin. Baldwin became the first scientific director of the labs. He chose Detrick Field for the site of this exhaustive research effort because of its balance between remoteness of location and proximity to Washington, D.C. – as well as to [[Edgewood Arsenal]], the focal point of U.S. chemical warfare research. Buildings and other facilities left from the old airfield – including the large hangar – provided the nucleus of support needed for the startup. The {{convert|92|acre|ha}} of Detrick Field were also surrounded by extensive farmlands that could be procured if and when the BW effort was expanded.<ref>Covert, Norman M. (2000), [http://www.detrick.army.mil/cutting_edge/index.cfm?chapter=contents "A History of Fort Detrick, Maryland", 4th Edition: 2000.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120121062629/http://www.detrick.army.mil/cutting_edge/index.cfm?chapter=contents |date=2012-01-21 }}</ref>

The Army's [[Chemical Corps|Chemical Warfare Service]] was given responsibility and oversight for the effort that one officer described as "cloaked in the deepest wartime secrecy, matched only by … the [[Manhattan Project]] for developing the Atomic Bomb".<ref>Clendenin, Lt. Col. Richard M. (1968), ''Science and Technology at Fort Detrick, 1943–1968''; [[Technical Information Division]]</ref> Three months after the start of construction, an additional $3 million was provided for five additional laboratories and a pilot plant. Lt. Col. Bacon was authorized 85 officers, 373 enlisted personnel, and 80 enlisted [[Women's Army Corps (United States Army)|Women's Army Auxiliary Corps]] (WAAC) members under two WAAC officers. At its peak strength in 1945, Camp Detrick had 240 officers and 1,530 enlisted personnel including WACs.<ref>Covert (2000), ''Op. cit.''</ref>

After the defeat of Japan, the researchers working at [[Unit 731]] were given immunity from prosecution. In return, director [[Shirō Ishii]] provided "8,000 slides of tissue from human and animal dissections" from the experiments, which were reportedly stored at Fort Detrick.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Dahl |first=Tracy |date=1983-05-26 |title=Japan's Germ Warriors |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1983/05/26/japans-germ-warriors/a0149d21-ba27-460e-a807-d3db942ba507/ |access-date=2022-05-15 |issn=0190-8286}}</ref>

====Post-war years (1946–55)====
The elaborate security precautions taken at Camp Detrick were so effective that it was not until January 1946, four months after [[VJ Day]] that the public learned of the war-time research in biological weapons.<ref>Clendenin (1968), ''Op. Cit.''</ref>

In 1952, the Army purchased over {{convert|500|acre|ha}} more of land located between West 7th Street and Oppossumtown Pike to expand the permanent research and development facilities.

Two workers at the base died from exposure to anthrax in the 1950s. Another died in 1964 from [[viral encephalitis]].<ref name="washingtonpost.com">Davis, Aaron, Michael E. Ruane and Nelson Hernandez, "[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/01/AR2008080101616.html Lab And Community Make For Uneasy Neighbors]", ''[[Washington Post]]'', August 2, 2008, Pg. 10.</ref>

There was a building on the base, [[Building 470]], locally referred to as "[[Anthrax]] Tower". Building 470 was a pilot plant for testing optimal fermentor and bacterial purification technologies. The information gained in this pilot plant shaped the fermentor technology that was ultimately used by the pharmaceutical industry to revolutionize the production of antibiotics and other drugs. Building 470 was torn down in 2003 without any adverse effects on the demolition workers or the environment. The facility acquired the nickname "Fort Doom" while offensive biological warfare research was undertaken there. 5,000 bombs containing anthrax spores were produced at the base during World War II.<ref name="washingtonpost.com"/>

From 1945 to 1955 under [[Project Paperclip]] and its successors, the U.S. government recruited over 1,600 [[German people|German]] and [[Austrian people|Austrian]] scientists and engineers in a variety of fields such as aircraft design, missile technology and biological warfare. Among the specialists in the latter field who ended up working in the U.S. were [[Walter Schreiber]], [[Erich Traub]] and [[Kurt Blome]], who had been involved with medical experiments on concentration camp inmates to test biological warfare agents. Since Britain, France and the Soviet Union were also engaged in recruiting these scientists, the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA) wished to deny their services to other powers, and therefore altered or concealed the records of their Nazi past and involvement in war crimes.<ref>Peter Knight, Conspiracy Theories in American History: An Encyclopedia, Volume One. ABC-CLIO, 2003.</ref>

====Testing performed on Seventh-day Adventists (1940–1974)====
The U.S. General Accounting Office issued a report on September 28, 1994, which stated that between 1940 and 1974, DOD and other national security agencies studied hundreds of thousands of human subjects in tests and experiments involving hazardous substances.

