Fort Detrick () is a
United States Army Futures Command
The United States Army Futures Command (AFC) is a United States Army command, designed as a public-private initiative, that runs modernization projects for the Army. It is headquartered in Austin, Texas, and was first commanded by General John M ...
installation located in
Frederick, Maryland
Frederick is a city in and the county seat of Frederick County, Maryland. It is part of the Baltimore–Washington Metropolitan Area. Frederick has long been an important crossroads, located at the intersection of a major north–south Native ...
. Historically, Fort Detrick was the center of the
U.S. biological weapons program from 1943 to 1969. Since the discontinuation of that program, it has hosted most elements of the
United States biological defense program The United States biological defense program—in recent years also called the National Biodefense Strategy—refers to the collective effort by all levels of government, along with private enterprise and other stakeholders, in the United States to ...
.
As of the early 2010s, Fort Detrick's campus supports a multi-governmental community that conducts biomedical research and development, medical
materiel
Materiel (; ) refers to supplies, equipment, and weapons in military supply-chain management, and typically supplies and equipment in a commercial supply chain context.
In a military context, the term ''materiel'' refers either to the specifi ...
management, global medical communications and the study of foreign plant pathogens. The lab is known to research pathogens such as Ebola and smallpox.
It is home to the
U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC), with its
bio-defense
Biodefense refers to measures to restore biosecurity to a group of organisms who are, or may be, subject to biological threats or infectious diseases. Biodefense is frequently discussed in the context of biowar or bioterrorism, and is generall ...
agency, the
U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases
The United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID; pronounced: you-SAM-rid) is the U.S Army's main institution and facility for defensive research into countermeasures against biological warfare. It is located ...
(USAMRIID). It also hosts the
National Cancer Institute
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) coordinates the United States National Cancer Program and is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ...
-Frederick (NCI-Frederick)
and is home to the
National Interagency Confederation for Biological Research
The National Interagency Confederation for Biological Research (NICBR, pronounced "Nick Burr") is a biotechnology and biodefense partnership and collaborative environment of eight U.S. Federal government agencies at Fort Detrick, Maryland, USA.Publ ...
(NICBR) and
National Interagency Biodefense Campus The National Interagency Biodefense Campus is a facility in Frederick, MD at Fort Detrick. It hosts members of a scientific collaboration, the National Interagency Confederation for Biological Research.
Planning began in 2002, and construction of ...
(NIBC).
In August 2019, its deadly germ research operations were shut down following serious safety violations, in particular relating to the disposal of dangerous materials.
Fort Detrick is the largest employer in
Frederick County, Maryland
Frederick County is located in the northern part of the U.S. state of Maryland. At the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 271,717. The county seat is Frederick.
Frederick County is included in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV ...
.
History
Five farms originally constituted what is today known as "Area A" with , or the main post area of Fort Detrick, where most installation activities are located. "Area B" – known as "The Farm" and consisting of nearly – was purchased in 1946 to provide a test area west of Rosemont Avenue, then called Yellow Springs Pike. In addition, the post's water and waste water treatment plants comprise about on the banks of the
Monocacy River
The Monocacy River () is a free-flowing left tributary to the Potomac River, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean via the Chesapeake Bay. The river is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data ...
.
Detrick Field (1931–43)
Fort Detrick traces its roots to a small municipal airport established at Frederick, Maryland, in 1929. It was operated by a single person and the field was one of a string of
emergency
An emergency is an urgent, unexpected, and usually dangerous situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or environment and requires immediate action. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening ...
airfield
An aerodrome (Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for publ ...
s between
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
, and
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, until 1938. The field was named in honor of squadron
flight surgeon
A flight surgeon is a military medical officer practicing in the clinical field of aviation medicine. Although the term "flight surgery" is considered improper by purists, it may occasionally be encountered.
Flight surgeons are physicians ( MD ...
Major
Frederick L. Detrick who served in France during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and died in June 1931 of a
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...
. The first military presence there was the encampment, on 10 August 1931 (two months after the Major's death), of his unit: the
104th Observation Squadron
The 104th Fighter Squadron (104th FS), nicknamed ''the Fightin' O's'', is a unit of the Maryland Air National Guard 175th Wing stationed at Warfield Air National Guard Base, Middle River, Maryland. The 104th is equipped with the Fairchild Rep ...
of the 29th Division,
Maryland National Guard
The Maryland Military Department (MMD) is a department of the State of Maryland directed by the adjutant general of Maryland.
The Maryland Military Department consists of the:
*State Operations section, which manages fiscal and administrative du ...
. The Squadron flew
de Havilland observation biplanes and
Curtiss JN-4 "Jennies".
