November 24, 2004
Night after night, the jets growled overhead and sprayed clouds of dangerous germs and chemicals over the five U.S. tugboats drifting silently in the dark.
Each time, John Olsen hunkered inside tugboat No. 2085 and waited for the mist to settle.
He and the others then gathered air samples inside the boat and handed them over to the scientists who seemed out of place on a pitching tugboat more than 800 miles southwest of Hawaii.
In the morning, the sailors scrubbed the ship with powerful cleaning agents in preparation for the next airplane visit.
The tests, dubbed Shady Grove, were conducted between January and April of 1965 as part of a larger, top secret government program to try out chemical and biological weapons.
Olsen is sure that some of the germs leaked into the tugboats and is fairly convinced there's a connection between Shady Grove and his health problems years later.
But back then, they assumed they were safe.
"We were just doing what we were supposed to do," said Olsen, 65, who lives in Billings. "I trusted them."
Now, 40 years later, those who took part in the tests are pressing the federal government to account for the harm the tests may have caused.
Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., is one of two congressmen calling for an independent investigation and a commission to look into Project 112, a Department of Defense program that ran from 1962 to 1974 and included Project Shad, of which Shady Grove was a part.
The project remained a secret until recently, when veterans of the tests complained about being left in the dark about details of the tests, medical benefits and health issues. For years, veterans were simply told that Project 112 never existed.
"They served their country. They deserve better than that," Rehberg said.
The Department of Defense has identified more than 5,800 people who may have been exposed to agents such as nerve gas, sarin and E. coli.
There are probably more who have never been identified. One veterans' group representative says the number may be closer to 18,000.
Olsen said he doesn't regret participating in the weapons tests - they were a necessary part of building the U.S. military, he said - but can't understand why the government never followed up with the thousands of people who were exposed to toxic agents.
"We did our part," Olsen said. "We just want the government to own up to its part."
* * *
Olsen grew up in Vida, tried college but couldn't afford the tuition and joined the Navy in 1961, hoping to be trained as an electrical technician.
After training, he boarded a destroyer and operated radar on a ship near Cuba during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. He was later transferred to Southern California and eventually called up to the Presidio.
He had been chosen for a special project, he was told. It was called Project Shad, short for Shipboard Hazards and Defense, and required the military's best.
"It was good for the ego, I tell you," he said.
Three days later, he was flown to Pearl Harbor, picked up by a driver and taken to a warehouse. There everyone agreed to keep the mission secret and the sailors began learning about fighting fires, working with hazardous materials and how to use rubber suits and gas masks.
"They said, 'You're going to need to know this and you won't know why until you get out there,'" Olsen recalled.
It was nothing like a normal military assignment.
The men dressed in civilian clothes, had a pier to themselves and, if they went to town, were tailed by two agents "to see who we were talking to and to protect us," Olsen said, "in that order."
They also received several shots, which Olsen said never showed up on their official military medical records.
In early January, the sailors boarded five Army tugboats - not designed for use on the open ocean - and motored toward Johnston Atoll, a remote dot of land once used as a base for nuclear tests.
The 107-foot tugs were joined by the USS Granville Hall, a research vessel named after an 1878 Harvard graduate known as a pioneer in the study of psychology.
The crews spent a few days tied up at Johnston Atoll and then went out to sea.
Olsen said he remembers vividly the Marine Skyhawk fighter jets that roared overhead and rained chemical and biological agents on the dimly lit tugs. The sailors diligently collected air samples that were eventually turned over to the Granville Hall.
After each test, the tugs were scrubbed with chlorine and beta propiolactone, a germ-killing cleaning agent that is suspect to cause cancer.
The tugs went out six days at a time and docked at Johnston Atoll for three.
Near the end of the testing program, monkeys were exposed to the cloud of pathogens, according to one account.
The government later revealed that it used three agents in the Shady Grove tests: one that simulated anthrax; one that causes Q fever, which can cause severe flu-like symptoms along with heart and liver problems; and another linked to tularemia, an infectious disease typically seen among birds and mammals.
Olsen left the Navy shortly after Shady Grove ended. He was told never to talk about the tests and never to leave the country, and was warned that there would be serious consequences for not complying.
"They said, 'We've got a back room at Leavenworth for you,' " Olsen said.
He kept the secret for as long as he could.
* * *
After the Navy, Olsen worked in the construction industry as a purchaser and safety specialist.
In 1978, Olsen said, his blood pressure started going up. Other health problems emerged, including what Olsen described as a "spasm of the heart muscle," an adrenal gland tumor, skin cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
When he attended a reunion with his fellow sailors in San Diego in 2001, he saw others with similar problems.
"Everybody there had something going on," Olsen said.
He said those involved in the tests seemed about five times more likely to die from cardiovascular problems, heart attacks and strokes. So far, though, no one has made the direct connection between the health problems and the tests off Johnston Atoll.
"They have no records and we couldn't prove it," he said. "And we still can't."
Jack Alderson, who was the officer in charge of the tugs during Shady Grove, said three of the five skippers of the tugs have died, along with a majority of the sailors.
"We've lost an awful lot of our people," said Alderson, who lives in Ferndale, Calif., and is chairman of the Project 112/Shad task force for Vietnam Veterans of America. "I'm 72 and we do wear out but I've had my share of cancers and others have, too."
* * *
In 2000, after veterans and members of Congress raised questions about the project, and asked whether the government would provide medical benefits, the Department of Defense tried to identify and find those involved with Project 112.
They came up with 5,842 names of service members who may have been exposed to chemical or biological agents. A General Accounting Office report last year said there are likely other civilians and members of the military who don't know they were test subjects.
For those who have been identified, the National Academies' Institute of Medicine is conducting a $3 million study on the health effects of Project Shad. It's expected to be completed in the fall of 2006.
Meanwhile, Rehberg and Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., have introduced the Veterans Right to Know Act, which would create a commission to investigate chemical and biological testing on members of the military.
The two congressmen are hoping the act will help clear the way for veterans to get the medical benefits and the recognition they deserve.
"It's not about trying to embarrass the government," Rehberg said. "It's about trying to help the people that were injured."
Olsen said he's not looking for the federal government to declassify all of its Project 112 documents. He believes that some things should be kept secret in the interest of national security.
But those records that deal directly with health problems and could help veterans get better care should be released, he said.
Alderson said many Project 112 veterans never lived long enough to get their due. For those who remain, the extra effort is warranted, he said.
"Most of them are very proud of what they did, they'd just like to have it acknowledged," Alderson said. "Somebody had to do [weapons testing] because the Russians were doing it, we knew they were and we had to catch up, so we did our job."