The quote from the study:

<blockquote>Many experiments that tested various biological agents on human subjects, referred to as [[Operation Whitecoat]], were carried out at Fort Detrick, Maryland, in the 1950s. The human subjects originally consisted of volunteer enlisted men. However, after the enlisted men staged a [[sitdown strike]] to obtain more information about the dangers of the biological tests, [[Seventh-day Adventist Church|Seventh-day Adventists]] (SDAs) who were [[conscientious objector]]s were recruited for the studies.<ref>Staff Report prepared for the committee on veterans' affairs December 8, 1994 John D. Rockefeller IV, West Virginia, Chairman at [http://www.gulfweb.org/bigdoc/rockrep.cfm gulfweb.org] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060813164326/http://gulfweb.org/bigdoc/rockrep.cfm |date=2006-08-13 }}</ref></blockquote>

The Army purchased an additional {{convert|147|acre|ha}} in 1946 to increase the size of the original "Area A" as well as {{convert|398|acre|ha}} located west of Area A, but not contiguous to it, to provide a test area known as Area B.<ref>{{Cite web
|url=http://www.detrick.army.mil/cutting_edge/chapter03.cfm
|title=Cutting Edge, The History of Fort Detrick, Chapter 3 Building an Installation
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131005110001/http://www.detrick.army.mil/cutting_edge/chapter03.cfm
|archive-date=2013-10-05
|quote=In September 1946, an additional 147 acres were purchased to increase the size of the original Area A location. At the same time 398 acres located west of Area A, but not contiguous to this area, were purchased to provide a test area. This parcel was located west of Rosemont Avenue, then Yellow Springs Pike, bordering Montevue Lane on the south, near the old Alms House, north by Kemp Lane and Rocky Springs Road and the Krantz family property along today's Shookstown Road. It was named Area B.
}}</ref> In 1952, another {{convert|502.76|acre|ha|1}} were purchased between West 7th Street and Oppossumtown Pike to expand the permanent research and development facilities.<ref>{{Cite web
|url=http://www.detrick.army.mil/cutting_edge/chapter03.cfm
|title=Cutting Edge, The History of Fort Detrick, Chapter 3 Building an Installation
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131005110001/http://www.detrick.army.mil/cutting_edge/chapter03.cfm
|archive-date=2013-10-05
|quote=In 1952, the Army purchased 502.76 acres of land located between West 7th Street and Opossumtown Pike to expand the permanent research and development facilities.
}}</ref>

Jeffrey Alan Lockwood wrote in 2009 that the biological warfare program at Ft. Detrick began to research the use of insects as disease vectors going back to World War II and also employed German and [[Japanese people|Japanese]] scientists after the war who had experimented on human subjects among POWs and concentration camp inmates. Scientists used or attempted to use a wide variety of insects in their biowar plans, including fleas, ticks, ants, lice and mosquitoes – especially mosquitoes that carried the [[yellow fever]] virus. They also tested these in the United States. Lockwood thinks that it is very likely that the U.S. did use insects dropped from aircraft during the Korean War to spread diseases, and that the [[People's Republic of China|Chinese]] and [[North Korea]]ns were not simply engaged in a [[propaganda]] campaign when they made these allegations, since the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of Defense had approved their use in the fall of 1950 at the "earliest practicable time".  At that time, it had five biowarfare agents ready for use, three of which were spread by insect vectors.<ref>Jeffrey Alan Lockwood, Six Legged Soldiers: Using Insects as Weapons of War. Oxford, 2009.</ref>