A
concrete
Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...
and
tarmac Tarmac may refer to:
Engineered surfaces
* Tarmacadam, a mainly historical tar-based material for macadamising road surfaces, patented in 1902
* Asphalt concrete, a macadamising material using asphalt instead of tar which has largely superseded ta ...
airfield replaced the grass field in 1939, and an upgraded Detrick Field served as a Cadet Pilot Training Center until the country's entry into
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. Detrick Field was formally leased from the City of Frederick in 1940 (having previously been leased from the state for just two weeks per year). The last airplanes departed Detrick Field in December 1941 and January 1942 after the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, ju ...
. All aircraft and pilots in the 104th and the cadet program were reassigned after the Declaration of War to conduct antisubmarine patrols off the Atlantic Coast. The
2nd Bombardment Squadron
The 2d Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment as a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress squadron was with the Strategic Air Command 22d Bombardment Wing stationed at March Air Force Base, California. It wa ...
,
U.S. Army Air Corps
The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical ri ...
was reconstituted at Detrick Field between March and September 1942, when it deployed to England to become the nucleus of the new
Eighth Air Force
The Eighth Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) is a numbered air force (NAF) of the United States Air Force's Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The command serves as Air Force ...
headquarters. Thereafter, the base ceased to be an aviation center. The airfields buildings, runway and tarmac have all disappeared which ran along today's Hamilton Street from Beasley Drive to about Neiman Street.
Camp Detrick (1943–56)
On 9 March 1943, the government purchased encompassing the original and re-christened the facility "Camp Detrick". The same year saw the establishment of the
U.S. Army Biological Warfare Laboratories
The U.S. Army Biological Warfare Laboratories (USBWL) were a suite of research laboratories and pilot plant centers operating at Camp (later Fort) Detrick, Maryland, United States beginning in 1943 under the control of the U.S. Army Chemical Co ...
(USBWL), responsible for pioneering research into
biocontainment
One use of the concept of biocontainment is related to laboratory biosafety and pertains to microbiology laboratories in which the physical containment of pathogenic organisms or agents (bacteria, viruses, and toxins) is required, usually by is ...
,
decontamination
Decontamination (sometimes abbreviated as decon, dcon, or decontam) is the process of removing contaminants on an object or area, including chemicals, micro-organisms or radioactive substances. This may be achieved by chemical reaction, disinfecti ...
,
gaseous sterilization, and
agent purification. The first commander,
Lt. Col.
Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
William S. Bacon, and his successor,
Col.
Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations.
In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...
Martin B. Chittick, oversaw the initial $1.25 million renovation and construction of the base.
World War II and BW research (1943–45)
During World War II, Camp Detrick and the USBWL became the site of intensive
biological warfare
Biological warfare, also known as germ warfare, is the use of biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, insects, and fungi with the intent to kill, harm or incapacitate humans, animals or plants as an act of war. Bio ...
(BW) research using various
pathogens
In biology, a pathogen ( el, πάθος, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of") in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a germ ...
. This research was originally overseen by pharmaceuticals executive
George W. Merck
George Wilhelm Herman Emanuel Merck (March 29, 1894 – November 9, 1957) was the president of Merck & Co. from 1925 to 1950 and a member of the Merck family.
Early life
George W. Merck was born in New York City, to George Friedrich and Fri ...
and for many years was conducted by
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
Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) (sometimes erroneously called Aberdeen Proving ''Grounds'') is a U.S. Army facility located adjacent to Aberdeen, Harford County, Maryland, United States. More than 7,500 civilians and 5,000 military personnel work at ...
, 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 of Detrick Field were also surrounded by extensive farmlands that could be procured if and when the BW effort was expanded.
The Army's
Chemical Warfare Service
The Chemical Corps is the branch of the United States Army tasked with defending against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) weapons. The Chemical Warfare Service was established on 28 June 1918, combining activities that until ...
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
The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...
for developing the Atomic Bomb". 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 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.
After the defeat of Japan, the researchers working at
Unit 731
, short for Manshu Detachment 731 and also known as the Kamo Detachment and Ishii Unit, was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that engaged in lethal human experimentatio ...
were given immunity from prosecution. In return, director
Shirō Ishii
Surgeon General was a Japanese microbiologist and army medical officer who served as the director of Unit 731, a biological warfare unit of the Imperial Japanese Army.
Ishii led the development and application of biological weapons at Unit 73 ...
provided "8,000 slides of tissue from human and animal dissections" from the experiments, which were reportedly stored at Fort Detrick.
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
Victory over Japan Day (also known as V-J Day, Victory in the Pacific Day, or V-P Day) is the day on which Imperial Japan surrendered in World War II, in effect bringing the war to an end. The term has been applied to both of the days on ...
that the public learned of the war-time research in biological weapons.
