Editing Fort Detrick (section)

==History==
Five farms originally constituted what is today known as "Area A" with {{convert|800|acre|ha}}, or the main post area of Fort Detrick, where most installation activities are located. "Area B" – known as "The Farm" and consisting of nearly {{convert|400|acre|ha}} – 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 {{convert|16|acre|ha}} on the banks of the [[Monocacy River]].

===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 landing|emergency]] [[airfield]]s between [[Cleveland, Ohio]], and [[Washington, D.C.]], until 1938. The field was named in honor of squadron [[flight surgeon]] Major [[Frederick L. Detrick]] who served in France during [[World War I]] and died in June 1931 of a [[myocardial infarction|heart attack]]. The first military presence there was the encampment, on 10 August 1931 (two months after the Major's death), of his unit: the [[104th Fighter Squadron|104th Observation Squadron]] of the 29th Division, [[Maryland National Guard]].  The Squadron flew [[Airco DH.4|de Havilland observation biplanes]] and [[Curtiss JN-4|Curtiss JN-4 "Jennies"]].<ref>{{cite web |author=Capt. Wayde Minami |url=https://www.175wg.ang.af.mil/News/story/id/123203496/ |title=Fort Detrick Named for Maryland Flight Surgeon |publisher=175wg.ang.af.mil |access-date=2012-07-31 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120312152155/http://www.175wg.ang.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123203496 |archive-date=2012-03-12 }}</ref>

A [[concrete]] and [[Asphalt concrete|tarmac]] 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]]. 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]]. 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]], [[United States Army Air Corps|U.S. Army Air Corps]] 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]] 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.airfieldsfreeman.com/MD/Airfields_MD_Frederick.htm#ftdetrick|title=Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields: Maryland: Frederick area}}</ref>

===Camp Detrick (1943–56)===
On 9 March 1943, the government purchased {{convert|154|acre|ha}} encompassing the original {{convert|92|acre|ha}} and re-christened the facility "Camp Detrick".<ref>{{Cite web
|url=http://www.detrick.army.mil/cutting_edge/chapter03.cfm
|title=Cutting Edge, The History of Fort Detrick, Chapter 3 Building an Installation
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131005110001/http://www.detrick.army.mil/cutting_edge/chapter03.cfm
|archive-date=2013-10-05
|quote=In 1943, the government purchased 154 acres encompassing the original 90 acres and established Camp Detrick, perpetuating the name, Detrick Field.
}}</ref> The same year saw the establishment of the [[U.S. Army Biological Warfare Laboratories]] (USBWL), responsible for pioneering research into [[biocontainment]], [[decontamination]], [[Sterilization (microbiology)#Chemical sterilization|gaseous sterilization]], and [[chemical agent|agent purification]]. The first commander, [[Lieutenant colonel (United States)|Lt. Col.]] [[William S. Bacon]], and his successor, [[Colonel (United States)|Col.]] [[Martin B. Chittick]], oversaw the initial $1.25 million renovation and construction of the base.<ref>{{Cite web
|url=http://www.detrick.army.mil/cutting_edge/chapter04.cfm
|title=Cutting Edge, The History of Fort Detrick, Chapter 4 Birth of Science
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140404072115/http://www.detrick.army.mil/cutting_edge/chapter04.cfm
|archive-date=2014-04-04
|quote=Lieutenant Colonel William S. Bacon, the first commander, and his successor, Colonel Martin B. Chittick, oversaw the renovation and construction first estimated to cost $1.25 million.
}}</ref>

====World War II and BW research (1943–45)====
{{main|United States biological weapons program}}
During World War II, Camp Detrick and the USBWL became the site of intensive [[biological warfare]] (BW) research using various [[pathogens]]. This research was originally overseen by pharmaceuticals executive [[George W. Merck]] and for many years was conducted by [[Ira Baldwin|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]], 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 {{convert|92|acre|ha}} of Detrick Field were also surrounded by extensive farmlands that could be procured if and when the BW effort was expanded.<ref>Covert, Norman M. (2000), [http://www.detrick.army.mil/cutting_edge/index.cfm?chapter=contents "A History of Fort Detrick, Maryland", 4th Edition: 2000.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120121062629/http://www.detrick.army.mil/cutting_edge/index.cfm?chapter=contents |date=2012-01-21 }}</ref>

The Army's [[Chemical Corps|Chemical Warfare Service]] 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]] for developing the Atomic Bomb".<ref>Clendenin, Lt. Col. Richard M. (1968), ''Science and Technology at Fort Detrick, 1943–1968''; [[Technical Information Division]]</ref> 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 Corps (United States Army)|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.<ref>Covert (2000), ''Op. cit.''</ref>

After the defeat of Japan, the researchers working at [[Unit 731]] were given immunity from prosecution. In return, director [[Shirō Ishii]] provided "8,000 slides of tissue from human and animal dissections" from the experiments, which were reportedly stored at Fort Detrick.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Dahl |first=Tracy |date=1983-05-26 |title=Japan's Germ Warriors |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1983/05/26/japans-germ-warriors/a0149d21-ba27-460e-a807-d3db942ba507/ |access-date=2022-05-15 |issn=0190-8286}}</ref>

