House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and the president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church were featured speakers this month when a group of veterans returned to Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md., to hear that they had been heroes.
DeLay spoke of the war against terrorism and said that the nation was once again turning to Fort Detrick to protect people against the terrible outcomes of biological and chemical attacks.
“Freedom will once again win,” he said, referring to previous battles and to the contributions that soldiers in Fort Detrick’s unique medical programs made. “We will not rest until the last terrorist on earth is either in a cell or a cemetery.”
Fort Detrick hosts the U.S. Army’s programs that create defenses against biological and chemical attacks. For 20 years, Operation Whitecoat was a key program at the fort. It tested and developed defenses for anthrax, yellow fever, Q-fever, tularemia and several forms of encephalitis.
The 2,300 Operation Whitecoat volunteers were mostly members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Jan Paulsen, president of the church, challenged the veterans to continue giving of themselves unselfishly. “The Lord finds ways through you to express compassion,” he said. “Look for ways to give your time and energy to reach out to the lives of others.”
Most of the veterans didn’t think of themselves as heroes. Many said they were just guys in the army. “They make too much of us,” said Marnelle McNeilus, a Whitecoat veteran from 1969 through 1971.
“In the army, I was just serving my time,” said Dallas Pfeiffer, a Whitecoat in the 1960s. “Only afterward did I get to find out we did great things that affected the whole world, military and civilian.”
More than 150 veterans from 32 states came to celebrate both the 30th year of the end of the Whitecoat program and the 60th anniversary of Fort Detrick.
“You have been called human research subjects. You also have been called heroes,” said Dr. Frank Damazo, who hosted the reunion.
Col. James Romano, deputy director of Fort Detrick and a medical researcher for 30 years, said that medical research always will involve people, and “the safety procedures used today are derived from the Whitecoats program.” The primary contribution of the Whitecoat research program was to develop vaccines and treatment regimens for the biological warfare that was just arising in the 1950s.
Some of the Whitecoat volunteers worried about being in a dangerous program. “There was a certain fear factor while I was being tested,” said John Wilson, who still lives in Frederick. “But I trusted the scientists that tested us.”
The trust wasn’t misplaced, according to a study released this month. The army surveyed the Whitecoat volunteers and found virtually no long-term negative effects on the health of the veterans.
Dominic Dibiase from Silver Spring, Md., was part of the program in 1959. “We worked with anthrax; now it’s back in the spotlight,” he says.
“My husband, Ken, said if he could pass the physical, he would relive the Whitecoat experience again,” said Sue Jones of Riverside, Calif. “Even though he didn’t bear arms in the military, he gave his body for his country. That was service in a different way.” Jones was one of first three Whitecoats tested, serving 1954-56.
Col. Arthur Anderson from Fort Detrick came to the Whitecoat reunion in 1998 to tell the veterans about the fruits of their Whitecoat service—the treatments and vaccines for some of the deadliest diseases known to man. “But I came away with a lot more—your stories of your bravery and courage,” he says. “Thank you.”