In 1952, the Army purchased over 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
Viral encephalitis is inflammation of the brain parenchyma, called encephalitis, by a virus. The different forms of viral encephalitis are called viral encephalitides. It is the most common type of encephalitis and often occurs with viral meningiti ...
.
[Davis, Aaron, Michael E. Ruane and Nelson Hernandez,]
Lab And Community Make For Uneasy Neighbors
, ''Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', August 2, 2008, Pg. 10.
There was a building on the base,
Building 470
Building 470 — also called the Pilot Plant, or sometimes “the Tower”, or “Anthrax Tower” — was a seven-story steel and brick building at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland, United States, used in the small-scale production of biol ...
, locally referred to as "
Anthrax
Anthrax is an infection caused by the bacterium ''Bacillus anthracis''. It can occur in four forms: skin, lungs, intestinal, and injection. Symptom onset occurs between one day and more than two months after the infection is contracted. The sk ...
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.
From 1945 to 1955 under
Project Paperclip and its successors, the U.S. government recruited over 1,600
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
and
Austrian
Austrian may refer to:
* Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent
** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law
* Austrian German dialect
* Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...
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
Walter Paul Emil Schreiber (21 March 1893 – 5 September 1970) was a medical officer with the German Army in World War I and a brigadier-general (''Generalarzt'') of the Wehrmacht Medical Service during World War II. He would later serve as a ke ...
,
Erich Traub
Erich Traub (27 June 1906 – 18 May 1985) was a German veterinarian, scientist and virologist who specialized in foot-and-mouth disease, Rinderpest and Newcastle disease. Traub was a member of the National Socialist Motor Corps (NSKK), a Nazi ...
and
Kurt Blome
Kurt Blome (31 January 1894 – 10 October 1969) was a high-ranking Nazi scientist before and during World War II. He was the Deputy Reich Health Leader (Reichsgesundheitsführer) and Plenipotentiary for Cancer Research in the Reich Research Co ...
, 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.
=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:
Many experiments that tested various biological agents on human subjects, referred to as Operation Whitecoat
Operation Whitecoat was a biodefense medical research program carried out by the United States Army at Fort Detrick, Maryland between 1954 and 1973. The program pursued medical research using volunteer enlisted personnel who were eventually nickn ...
, 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
A sit-down strike is a labour strike and a form of civil disobedience in which an organized group of workers, usually employed at factories or other centralized locations, take unauthorized or illegal possession of the workplace by "sitting do ...
to obtain more information about the dangers of the biological tests, Seventh-day Adventists
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventism, Adventist Protestantism, Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the Names of the days of the week#Numbered days of the week, seventh day of the ...
(SDAs) who were conscientious objector
A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...
s were recruited for the studies.
The Army purchased an additional in 1946 to increase the size of the original "Area A" as well as located west of Area A, but not contiguous to it, to provide a test area known as Area B. In 1952, another were purchased between West 7th Street and Oppossumtown Pike to expand the permanent research and development facilities.
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
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
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
Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. In ...
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
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
and
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...
ns were not simply engaged in a
propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
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.
Fort Detrick (1956–present)
Cold War years (1956–89)
Camp Detrick was designated a permanent installation for peacetime biological research and development shortly after World War II, but that status was not confirmed until 1956, when the post became Fort Detrick. Its mandate was to continue its previous mission of biomedical research and its role as the world's leading research campus for biological agents requiring specialty containment.
The most recent land acquisition for the fort was a parcel of less than along the Rosemont Avenue fence in 1962, completing the present .
On Veterans Day, November 11, 1969, President
Richard M. Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was t ...
asked the Senate to ratify the 1925
Geneva Protocol
The Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare, usually called the Geneva Protocol, is a treaty prohibiting the use of chemical and biological weapons in ...
prohibiting the use of chemical and biological weapons. Nixon assured Fort Detrick its research would continue. On November 25, 1969, Nixon made
a statement outlawing offensive biological research in the United States. Since that time any research done at Fort Detrick has been purely defensive in nature,
focusing on diagnostics, preventives and treatments for BW infections. This research is undertaken by the
U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases
The United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID; pronounced: you-SAM-rid) is the U.S Army's main institution and facility for defensive research into countermeasures against biological warfare. It is located ...
(USAMRIID) which transitioned from the previous
U.S. Army Medical Unit (USAMU) and was renamed in 1969.
As he ended the offensive biological research done at Fort Detrick, Nixon pledged to make former laboratories and land available by the disestablishment of the offensive biological warfare program transferred to the
U.S Department of Health and Human Services during the 1970s and later. The
National Cancer Research and Development Center (now the National Cancer Institute-Frederick) was established in 1971 on a parcel in Area A ceded by the installation.
