They Knew: Project SHAD
They Knew: Project SHAD
The government tested chemical and biological weapons on its own ships, with its own sailors aboard, to learn how vulnerable those ships were. The program ran from 1962 to 1973 under the Defense Department's Deseret Test Center: Project 112 on land, and its shipboard arm, Project SHAD — Shipboard Hazard and Defense. Approximately 6,000 U.S. servicemembers were involved, and they took part, in the Institute of Medicine's description, "often unknowingly." Virtually every aspect of the tests was classified Secret or Top Secret. The men could not know, so the men could not claim. Disclosure took until 2000–2002. Health care came in 2003. A presumption has never come at all.
The timeline
1962–1973 — The tests. The Deseret Test Center (Fort Douglas, Utah) plans and conducts a series of biological and chemical warfare vulnerability tests — Project 112, land-based and sea-based, and Project SHAD at sea — to identify U.S. warships’ vulnerability to chemical and biological attack. Approximately 6,000 U.S. servicemembers are involved by VA’s count; the National Academies put SHAD participants at approximately 5,900, primarily Navy and Marine Corps. (VA, About Project 112 and Project SHAD; National Academies, Assessing Health Outcomes Among Veterans of Project SHAD, 2016)
The agents. The tests used live biological agents — Coxiella burnetii (Q fever), Francisella tularensis (tularemia), and Staphylococcal Enterotoxin B — and the nerve agents sarin and VX (VA’s list adds tabun and soman), plus simulants (Bacillus globigii, E. coli, Serratia marcescens), tracers including zinc cadmium sulfide, and the decontaminant betapropiolactone. Participants took part “often unknowingly.” (National Academies, 2016; IOM, Long-Term Health Effects of Participation in Project SHAD, 2007)
The secrecy. “At the time they were conducted, virtually all aspects of the Project 112/SHAD tests were assigned a security classification of Secret or Top Secret.” (National Academies, 2016)
1990s — The veterans press. SHAD veterans begin pressing VA about health problems they believe came from the tests. Congress and VA request information from DoD to clarify what substances were used and when the tests took place. (National Academies, 2016)
2000 — Declassification begins, at VA’s request. “At VA’s request in 2000, the DOD began declassifying and sharing information with VA” about possible exposures during the tests and the people involved. VA begins sending letters to identified participants — nearly three decades after the last test. (VA, About Project 112 and Project SHAD)
2002 — The fact sheets. DoD publicly releases fact sheets that describe each test, identify the participating military units, and name the agents, simulants, decontaminants and tracers used; some are revised in 2003. The same year, VA asks the Institute of Medicine to carry out an epidemiological study of SHAD veterans. (National Academies, 2016)
2007 — SHAD I. The IOM’s first study — VA-funded, with responses from about 61 percent of participants and 47 percent of controls — finds no difference in all-cause mortality between participants and controls, although participants had a significantly higher risk of death due to heart disease. The Academies’ later summary of SHAD I: its results “did not show clear relationships between participation in the SHAD tests and adverse long-term health effects.” Both halves of that finding are printed here, because this series prints the record, not the half of it that argues. (IOM, 2007; National Academies, 2016)
2016 — SHAD II. The follow-up study, carried out under the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2010 (Pub. L. 111-163), agrees there is no overall difference in all-cause mortality and finds “no clear differences in degree of illness” between participants and the comparison group. The heart-disease mortality elevation seen in SHAD I does not recur — except in one exposure subgroup. (National Academies, 2016)
The concession — care and disclosure; no presumption, ever
December 6, 2003. The Veterans Health Care, Capital Asset, and Business Improvement Act of 2003 (Pub. L. 108-170) makes Project 112/SHAD participants eligible for enrollment in VA health care priority category 6 — no-cost VA health care “for any illness possibly related to their participation in that project,” notwithstanding insufficient medical evidence to conclude their conditions are attributable to the testing. VHA Directive 2004-016 (April 15, 2004) implements the law with a thorough clinical evaluation and enhanced enrollment access.
The limit, in VA’s own words. “VA does not presume by regulation that any specific disabilities are related to participation in Project 112/SHAD. Veterans’ claims are decided on a case-by-case basis.” Acknowledgment, disclosure and health care — yes. A presumption — never. (VA, Benefits Related to Project 112/SHAD)
What this timeline is — and what it is not
The discipline of this series, stated plainly: this timeline destroys the “nobody knew” excuse. It does not, by itself, prove any one man’s claim — and the two IOM studies are printed above in full, including what they did not find. What this timeline settles is narrower, and it is enough: the tests happened, on American ships with American crews; the men were often not told; the records were classified for three decades; and when the government finally conceded anything, it conceded care and paperwork — reserving to itself, permanently, the right to make each of the 5,900 prove his case alone.
Were you aboard for a SHAD test — or did the letter find you decades later? Tell Your Story.