Operation WhiteCoat reunion

White Coat veterans gather for anniversary
Originally published September 21, 2008

By Mark Ford
Special to the News-Post
http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display.htm?StoryID=80472

Medical history came to Frederick on Saturday with the 35th anniversary celebrating the end of Project White Coat.

A total of 94 White Coat veterans from 26 states gathered at the Seventh-Day Adventist Church on Jefferson Pike to remember and honor the service of more than 2,200 fellow Adventists who volunteered to be human test subjects in the heated days of the Cold War.

"I was the first one, of three, to put our nose in the eight-ball," said Ken Jones, who traveled from Riverside, Calif. "We breathed in the Q-fever germ. Jan. 25, 1955. I did not get sick, none of us did. But the next three did."

Veterans began arriving Friday evening and continued all through the next day.

"We know of at least 15 that couldn't come because of the damage from Hurricane Ike," said Frank Damazo, one of the event's organizers.

Frederick Mayor Jeff Holtzinger presented a letter from Gov. Martin O'Malley commending the veterans.

"This is really very much an honor to be in the same room with those gentlemen," Holtzinger said. "It demonstrates the importance of the research that's been done and the service that these gentlemen gave in order to come at something that was a very real threat."

A primary purpose of the White Coat program was to test the effectiveness of methods used to disperse biological agents, and to develop countermeasures and treatments that could protect soldiers and citizens in the event of an attack.

"Project White Coat predated (The United States Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases) but it had the same mission so far as developing countermeasures," said Col. John Skvorak, commander of USAMRIID. "We learned a lot about these diseases, their signs and symptoms and treatments. They've helped us develop many of the processes and procedures and equipment that we use for safety."

U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-6th, presented a letter of commendation from President Bush, which lauded the men for their courage.

"We are honoring these veterans who served as sort of guinea pigs in the biological warfare program that we were once very much involved in," Bartlett said. "We meet frequently, but there are fewer and fewer each time because it was a long time ago."

In "For God and Country," author Robert Mole writes that White Coat volunteers were drawn almost exclusively from Seventh-day Adventist draftees who, as registered conscientious objectors, were stationed at Fort Sam Houston near San Antonio, to be trained as medics.

When the White Coat project started in 1955, the volunteers were transferred to Fort Detrick. The program continued through 1973, and in that time a total of 153 research projects were conducted.

"I was drafted six months after I joined the church," said Jack Calkins of Richmond, Va., who served from 1969 to 1971. "I thought it was a dirty trick. But it turned out to be an incredible blessing."

The names of 104 White Coat veterans who have died were read to the assembly, and "Taps" was played as veterans stood to honor their memory.

"I received word today of two more who have passed away," said Damazo, who was made an honorary White Coat veteran for his efforts on their behalf. "This is the last anniversary gathering that I will help organize. Someone else will have to take it up now, but probably not in Frederick."

Other groups are active in San Antonio and in the state of Washington. The first ceremony was held at the Frederick church in 1985.

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The veterans of the Edgewood Arsenal chemical weapons and drug experiments have never held a reunion that I am aware of, maybe they will but given the fact that we are dying at a high rate it may never happen, the last medical study in FY2000 shows that 40% of the Edgewood veterans are already deceased and of the 4022 survivors 54% of them are disabled for a combined death and disability rate of 74.43% we are dying off to fast and the days of reunions may be past. At least this group was honored by the government and not ignored like the other "test vets" have been done by DOD and Congress.

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