In 1989 base researchers identified the
Ebola
Ebola, also known as Ebola virus disease (EVD) and Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF), is a viral hemorrhagic fever in humans and other primates, caused by ebolaviruses. Symptoms typically start anywhere between two days and three weeks after becom ...
virus in a monkey imported to the area from the Philippines.
Post-Cold War (1990–present)
In 1990, Hazelton Research Products' Reston Quarantine Unit in
Reston, Virginia
Reston is a census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia and a principal city of the Washington metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, Reston's population was 63,226.
Founded in 1964, Reston was influenced by the Garden City movem ...
suffered a mysterious outbreak of fatal illness among a shipment of
crab-eating macaque
The crab-eating macaque (''Macaca fascicularis''), also known as the long-tailed macaque and referred to as the cynomolgus monkey in laboratories, is a cercopithecine primate native to Southeast Asia. A species of macaque, the crab-eating macaqu ...
monkeys imported from the Philippines. The company's veterinary pathologist sent tissue samples from dead animals to the
(USAMRIID) at Fort Detrick, where a laboratory test known as an
ELISA
The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (, ) is a commonly used analytical biochemistry assay, first described by Eva Engvall and Peter Perlmann in 1971. The assay uses a solid-phase type of enzyme immunoassay (EIA) to detect the presence ...
assay showed antibodies to Ebola virus.
Thereafter, a team from USAMRIID euthanized the surviving monkeys, bringing the carcasses to Ft. Detrick for study by the veterinary pathologists and virologists, and eventual disposal under safe conditions. The Philippines and the United States had no previous cases of Ebola infection, and upon further study researchers concluded it was another strain of Ebola, or a new filovirus of Asian origin, which they named ''
Reston ebolavirus
Reston virus (RESTV) is one of six known viruses within the genus ''Ebolavirus''. Reston virus causes Ebola virus disease in non-human primates; unlike the other five ebolaviruses, it is not known to cause disease in humans, but has caused asymp ...
'' (REBOV) after the location of the incident.
In 2009, author H. P. Albarelli published the book ''
A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA's Secret Cold War Experiments'' about
Frank Olson
Frank Rudolph Emmanuel Olson (July 17, 1910 – November 28, 1953) was an American bacteriologist, biological warfare scientist, and an employee of the United States Army Biological Warfare Laboratories (USBWL) who worked at Camp Detrick (now ...
's death and the experiments conducted at Fort Detrick. The book is based on documents released under
FOIA and numerous other documents and interviews to the police and investigators.
In the 1980s and 1990s, KGB disinformation agent
Jakob Segal
Jakob Segal (17 April 1911 – 30 September 1995) was a Russian-born German biology professor at Humboldt University of Berlin in the former East Germany. He was one of the advocates of the conspiracy theory that HIV was created by the United St ...
claimed that Fort Detrick was the site where the United States government "invented"
HIV
The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...
.
USAMRIID had been the principal consultant to the FBI on scientific aspects of the
2001 Anthrax Attacks
The 2001 anthrax attacks, also known as Amerithrax (a portmanteau of "America" and "anthrax", from its FBI case name), occurred in the United States over the course of several weeks beginning on September 18, 2001, one week after the September 11 ...
, which had infected 22 people and killed five. While assisting with the science from the beginning, it also soon became the focus of the FBI's investigation of possible perpetrators (see
Steven Hatfill). In July 2008, a top U.S. biodefense researcher at USAMRIID committed suicide just as the
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
was about to lay charges relating to the incidents. The scientist,
Bruce Edwards Ivins
Bruce Edwards Ivins (; April 22, 1946July 29, 2008) was an American microbiologist, vaccine, vaccinologist, senior biodefense researcher at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), Fort Detrick, Maryla ...
, who had worked for 18 years at USAMRIID, had been told about the impending prosecution. The FBI's identification of Ivins in August 2008 as the Anthrax Attack perpetrator remains controversial and several independent government investigations which will address his culpability are ongoing. Although the anthrax preparations used in the attacks were of different grades, all of the material derived from the same bacterial strain. Known as the Ames strain, it was first researched at USAMRIID. The Ames strain was subsequently distributed to at least fifteen bio-research labs within the U.S. and six locations overseas.
In June 2008 the
Environmental Protection Agency
A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...
said it planned to add the base to the
Superfund
Superfund is a United States federal environmental remediation program established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). The program is administered by the United States Environmental Pro ...
list of the most polluted places in the country.
On 9 April 2009, "Fort Detrick Area B Ground Water" was added to the list which currently includes 18 other sites within Maryland.
