Operation Red Hat was a United States

Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philippi ...

movement of

chemical warfare Chemical warfare (CW) involves using the toxic properties of chemical substances as weapons. This type of warfare is distinct from nuclear warfare, biological warfare and radiological warfare, which together make up CBRN, the military acrony ...

munition Ammunition (informally ammo) is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines) and the component parts of other w ...

s from

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

to Johnston Atoll in the North

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...

, which occurred in 1971.

Background

18-60-2 Artillery rounds Chibana Ammunition Depot February 1969

U.S. chemical weapons were brought into Okinawa in 1962 based on the recommendation of Secretary of Defense

Robert McNamara Robert Strange McNamara (; June 9, 1916 – July 6, 2009) was an American business executive and the eighth United States Secretary of Defense, serving from 1961 to 1968 under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. He remains the ...

, according to declassified documents. In 1970, U.S. Defense Secretary

Melvin Laird Melvin Robert Laird Jr. (September 1, 1922 – November 16, 2016) was an American politician, writer and statesman. He was a U.S. congressman from Wisconsin from 1953 to 1969 before serving as Secretary of Defense from 1969 to 1973 under Pres ...

met Japan Defense Agency chief

Yasuhiro Nakasone was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party from 1982 to 1987. He was a member of the House of Representatives for more than 50 years. He was best known for pushing through th ...

, and said that the United States had received information that North Korea had a supply of chemical weapons. The move of U.S. chemical weapons to Okinawa in 1962 was meant to serve as a deterrent. The Red Hat

code name A code name, call sign or cryptonym is a code word or name used, sometimes clandestinely, to refer to another name, word, project, or person. Code names are often used for military purposes, or in espionage. They may also be used in industrial ...

was assigned by the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence,

Department of the Army The United States Department of the Army (DA) is one of the three military departments within the Department of Defense of the U.S. The Department of the Army is the federal government agency within which the United States Army (U.S.) is or ...

, on November 12, 1962, during the planning to deploy chemical agents to the 267th Chemical Platoon on

.NARA. Operation Red Hat: Men and a mission (1971)
/ref> The 267th Chemical Platoon (Service) was activated on Okinawa on December 1, 1962 at Chibana Ammunition Depot. The depot was a hill-top installation next to

Kadena Air Base (IATA: DNA, ICAO: RODN) is a highly strategic United States Air Force base in the towns of Kadena and Chatan and the city of Okinawa, in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. It is often referred to as the "Keystone of the Pacific" because of its hi ...

. During this deployment, "Unit personnel were actively engaged in preparing RED HAT area, site 2 for the receipt and storage of first increment items, hipment"YBA", DOD

Project 112 Project 112 was a biological and chemical weapon experimentation project conducted by the United States Department of Defense from 1962 to 1973. The project started under John F. Kennedy's administration, and was authorized by his Secretar ...

." The company received further shipments, code named YBB and YBF, which according to declassified documents also included sarin, VX, and mustard gas.Mitchell, Jon,
'Were we marines used as guinea pigs on Okinawa?'
" '' Japan Times'', 4 December 2012, p. 14 By 1969, according to later newspaper reports, there was an estimated 1.9 million kg (1,900 metric tons) of VX stored on Okinawa. In 1969, over 20 personnel (23 U.S.

soldier A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer. Etymology The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word , from Old French ...

s and one U.S.

civilian Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not "combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatant, ...

, according to other reports) were exposed to low levels of the nerve agent

sarin Sarin ( NATO designation GB G-series, "B"">Nerve_agent#G-series.html" ;"title="hort for Nerve agent#G-series">G-series, "B" is an extremely toxic synthetic organophosphorus compound. The resultant publicity appears to have contributed to the decision to move the weapons off Okinawa.

