Operation CHASE (an acronym for "Cut Holes And Sink 'Em") was a United States Department of Defense program for the disposal of unwanted munitions at sea from May 1964 until the early 1970s.Kurak, Steve "Operation Chase" ''United States Naval Institute Proceedings'' September 1967 pp. 40-46 Munitions were loaded onto ships to be

scuttled Scuttling is the deliberate sinking of a ship. Scuttling may be performed to dispose of an abandoned, old, or captured vessel; to prevent the vessel from becoming a navigation hazard; as an act of self-destruction to prevent the ship from being ...

once they were at least 250 miles (400 km) offshore.Mauroni, Al.
The US Army Chemical Corps: Past, Present, and Future
", ''Army Historical Foundation''. Retrieved 26 November 2007. While most of the sinkings involved conventional weapons, four of them involved

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 a ...

s. The disposal site for the chemical weapons was a three-mile (5 km) area of the Atlantic Ocean between the coast of the U.S. state of

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

and the

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the ar ...

.Wagner, Travis. "Hazardous Waste: Evolution of a National Environmental Problem",
Project Muse
, ''Journal of Policy History'', 16.4 (2004) pp. 306-331. Retrieved 26 November 2007. The CHASE program was preceded by the United States Army disposal of 8000 short tons of

mustard Mustard may refer to: Food and plants * Mustard (condiment), a paste or sauce made from mustard seeds used as a condiment * Mustard plant, one of several plants, having seeds that are used for the condiment ** Mustard seed, seeds of the mustard p ...

and lewisite chemical warfare gas aboard the scuttled SS ''William C. Ralston'' in April 1958.Kraft, James C. "The Last Triple Expander" ''United States Naval Institute Proceedings'' February 1977 p. 67 These ships were sunk by having

Explosive Ordnance Disposal Bomb disposal is an explosives engineering profession using the process by which hazardous explosive devices are rendered safe. ''Bomb disposal'' is an all-encompassing term to describe the separate, but interrelated functions in the milit ...

(EOD) teams open

seacock A seacock is a valve on the hull of a boat or a ship, permitting water to flow into the vessel, such as for cooling an engine or for a salt water faucet; or out of the boat, such as for a sink drain or a toilet. Seacocks are often a Kingston val ...

s on the ship after they arrived at the disposal site. The typical

Liberty ship Liberty ships were a class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Though British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost construction. Ma ...

sank about three hours after the seacocks were opened. Liberty Ships 1

Operations

CHASE 1

The mothballed C-3

'' John F. Shafroth'' was taken from the

National Defense Reserve Fleet The National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF) consists of ships of the United States of America, mostly merchant vessels, that have been "mothballed" but can be activated within 20 to 120 days to provide shipping during national military emergencies ...

at Suisun Bay and towed to the

Concord Naval Weapons Station Concord Naval Weapons Station was a military base established in 1942 north of the city of Concord, California at the shore of the Sacramento River where it widens into Suisun Bay. The station functioned as a World War II armament storage depot ...

for stripping and loading. A major fraction of the munitions in CHASE 1 was

Bofors 40 mm gun Bofors 40 mm gun is a name or designation given to two models of 40 mm calibre anti-aircraft guns designed and developed by the Swedish company Bofors: *Bofors 40 mm L/60 gun - developed in the 1930s, widely used in World War II and into the 1990s ...

ammunition from the Naval Ammunition Depot at

Hastings, Nebraska Hastings is a city and the county seat of Adams County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 25,152 at the 2020 census. It is known as the town where Kool-Aid was invented by Edwin Perkins in 1927, and celebrates that event with the Ko ...

. CHASE 1 also included bombs,

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, s ...

warhead A warhead is the forward section of a device that contains the explosive agent or toxic (biological, chemical, or nuclear) material that is delivered by a missile, rocket, torpedo, or bomb. Classification Types of warheads include: * Expl ...

naval mine A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, any ...

s, cartridges,

projectiles A projectile is an object that is propelled by the application of an external force and then moves freely under the influence of gravity and air resistance. Although any objects in motion through space are projectiles, they are commonly found i ...

, fuzes, detonators, boosters, overage

UGM-27 Polaris The UGM-27 Polaris missile was a two-stage solid-fueled nuclear-armed submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM). As the United States Navy's first SLBM, it served from 1961 to 1980. In the mid-1950s the Navy was involved in the Jupiter missi ...

motors, and a quantity of contaminated cake mix an army court had ordered dumped at sea. ''Shafroth'' was sunk 47 miles (76 km) off San Francisco on 23 July 1964 with 9799 tons of munitions.

CHASE 2

''Village'' was loaded with 7348 short tons of munitions at the

Naval Weapons Station Earle Naval Weapons Station Earle is a United States Navy base in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. Its distinguishing feature is a pier in Sandy Hook Bay where ammunition can be loaded and unloaded from warships at a safe distance from heavi ...

and towed to a deep-water dump site on 17 September 1964. There were three large and unexpected detonations five minutes after ''Village'' slipped beneath the surface. An oil slick and some debris appeared on the surface. The explosion registered on seismic equipment all over the world. Inquiries were received regarding seismic activity off the east coast of the United States, and the Office of Naval Research and

Advanced Research Projects Agency The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adv ...

expressed interest in measuring the differences between seismic shocks and underwater explosive detonations to detect underwater nuclear detonations then banned by treaty.

