Military experiments are hardly new information but as most are covered up, many of us don’t even realize that they have taken place. Throughout history, military forces have built up a reputation of secrecy and much of what we know now is learned only in the years after the events. These military experiments were some of the most hushed up throughout history, only gaining notoriety in their aftermath. Kept under wraps for so many years, they put the human form under a huge amount of scrutiny, using unwitting participants to put their experiments to the test.
- Operation LAC
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The prospect of chemical weapons has been a point of concern for many throughout the 20th century. For the American military, it was too dangerous a potential to overlook and between the years of 1950 and 1960, they carried out a number of experiments to test the effects. Starting in South Dakota, the military sent fleets of airplanes into the skies, ordering them to spray zinc cadmium sulfide on the fields below. At the time, the chemical was considered safe to use and was employed in the mass drops due to its fluorescent coloring. In later years, however, research uncovered facts to suggest that the experiments weren’t as safe as they appeared to be. Links were discovered between chronic lung disease and areas where the chemical was at its highest. Many believe people developed the disease as a result of the drops, which contained huge quantities of the stuff.
- Operation Big Buzz
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Collecting data on the activity and effects of mosquitoes in Georgia, the Army Chemical Corps released 300,000 of the insects into a local community in 1956. Using the local inhabitants as their guinea pigs, they studied the effects of bites in the area, gathering information on the potential of bug-based bombs. While there was no conclusive evidence to support this form of weaponry, the military did discover that the number of stillborn births and fevers increased dramatically in the direct area.
- Project Chatter
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While there is still a lot of information that remains under wraps on Project Chatter, key details have come to light in recent years. Conducted in Maryland between the years of 1947 and 1953, the experiment attempted to improve interrogation techniques by using hallucinogenic drugs. Over the course of the years, a number of human and animal participants were subjected to bouts of mescaline and LSD purportedly helping the military to stumble across the perfect truth serum. While the theory was that the drugged participants would give up their information willingly, the experiment was deemed a failure and hidden from public view.
- Operation Sea-Spray
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During the 1950s and ‘60s, San Francisco was put under a number of mock attacks by the American military. The city served as a guinea pig for a slew of military experiments, helping the industry to gain crucial insight into emerging warheads. One of the most damaging trials involved the Navy spraying the city and port with huge amounts of Serratia marcescens and Bacillus globigii bacteria. Many more chemicals also wafted into the city from the sea, after professionals tested the movements of the mixtures throughout the area. Nearly 1 million people inhaled the bacteria, proving the damaging effects of a potential chemical drop.