Transfer in 1971

19-09-2_Red_Hat_Operation_Okinawa_Noborikawa_Village

The US government directed relocation of chemical munitions from

to Johnston Atoll in 1971. An official U.S. film on the mission says that "safety was the primary concern during the operation", though Japanese resentment of U.S. military activities on Okinawa also complicated the situation. At the technical level, time pressures imposed to complete the mission, the heat, and water rationing problems also complicated the planning. The initial phase of Operation Red Hat involved the movement of chemical munitions from a depot storage site to Tengan Pier, eight miles away, and required 1,332 trailers in 148 convoys. The second phase of the operation moved the munitions to Johnston Atoll. The

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

leased on Johnston Atoll. Phase I of the operation took place in January and moved 150 tons of distilled mustard (HD), a blister agent chemically identical to mustard agent (H), manufactured by either the Levinstein or

Thiodiglycol Thiodiglycol, or bis(2-hydroxyethyl)sulfide (also known as 2,2-thiodiethanol or TDE), is the organosulfur compound with the formula S(CH2CH2OH)2. It is miscible with water and polar organic solvents. It is a colorless liquid. It is structurall ...

processes, but purified further so that it can be stored longer before polymerizing. The arrived at Johnston Atoll with a load of HD projectiles on January 13, 1971. Phase II completed cargo discharge to Johnston Atoll with five moves of the remaining 12,500 tons of munitions, in August and September 1971. They arrived in the following order: , , USNS Miller, USNS Sealift, USNS Pvt McGraw. The , under the command of a Captain Pilcher, was part of Operation Red Hat. Units operating under United States Army Ryukyu Islands (USARYIS) were 2nd Logistical Command and the 267th Chemical Company, the 5th and 196th Ordnance Detachments (EOD), and the 175th Ordnance Detachment. Originally, it was planned that the munitions be moved to

Umatilla Chemical Depot The Umatilla Chemical Depot, (UMCD) based in Umatilla, Oregon, was a U.S. Army installation in the United States that stored chemical weapons. The chemical weapons originally stored at the depot consisted of various live munitions and storage co ...

but this never happened due to public opposition and political pressure. The

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washi ...

passed legislation on January 12, 1971 (PL 91-672) that prohibited the transfer of

nerve agent Nerve agents, sometimes also called nerve gases, are a class of organic chemicals that disrupt the mechanisms by which nerves transfer messages to organs. The disruption is caused by the blocking of acetylcholinesterase (AChE), an enzyme that ...

, mustard agent,

agent orange Agent Orange is a chemical herbicide and defoliant, one of the "tactical use" Rainbow Herbicides. It was used by the U.S. military as part of its herbicidal warfare program, Operation Ranch Hand, during the Vietnam War from 1961 to 1971. It ...

and other chemical munitions to all 50 U.S. states.

Storage and destruction

The 1971 weapons transfer voyages transported the chemical agents that became the first stockpile at Johnston Atoll. The chemical weapons brought from Okinawa included nerve and blister agents contained in rockets, artillery shells, bombs, mines, and one-ton (900 kg) containers. In 1985 the U.S. Congress mandated that all chemical weapons stockpiled at Johnston Atoll, mostly mustard gas, Sarin, and VX gas, be destroyed. Prior to the beginning of destruction operations, Johnston Atoll held about 6.6 percent of the entire U.S. stockpile of

chemical weapon A chemical weapon (CW) is a specialized munition that uses chemicals formulated to inflict death or harm on humans. According to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), this can be any chemical compound intended as ...

s. The

Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System (JACADS) was the U.S. Army's first chemical munitions disposal facility. It was located on Johnston Island, at Johnston Atoll and completed its mission and ceased operation in 2000. Background Prio ...

(JACADS) was built to destroy all the chemical munitions on the island. The first weapon disposal incineration operation took place on June 30, 1990. Transition from the testing phase to full-scale operations began in May 1993, and in August full-scale operations began. Twice, in 1993 and 1994, the facility had to be evacuated because of

hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

s; operations were delayed for as long as 70 days during these periods. On December 9, 1993, a spill of about 500 pounds (226 kg) of Sarin (Agent GB) occurred inside the Munitions Demilitarization Building. No sarin leaked beyond the building and the contingency plan was not activated. JACADS suspended incineration of munitions until investigation of the incident was satisfactorily completed. The last munitions were destroyed in 2000.

References

External links

EPA: "National Priorities List Report", Operation Red Hat
{{DEFAULTSORT:Red Hat, Operation Chemical warfare Non-combat military operations involving the United States Okinawa under United States occupation Japan–United States relations Johnston Atoll

Background

Transfer in 1971

Storage and destruction

See also

References

External links