The Forest Glen Annex of the
Walter Reed Army Medical Center
The Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC)known as Walter Reed General Hospital (WRGH) until 1951was the U.S. Army's flagship medical center from 1909 to 2011. Located on in the District of Columbia, it served more than 150,000 active and ret ...
in
Silver Spring, Maryland
Silver Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C. Although officially unincorporated, in practice it is an edge city, with a population of 81,015 at the 2020 censu ...
was transferred to the command of Fort Detrick in 2008 as a result of the
Base Realignment and Closure
Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) is a process by a United States federal government commission to increase United States Department of Defense efficiency by coordinating the realignment and closure of military installations following the end o ...
process.
about 7,900 people worked at Fort Detrick. The base has been the largest employer in Frederick County and contributed more than $500 million into the local economy annually.
[Wood, David,]
Variety Of Research Carried Out At Fort Detrick
, ''Baltimore Sun
''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries.
Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by Tr ...
'', August 2, 2008.
In 2020, a
conspiracy theory regarding COVID-19 arose that alleged that the
SARS-CoV-2
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), the respiratory illness responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had a ...
virus was developed by the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
at Fort Detrick. This allegation has been promoted by
Chinese government
The Government of the People's Republic of China () is an authoritarian political system in the People's Republic of China under the exclusive political leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It consists of legislative, executive, mili ...
officials, most notably
Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...
spokesman
Zhao Lijian
Zhao Lijian (; born 10 November 1972) is a Chinese politician and the deputy director of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Information Department. He is the 31st spokesperson since the position was established in 1983. He joined the foreig ...
who has called for an inspection of the facility, although the allegation remains baseless. A petition organized by the
Chinese Communist Party
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victoriou ...
-owned tabloid ''
Global Times
The ''Global Times'' () is a daily tabloid newspaper under the auspices of the Chinese Communist Party's flagship newspaper, the ''People's Daily'', commenting on international issues from a Chinese ultra-nationalistic perspective. The publi ...
'' urging the WHO to investigate Fort Detrick for COVID origins reportedly amassed 25 million signatures.
Environmental contamination
Fort Detrick Area B is a 399-acre proving ground and was a disposal area for chemical, biological, and radiological material until 1970. Only very recently, in 2009, was it listed as a
superfund site
Superfund sites are polluted locations in the United States requiring a long-term response to clean up hazardous material contaminations. They were designated under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERC ...
on the
National Priorities List
The National Priorities List (NPL) is the priority list of hazardous waste sites in the United States eligible for long-term remedial investigation and remedial action (cleanup) financed under the federal Superfund program. Environmental Protec ...
with four so-called "source areas": chemical waste disposal pits, a landfill, the Area B-Grid and the Area B-20 South burn area. There are 30 additional possible areas. Groundwater has been known to be contaminated with volatile organic compounds
trichloroethylene
The chemical compound trichloroethylene is a halocarbon commonly used as an industrial solvent. It is a clear, colourless non-flammable liquid with a chloroform-like sweet smell. It should not be confused with the similar 1,1,1-trichloroethane, ...
(TCE) since 1992, as well as
tetrachloroethene
Tetrachloroethylene, also known under the systematic name tetrachloroethene, or perchloroethylene, and many other names (and abbreviations such as "perc" or "PERC", and "PCE"), is a chlorocarbon with the formula Cl2C=CCl2 . It is a colorless liq ...
, both onsite and offsite.
[ Eight 55-gallon drums of TCE buried in Area B in 1968 are believed one source of the contamination.] Groundwater plume modeling is difficult due to underlying karst
Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ro ...
formations. No "Records of Decision" how each site will be remediated have been signed by EPA and Army.
In 2012, the United States National Research Council
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (also known as NASEM or the National Academies) are the collective scientific national academy of the United States. The name is used interchangeably in two senses: (1) as an umbrell ...
published a report after reviewing two investigations of potential health hazards at Fort Detrick: a 2009 public health assessment conducted by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) is a federal public health agency within the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The agency focuses on minimizing human health risks associated with exposure to haza ...
and a cancer investigation in Frederick County by the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Frederick County Health Department. The report found neither study could show whether people were harmed by contaminated groundwater from Area B. It is unlikely that additional studies could establish a link, because no data on early exposures were collected and data cannot be obtained or reliably estimated now.
In May 2014, a developer who had bought 92 acres near the Center for Biological Research sued the U.S. Army for negligence in its chemical disposal practices, which led to levels of TCE of up to 42 times the federal maximum contaminant level. A U.S. attorney representing Fort Detrick argued in July 2014 that nonexistent EPA regulation at the time is an exception to the Federal Tort Claims Act and "protects the Army's waste disposal practices". The $37 million lawsuit was dismissed in January 2015.
After the Army denied claims of health problems in 106 Frederick families and individuals in February 2015, the residents filed a class action lawsuit, seeking $750 million for wrongful death and pain and suffering in August 2015.
