MUSTARD GAS TESTING ON U.S SOLDIERS

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In 1942, the M3 Gas Mask was standardized in the U.S military. Clocking in at about 3.5 pounds, it was composed of a molded rubber facepiece from an interior anti-fogging nose cup as well as a M10A1 filter canister. The M3 was manufactured from both grey rubber and black Neoprene (synthetic rubber). This gas mask was one of many that were used during the mustard gas experiments and would often be one of the only means of defense the soldiers would have against the mustard gas when they were forced to enter gas chambers.

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It was during 1943 that the US Navy was trying to examine the effectiveness of mustard gas, which was a new development for them, so at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington they would ask if soldiers would participate in an experiment that could possibly shorten the war and that volunteers would get two weeks’ vacation and an award in exchange for participating. It was when the boys, fresh from boot camp, got to the laboratory that appeared to be more like a hospital where they were given gas masks and asked to be taken into concealed rooms without being told the experiment involved mustard gas, those who did participate would suffer detrimental burns internally and externally.

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In some iterations of the experiment the gas was used in liquid form which appeared as a yellow gel like substance and would be placed on the soldier’s arms. Liquid or gas, the sulfur based chemical damages DNA and would cause severe blistering of the skin and respiratory tract. Over 13 million units of the M3 mask were produced as a result in order to better prepare troops against mustard gas from the enemy as well as from themselves on the battlefield. The masks would be also used in combat simulations where soldiers would be told to go into open fields and would then release chemicals out in the open.

Rollins Edwards was one soldier out of 60,000 that was assigned to partake in the tests. Without being told the true severity of what was about to take place, Edwards alongside other volunteers were led into rooms with fans blowing across blocks of ice in order to increase the humidity. Once inside the regions of their bodies that would sweat the most such as the armpits, inner thighs and neck would suffer the hardest blow from the gas slowly causing blisters the size of half-dollar coins. The men would scream and try to break out, Edwards described that "It felt like you were on fire". Most of the experiments were segregated in order to test the effects of the gas on different races.

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Sources:

Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives/U.S. Army

Rhein, Reginald. “US Government Will Compensate Gas Victims. (World War II Soldiers Who Were Deliberately Exposed to Mustard Gas).” British Medical Journal, vol. 306, no. 6873, 1993, p. 292.

Dickerson, Caitlin. “Secret World War II Chemical Experiments Tested Troops By Race.” NPR, NPR, 22 June 2015, www.npr.org/2015/06/22/415194765/u-s-troops-tested-by-race-in-secret-world-war-ii-chemical-experiments.

“M3-10A1-6 Lightweight Service Mask.” Gas Mask and Respirator Wiki, gasmaskandrespirator.fandom.com/wiki/M3-10A1-6_Lightweight_Service_Mask.