====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]] that the public learned of the war-time research in biological weapons.<ref>Clendenin (1968), ''Op. Cit.''</ref>

In 1952, the Army purchased over {{convert|500|acre|ha}} 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]].<ref name="washingtonpost.com">Davis, Aaron, Michael E. Ruane and Nelson Hernandez, "[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/01/AR2008080101616.html Lab And Community Make For Uneasy Neighbors]", ''[[Washington Post]]'', August 2, 2008, Pg. 10.</ref>

There was a building on the base, [[Building 470]], locally referred to as "[[Anthrax]] 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.<ref name="washingtonpost.com"/>

From 1945 to 1955 under [[Project Paperclip]] and its successors, the U.S. government recruited over 1,600 [[German people|German]] and [[Austrian people|Austrian]] 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]], [[Erich Traub]] and [[Kurt Blome]], 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.<ref>Peter Knight, Conspiracy Theories in American History: An Encyclopedia, Volume One. ABC-CLIO, 2003.</ref>

====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:

<blockquote>Many experiments that tested various biological agents on human subjects, referred to as [[Operation Whitecoat]], 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]] to obtain more information about the dangers of the biological tests, [[Seventh-day Adventist Church|Seventh-day Adventists]] (SDAs) who were [[conscientious objector]]s were recruited for the studies.<ref>Staff Report prepared for the committee on veterans' affairs December 8, 1994 John D. Rockefeller IV, West Virginia, Chairman at [http://www.gulfweb.org/bigdoc/rockrep.cfm gulfweb.org] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060813164326/http://gulfweb.org/bigdoc/rockrep.cfm |date=2006-08-13 }}</ref></blockquote>

The Army purchased an additional {{convert|147|acre|ha}} in 1946 to increase the size of the original "Area A" as well as {{convert|398|acre|ha}} located west of Area A, but not contiguous to it, to provide a test area known as Area B.<ref>{{Cite web
|url=http://www.detrick.army.mil/cutting_edge/chapter03.cfm
|title=Cutting Edge, The History of Fort Detrick, Chapter 3 Building an Installation
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131005110001/http://www.detrick.army.mil/cutting_edge/chapter03.cfm
|archive-date=2013-10-05
|quote=In September 1946, an additional 147 acres were purchased to increase the size of the original Area A location. At the same time 398 acres located west of Area A, but not contiguous to this area, were purchased to provide a test area. This parcel was located west of Rosemont Avenue, then Yellow Springs Pike, bordering Montevue Lane on the south, near the old Alms House, north by Kemp Lane and Rocky Springs Road and the Krantz family property along today's Shookstown Road. It was named Area B.
}}</ref> In 1952, another {{convert|502.76|acre|ha|1}} were purchased between West 7th Street and Oppossumtown Pike to expand the permanent research and development facilities.<ref>{{Cite web
|url=http://www.detrick.army.mil/cutting_edge/chapter03.cfm
|title=Cutting Edge, The History of Fort Detrick, Chapter 3 Building an Installation
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131005110001/http://www.detrick.army.mil/cutting_edge/chapter03.cfm
|archive-date=2013-10-05
|quote=In 1952, the Army purchased 502.76 acres of land located between West 7th Street and Opossumtown Pike to expand the permanent research and development facilities.
}}</ref>

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 people|Japanese]] 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]] 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 [[People's Republic of China|Chinese]] and [[North Korea]]ns were not simply engaged in a [[propaganda]] 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.<ref>Jeffrey Alan Lockwood, Six Legged Soldiers: Using Insects as Weapons of War. Oxford, 2009.</ref>

===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 {{convert|3|acre|ha}} along the Rosemont Avenue fence in 1962, completing the present {{convert|1200|acre|ha}}.

On Veterans Day, November 11, 1969,  President [[Richard M. Nixon]] asked the Senate to ratify the 1925 [[Geneva Protocol]] prohibiting the use of chemical and biological weapons. Nixon assured Fort Detrick its research would continue. On November 25, 1969, Nixon made [[Statement on Chemical and Biological Defense Policies and Programs|a statement outlawing offensive biological research]] in the United States. Since that time any research done at Fort Detrick has allegedly been purely defensive in nature,<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=History :: U.S. Army Fort Detrick|url=https://home.army.mil/detrick/index.php/about/history|access-date=2021-12-15|website=home.army.mil}}</ref> focusing on diagnostics, preventives and treatments for BW infections. This research is undertaken by the [[United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases|U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases]] (USAMRIID) which transitioned from the previous [[United States Army Medical Unit|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 [[United States Department of Health and Human Services|U.S Department of Health and Human Services]] during the 1970s and later. The Frederick National Cancer Research and Development Center (now the [[Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research]]) was established in 1971 on a {{convert|69|acre|ha|adj=on}} parcel in Area A ceded by the installation.<ref name=":0" />

In 1989 base researchers identified the [[Ebola]] virus in a monkey imported to the area from the Philippines.<ref name="washingtonpost.com"/>