The installation s Restoration Advisory Board
A Restoration Advisory Board or RAB is a group, which meets on a regular basis to discuss environmental restoration at a US military installation currently or formerly used and owned by the US Department of Defense (DoD). These developed in the 1 ...
has released a report on some of the findings in relation to the spillage of waste. The public Fort Detrick website provided a copy of the archive from the meeting of an environmental committee.
2019 closure and resumption of operations
Following the cease and desist order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgi ...
(CDC) in which the USAMRIID laboratory at the base was shut down in August 2019 for at least two "breaches of containment", the announcement to resume operations on a "limited scale" was made on November 25, 2019. The two breaches reported to the CDC by USAMRIID staff demonstrated failures of biosafety level 3 and 4 protocols in the Army laboratory to ''"implement and maintain containment procedures sufficient to contain select agents or toxins"''.
After approximately eight months of closure and restrictions, the USAMRIID BSL-4 lab had been authorized to resume full operational status by April 2020, to the applause of Maryland lawmakers including Senator
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
Ben Cardin
Benjamin Louis Cardin (born October 5, 1943) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Maryland, a seat he has held since 2007. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously was the U.S. representati ...
, who stated ''"it is a relief to have USAMRIID fully operational with the current COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
outbreak".
Tenant units and organizations
Each branch of the U.S. military is represented among Fort Detrick's 7,800 military, federal and contractor employees. Four cabinet-level agencies are represented by activities on the garrison: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security
The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terr ...
, the U.S. Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...
, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the U.S. federal government created to protect the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Its motto is " ...
, and the U.S. Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secur ...
. The offices and laboratories include the Agriculture Department's Foreign Disease and Weed Science Research Institute, the National Cancer Institute
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) coordinates the United States National Cancer Program and is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ...
, the Naval Medical Logistics Command
A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...
and the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center. Currently under construction is a biotechnology campus that will house civilian and military research centers including units of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgi ...
(CDC), the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID, ) is one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). NIAID's ...
(NIAID), as well as USAMRIID.
''The following units and organizations (military and otherwise) are located on the Fort Detrick installation:''
U.S. Department of Defense
* U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC)
** U.S. Army Medical Materiel Agency (USAMMA)
** U.S. Army Medical Materiel Development Activity (USAMMDA)
** U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA)
**U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases
The United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID; pronounced: you-SAM-rid) is the U.S Army's main institution and facility for defensive research into countermeasures against biological warfare. It is located ...
(USAMRIID)
** Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center
TATRC
)
**U.S. Army Center for Environmental Health Research
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
(USACEHR; currently part of USAMRICD)
* 114th Signal Battalion
* 21st Signal Brigade
* 302nd Signal Battalion
* 6th Medical Logistics Management Center (6MLMC)
*Company A, 53rd Signal Battalion (SATCON)
* Air Force Medical Logistics Office (AFMLO)
* Air Force Medical Support Agency, Global Medical Support Training and Exercises (AFMSA/SGPX)
*National Center for Medical Intelligence
The National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI) ; formerly known as the ''Armed Forces Medical Intelligence Center'')
is a component of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). The role of NCMI is described in DoD Instruction 6420.01. Headqua ...
(NCMI), formerly the Armed Forces Medical Intelligence Center (AFMIC)
* Chemical Biological Medical Systems (CBMS), Joint Project Management Office
*Company B, 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion
4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion (4th LARB) is a fast and mobilized Armoured reconnaissance, armored terrestrial reconnaissance Battalion#United States Marine Corps, battalion of the United States Marine Corps reserve. Their primary wea ...
, 4th Marine Division
The 4th Marine Division is a reserve division in the United States Marine Corps. It was raised in 1943 for service during World War II, and subsequently fought in the Pacific against the Japanese. Deactivated after the war, the division was re-fo ...
Marine Forces Reserve
The Marine Forces Reserve (MARFORRES or MFR), also known as the United States Marine Corps Reserve (USMCR) and the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Reserve, is the reserve force of the United States Marine Corps. It is the largest command, by assigned pe ...
*Defense Contract Management Agency
The Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) is an agency of the United States federal government reporting to the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment. It is responsible for administering contracts for the United States D ...
, DCMA Baltimore
*Detachment 1, 301st Signal Company (Cable & Wire)
* Joint Medical Logistics Functional Development Center (JMLFDC)
* Joint Readiness Clinical Advisory Board (JRCAB)
* Medical Communications for Combat Casualty Care (MC4)
*Naval Medical Logistics Command
A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...
(NMLC)
* Technology Applications Office (TAO)
* U.S. Army Information Systems Engineering Command, Fort Detrick Engineering Directorate
In addition, Fort Detrick is the support facility for the Raven Rock Mountain Complex
The Raven Rock Mountain Complex (RRMC), also known as Site R, is a U.S. military installation with an underground nuclear bunker near Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania, at Raven Rock Mountain that has been called an "underground Pentagon". The bu ...
