Basic Training

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“It was the regular twelve weeks infantry training that all military personnel are required to take when they enter the service. It included all types of calisthenics, all kinds of weapons training, all descriptions on all types of guns, and etcetera. Including the gas chamber with different [chemical agents], mustard and all those gases used in 1939 that we were all subjected to.”

Editor's Note: Following World War I and throughout World War II, U.S. soldiers were used as test subjects by the U.S. military to study the effects of chemical agents. The soldiers were sworn to secrecy, and the tests were not declassified until 1993. Subsequent reporting has demonstrated that the soldiers were grouped by race so as to study differential effects of chemical agents on people with different skin colors or ethnic backgrounds.