====Post-Cold War (1990–present)====
In 1990, Hazelton Research Products' Reston Quarantine Unit in [[Reston, Virginia]] suffered a mysterious outbreak of fatal illness among a shipment of [[crab-eating macaque]] monkeys imported from the Philippines.  The company's veterinary pathologist sent tissue samples from dead animals to the [[United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases]] (USAMRIID) at Fort Detrick, where a laboratory test known as an [[ELISA]] 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]]'' (REBOV) after the location of the incident.<ref name="Preston">{{cite book | title=The Hot Zone | url=https://archive.org/details/hotzone00presrich | url-access=registration | publisher=Random House | author=Preston, Richard | year=1994 | location=New York | pages=[https://archive.org/details/hotzone00presrich/page/300 300] | isbn=978-0679437840}}</ref>

{{further|United States biological defense program}}
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]]'s death and the experiments conducted at Fort Detrick. The book is based on documents released under [[Freedom of Information Act (United States)|FOIA]] and numerous other documents and interviews to the police and investigators.<ref>"A Terrible Mistake:The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA's Secret Cold War Experiments" – by H. P. Albareeli Jr 2009 publisher by Trine Day LLC accessed August 14, 2010 at [http://aterriblemistake.com/index.html aterriblemistake.com] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140712094904/http://aterriblemistake.com/index.html |date=July 12, 2014 }}</ref><ref>"Son probes strange death of WMD worker" – Scott Shane writing for ''[[The Baltimore Sun]]'' (September 12, 2004), accessed January 20, 2009 at [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/09/12/MNG468MM8N1.DTL sfgate.com]</ref>

In the 1980s and 1990s, KGB disinformation agent [[Jakob Segal]] claimed that Fort Detrick was the site where the United States government "invented" [[HIV]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Johnson|first1=I.|title=German scientist couple presses theory that AIDS was created at Fort Detrick|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/1992/02/21/german-scientist-couple-presses-theory-that-aids-was-created-at-fort-detrick/|access-date=25 January 2017|work=The Baltimore Sun|date=21 February 1992}}</ref>

USAMRIID had been the principal consultant to the FBI on scientific aspects of the [[2001 Anthrax Attacks]], which had infected 22 people and killed five.<ref>{{cite news|title=Anthrax scientist commits suicide as FBI closes in |url=http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gH1fcT1QrjvwIaAZTO63_lxHs9EQD929A37O0 |agency=Associated Press |access-date=2008-08-01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080805031940/http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gH1fcT1QrjvwIaAZTO63_lxHs9EQD929A37O0 |archive-date=August 5, 2008 }}</ref> 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]] was about to lay charges relating to the incidents. The scientist, [[Bruce Edwards Ivins]], 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 [[United States Environmental Protection Agency|Environmental Protection Agency]] said it planned to add the base to the [[Superfund]] list of the most polluted places in the country.<ref name="washingtonpost.com"/> 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]] in [[Silver Spring, Maryland]] was transferred to the command of Fort Detrick in 2008 as a result of the [[2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission|Base Realignment and Closure]] process.<ref>{{cite web|title=Fort Detrick 2010 Post Guide|url=http://ww2.dcmilitary.com/special_sections/sw/090110Ft_Detrick/Ft_Detrick_2010jhc.pdf|access-date=26 July 2014|page=6|year=2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111010122812/http://ww2.dcmilitary.com/special_sections/sw/090110Ft_Detrick/Ft_Detrick_2010jhc.pdf|archive-date=10 October 2011}}</ref>

{{as of|2008}} 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.<ref name="baltimoresun.com">Wood, David, "[https://archive.today/20130117205123/http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-te.detrick02aug02,0,5108456.story Variety Of Research Carried Out At Fort Detrick]", ''[[The Baltimore Sun]]'', August 2, 2008.</ref>

In 2020, a [[COVID-19 misinformation#United States biological weapon|conspiracy theory regarding COVID-19]] arose that alleged that the [[SARS-CoV-2]] virus was developed by the [[United States Army]] at Fort Detrick.<ref>{{cite news|author=Helen Davidson|date=20 January 2021|title=China revives conspiracy theory of US army link to Covid|newspaper=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/20/china-revives-conspiracy-theory-of-us-army-link-to-covid}}</ref> This allegation has been promoted by [[Government of China|Chinese government]] officials, most notably [[Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China|Ministry of Foreign Affairs]] spokesman [[Zhao Lijian]], who has called for an inspection of the facility, although the allegation remains baseless.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Ang |first1=Katerina |last2=Taylor |first2=Adam |title=As U.S. calls for focus on covid origins, China repeats speculation about U.S. military base |url=https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/as-us-calls-for-focus-on-covid-origins-china-repeats-speculation-about-us-military-base/ar-AAKrPGx?ocid=uxbndlbing |access-date=29 May 2021 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=May 28, 2021}}</ref> A petition organized by the [[Chinese Communist Party]]-owned tabloid ''[[Global Times]]'' urging the WHO to investigate Fort Detrick for COVID origins reportedly amassed 25 million signatures.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Levin |first1=Dan |title=Florida Sees Worst of Pandemic So Far |url=https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/08/25/world/covid-delta-variant-vaccine |access-date=29 August 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=25 August 2021}}</ref>