.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
*The National Cancer Institute at Frederick (NCI-Frederick) a satellite facility of the NCI
U.S. Department of Agriculture
*Foreign Disease Weed Science Research Unit
The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is the principal in-house research agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). ARS is one of four agencies in USDA's Research, Education and Economics mission area. ARS is charged with ext ...
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
* National Bioforensic Analysis Center (NBFAC)
*National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center
The National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC) is a government biodefense research laboratory created by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and located at the sprawling biodefense campus at Fort Detrick in Freder ...
(NBACC)
On post historic sites
Fort Detrick has three sites (and four structures) on the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
:
* The Nallin Farm House
The Nallin Farm House and the related Nallin Farm Springhouse and Bank Barn are located on Fort Detrick at Frederick, Maryland.
The Federal style brick farmhouse was built in stages between the 1780s and the 1830s and formerly served as the r ...
(''circa'' 1835)
* The Nallin Farm Springhouse and Bank Barn
The Nallin Farm Springhouse and Bank Barn are closely associated with the Nallin Farm House on the grounds of Fort Detrick, Maryland, US. The barn is a good example of a fieldstone-built bank barn with a byre on the lower level and an earth ramp ...
(pre-1798)
* The One Million Liter Sphere, the "Eight Ball" (1947–48)
In addition, the following sites on the installation are of historic interest:
* A rocky knoll overlooking Frederick, and located near the Old Farm Gate (northwest gate) of Fort Detrick, was the site of historic structures. The Novitiate Academy of Frederick built an impressive estate, Saint Joseph's Villa, on the hill in 1895. This was located there because of Restoration Spring just to the north at the base of the hill. The Academy moved to New York in 1903 and the Villa was subsequently demolished. Dr. Rudolph Rau, a Frederick surgeon, bought the land in 1911 and constructed an imposing white mansion with colossal columns, a third-floor ballroom and carriage house. This estate, "Wide Pastures", also included an extensive Italianate
The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...
woodland and terraced garden. This property was sold in 1929 to Robert Bright who used it as a summerhouse until 1943. Three years later, the U.S. government bought it and it was used as the Fort Detrick post commander's residence until it too was demolished in 1977. Today, only retaining walls and some flagstone paths remain, but photos of both the Novitiate Academy building and Dr. Rau's mansion can be seen as part of interpretive signage at the site.
* Building 470
Building 470 — also called the Pilot Plant, or sometimes “the Tower”, or “Anthrax Tower” — was a seven-story steel and brick building at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland, United States, used in the small-scale production of biol ...
, a pilot plant known as "Anthrax Tower" (1953; demolished in 2003)
In popular culture
*In the 2009 video game ''Prototype'', Fort Detrick is the headquarters to the secret military organization Blackwatch, which deals with biological warfare attacks. They are one of the enemy factions against the player character Alex Mercer.
* The opening sequence from the 1995 film ''Outbreak
In epidemiology, an outbreak is a sudden increase in occurrences of a disease when cases are in excess of normal expectancy for the location or season. It may affect a small and localized group or impact upon thousands of people across an entire ...
'' presents the four Biosafety Levels within the USAMRIID Research Facility at Fort Detrick.
* In "Amplification", episode 24 of season 4, of the CBS television series ''Criminal Minds'', the BAU responds quickly after a serial killer releases a new strain of deadly anthrax spores in Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Maryland and the county seat of, and only incorporated city in, Anne Arundel County. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east o ...
that threatens the public and puts a member of the team at risk. The killer targeted Fort Detrick because they rejected his services.
* Fort Detrick is featured in several episodes of the television series ''The X-Files
''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction on television, science fiction drama (film and television), drama television series created by Chris Carter (screenwriter), Chris Carter. The series revolves around Federal Bureau of Investigation ...
'' as Fort Marlene, a play on words of the name of German actress Marlene Dietrich
Marie Magdalene "Marlene" DietrichBorn as Maria Magdalena, not Marie Magdalene, according to Dietrich's biography by her daughter, Maria Riva ; however Dietrich's biography by Charlotte Chandler cites "Marie Magdalene" as her birth name . (, ; ...
.
*Fort Detrick is mentioned several times in the 2007 alien invasion film ''The Invasion''.
*The rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
band Clutch
A clutch is a mechanical device that engages and disengages power transmission, especially from a drive shaft to a driven shaft. In the simplest application, clutches connect and disconnect two rotating shafts (drive shafts or line shafts). ...
, who originate from Germantown, MD but cites Frederick, MD as their hometown, released the song "50,000 Unstoppable Watts" on their 2009 album ''Strange Cousins from the West
''Strange Cousins from the West'' is the ninth full-length studio album by the American rock band Clutch (band), Clutch, released in the UK on July 13, 2009 and in the US on July 14.