CHASE 3

''Coastal Mariner'' was loaded with 4040 short tons of munitions at the

. The munitions included 512 tons of explosives. Four SOFAR bombs were packed in the explosives cargo hold with booster charges of 500 pounds (227 kg) of TNT to detonate the cargo at a depth of 1000 feet (300 m). The United States Coast Guard issued a notice to mariners and the United States Department of Fish and Wildlife and the United States Bureau of Commercial Fisheries sent observers. The explosives detonated seventeen seconds after ''Coastal Mariner'' slipped below the surface on 14 July 1965. The detonation created a 600- foot (200 m) water spout, but was not deep enough to be recorded on seismic instruments.

CHASE 4

''Santiago Iglesias'' was loaded with 8715 tons of munitions at the

, rigged for detonation at 1000 feet (300 m), and detonated 31 seconds after sinking on 16 September 1965.

CHASE 5

''Isaac Van Zandt'' was loaded with 8000 tons of munitions (including 400 tons of high explosives) at the

Naval Base Kitsap Naval Base Kitsap is a U.S. Navy base located on the Kitsap Peninsula in Washington state, created in 2004 by merging the former Naval Station Bremerton with Naval Submarine Base Bangor. It is the home base for the Navy’s fleet throughout ...

and rigged for detonation at 4000 feet (1.2 km). On 23 May 1966 the tow cable parted en route to the planned disposal area. Navy tugs USS ''Tatnuck'' (ATA-195) and USS ''Koka'' (ATA-185) recovered the tow within six hours, but the location of sinking was changed by the delay.

CHASE 6

Different sources describe CHASE 6 differently. Naval Institute ''Proceedings'' indicates ''Horace Greeley'' was loaded at the

, rigged for detonation at 4000 feet (1.2 km), and detonated on 28 July 1966. Other sources describe CHASE 6 as the Liberty ship ''Robert Louis Stevenson'' loaded with 2000 tons of explosives at

in July 1967 as part of the ONR and ARPA investigation to detect underwater nuclear tests. ''Robert Louis Stevenson'' failed to sink as rapidly as had been predicted and drifted into water too shallow to actuate the hydrostatic-pressure detonators. The tug ''Tatnuck'' involved in towing ''Robert Louis Stevenson'' was reported by ''Proceedings'' as towing ''Izaac Van Zandt'' a year earlier for CHASE 5.

CHASE 7

''Michael J. Monahan'' was loaded with overage

motors at the

Naval Weapons Station Charleston Naval Support Activity Charleston, originally designated Naval Weapons Station Charleston, is a base of the United States Navy located on the west bank of the Cooper River, in the cities of Goose Creek and Hanahan South Carolina.17,000 acres ...

and sunk without detonation on 30 April 1967.

CHASE 8

The first chemical weapons disposal via the program was in 1967 and designated CHASE 8. CHASE 8 disposed of mustard gas and GB-filled M-55 rockets. All of the cargo was placed aboard a merchant hulk (the S.S. ''Corporal

Eric G. Gibson Eric Gunnar Gibson (October 3, 1919 – January 28, 1944) was a United States Army soldier and a recipient of the United States military's highest decoration—the Medal of Honor—for his actions in World War II. Biography Born in Sweden, Gibson ...

'') and was then sunk in deep water off the continental shelf.

CHASE 9

''Eric G. Gibson'' was sunk on 15 June 1967.

CHASE 10

CHASE 10 dumped 3000 tons of United States Army

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 ...

filled rockets encased in concrete vaults. Public controversy delayed CHASE 10 disposal until August 1970. Public awareness of operation CHASE 10 was increased by mass media reporting following delivery of information from

the Pentagon The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense. It was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As a symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase ''The Pentagon'' is often used as a meton ...

to the office of U.S. Representative Richard McCarthy in 1969. Both American television and print media followed the story with heavy coverage. In 1970, 58 separate reports were aired on the three major network news programs on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

, ABC and

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

concerning Operation CHASE. Similarly, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' included Operation CHASE coverage in 42 separate issues during 1970, 21 of those in the month of August.

CHASE 11

CHASE 11 occurred in June 1968 and disposed of United States Army GB and VX, all sealed in tin containers.

CHASE 12

CHASE 12, in August 1968, again disposed of United States Army mustard agent and was numerically (although not chronologically) the final mission to dispose of chemical weapons.

Aftermath

Operation CHASE was exposed to the public during a time when the army was under increasing public criticism, especially the army's

Chemical Corps 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 unti ...

. CHASE was one of the incidents which led to the near-disbanding of the

in the aftermath of the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

. Concerns were raised over the program's effect on the ocean environment as well as the risk of chemical weapons washing up on shore. The concerns led to the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act of 1972, which prohibited such future missions. Pike, John.
Operation CHASE
, 27 April 2005, ''Globalsecurity.org''. Retrieved 26 November 2007. After a treaty was drafted by the United Nations' London Convention in 1972, an international ban came into effect as well.

References

{{U.S. chemical weapons

Chase Chase or CHASE may refer to: Businesses * Chase Bank, a national bank based in New York City, New York * Chase Aircraft (1943–1954), a defunct American aircraft manufacturing company * Chase Coaches, a defunct bus operator in England * Chase Co ...

Chemical weapons demilitarization Ocean pollution Military projects of the United States