MeDotOrg wrote:MeDotOrg wrote:I had no idea the U.S. shipped mustard gas agent in WWII. (I assume 'agent' means it's a precursor to mustard gas.) Do you have any idea what its intended use was?Maksutov wrote:In this instance, "agent" meant mustard gas. Military categories included blister, nerve, blood, tear and other incapacitating agents. At low temperatures, HD/HT (mustard) looked a lot like thick maple syrup. The deaths and injuries from the cloud across the town must have been horrific.
Early in my government career I inventoried one ton storage containers of various agents at an Army installation. They were stamped with the date they were filled. There were mustard and nerve agents dating from 1940. We were prepared to use them to fill various munitions, Geneva conventions or not. Churchill was prepared to use them against the Nazis at one point during WW2. They have always been in the background but are very problematic and unpopular weapons.
Thanks for the follow up information, much appreciated.
The only weird trivia I could offer in return: I interviewed a chemical professor at USC who was a part of the Manhattan Project. When the first atomic bomb was exploded at Alamogordo, There were large copper balls by the tower where the bomb was exploded. I don't remember the exact science, but when the bomb exploded the copper broke down into elements that were capable of generating vast amounts of birth defects, far more than if they had not been there. No one accounted for the copper balls initially, and it was assumed that the bomb would cause massive amounts of birth defects, far more than actually occurred. But the government continued apace with the project.
The other piece of bomb trivia I love has to do with the first Hydrogen Bomb, exploded at the bikini atoll in 1952. The bomb created the hottest temperatures ever seen on planet earth, and several new elements were discovered. Now the project name for the hydrogen bomb was Project Panda, so there was block of physicists who wanted to name one of the new elements Pandamonium . I can't think of a better name for an element born in a hydrogen bomb, but they ended with boring names like Lawrencium and Berkelium.
My parents and my brother were living at Nellis Air Force Base in the early 1950s (my father was a USAF NCO). They were able to see the mushroom cloud from the nearby Nevada Test Site tests. My mother remembered seeing one while she was pregnant with me.
I've also been in a Biolevel 3 laboratory but I didn't suit up for the core. I was only visiting. I've had a few whacky government experiences. Close encounters with WMDs. And always as a civilian.