Album Information
"Strange Cousins" was produced by J. Robbin ...
''. Singer Neil Fallon
Neil Fallon (born October 25, 1971) is an American musician, best known as the lead singer and occasional rhythm guitarist and keyboardist for the rock band Clutch. He is also the lead singer for The Company Band and Dunsmuir, and joined The Bak ...
discussed the influences of the song's lyrics saying "The song is more or less about where we rehearsed in Frederick, MD, next to an army base, Fort Detrick, where they do a lot of the chemical weapons manufacturing and testing. So, when I’m saying Anthrax
Anthrax is an infection caused by the bacterium ''Bacillus anthracis''. It can occur in four forms: skin, lungs, intestinal, and injection. Symptom onset occurs between one day and more than two months after the infection is contracted. The sk ...
, I’m talking about Anthrax, the chemical weapon, not the band. And there is a lot of ham radio
Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emergency communic ...
operators, well, old ham towers there. And one morning I was going, well one morning, oh Jesus, one afternoon I was going to the liquor store and the lyrics just popped into my head after practice."
* Fort Detrick is mentioned briefly as the site of an important viral outbreak in '' The Bourne Legacy''.
* Fort Detrick is the destination for the crew of the USS ''Nathan James'' to mass-produce a cure for the Red Flu in ''The Last Ship'' episode "No Place Like Home" (season finale).
* Fort Detrick is mentioned in the ABC television series ''Scandal'' episode "Like Father, Like Daughter" aired on October 16, 2014.
* Fort Detrick is mentioned several times in the fourth season plot of ''The Americans
''The Americans'' is an American historical drama, period spy fiction, spy drama television series created by Joe Weisberg that aired on the FX (TV channel), FX television network for six seasons from January 30, 2013, to May 30, 2018. Weisberg ...
''. It was also used as a setting in season 5.
* Fort Detrick is mentioned several times in the Netflix Original Series (2017) ''Wormwood''.
* Fort Detrick is mentioned at the end of the short story, "Ghost of Christmas Future", by Eric Cline, published in ''Analog Science Fiction and Fact
''Analog Science Fiction and Fact'' is an American science fiction magazine published under various titles since 1930. Originally titled ''Astounding Stories of Super-Science'', the first issue was dated January 1930, published by William C ...
'' magazine, NOV/DEC 2019.
* Fort Detrick is mentioned at Osamu Tezuka's manga MW.
See also
*Deseret Test Center
The Deseret Test Center was a U.S. Army operated command in charge for testing chemical and biological weapons during the 1960s. The Deseret was headquartered at Fort Douglas, Utah, a former U.S. Army base.
History
Progress toward standardizin ...
*Fort Terry
Fort Terry was a coastal fortification on Plum Island, a small island just off Orient Point, New York, United States. This strategic position afforded it a commanding view over the Atlantic entrance to the commercially vital Long Island Sound. I ...
*Human experimentation in the United States
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, a ...
*MKNAOMI
MKNAOMI is the code name for a joint Department of Defense/CIA research program from the 1950s through to the 1970s. Unclassified information about the MKNAOMI program and the related Special Operations Division is scarce. It is generally reported ...
*Operation Paperclip
Operation Paperclip was a secret United States intelligence program in which more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians were taken from the former Nazi Germany to the U.S. for government employment after the end of World Wa ...
*Porton Down
Porton Down is a science park in Wiltshire, England, just northeast of the village of Porton, near Salisbury. It is home to two British government facilities: a site of the Ministry of Defence's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl ...
*Kurt Blome
Kurt Blome (31 January 1894 – 10 October 1969) was a high-ranking Nazi scientist before and during World War II. He was the Deputy Reich Health Leader (Reichsgesundheitsführer) and Plenipotentiary for Cancer Research in the Reich Research Co ...
* William C. Patrick III, veteran bioweaponeer
*Erich Traub
Erich Traub (27 June 1906 – 18 May 1985) was a German veterinarian, scientist and virologist who specialized in foot-and-mouth disease, Rinderpest and Newcastle disease. Traub was a member of the National Socialist Motor Corps (NSKK), a Nazi ...
*Allegations of biological warfare in the Korean War
Allegations that the United States military used biological weapons in the Korean War (June 1950 – July 1953) were raised by the governments of People's Republic of China, the Soviet Union, and North Korea. The claims were first raised in ...
References
External links
*
National Cancer Institute-Frederick website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Detrick
1931 establishments in Maryland
Biological warfare facilities
Buildings and structures in Frederick County, Maryland
Detr8ck
Frederick, Maryland
Military Superfund sites
Superfund sites in Maryland
United States Army medical installations
United States Army posts
United States biological weapons program
Military installations established in 1931