by Robert Williscroft

Created on: April 06, 2008   Last Updated: September 09, 2008

Dr. William Winkenwerder was the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs from October 2001 through mid-2007. On July 9, 2002, he announced an expansion of the Shipboard Hazard and Defense (SHAD) investigation.

"DoD has an obligation to all service members - past and present - to keep them informed of any event during their military career that might threaten their health. We are committed to providing the Veterans Administration with the medically relevant information as quickly and efficiently as possible," he said, as he revealed that team of investigators will travel to Dugway Proving Ground in mid-August to review Deseret Test Center records.

According to Department of Defense sources, The Shipboard Hazard and Defense program was a subset of Project 112, a chemical and biological weapons vulnerability-testing program conducted by the Deseret Test Center from 1963 to 1969. The tests consisted of joint exercises involving the Army's Deseret Test Center, several Army and Navy vessels and Marine Corps and Air Force aircraft. Some veterans have expressed concern that they may have been exposed to harmful substances during these classified tests.

To date, the Pentagon has published 12 fact sheets that chronicle ships and units involved in the tests, when the tests took place, and the substances to which the crews may have been exposed. So far, according to the DoD, investigators have identified approximately 2,700 to 2,800 service members involved in these 12 tests, many in more than one test.

The most critical element that had fallen out of my research was the astonishing fact that the DoD seemed to be dragging its feet on conducting the investigation, and appeared reluctant to release information it clearly already had.

Through its spokesman, Winkenwerder, the DoD now says that declassification of ship and personnel information for an additional 17 SHAD tests is under way. The DoD expects to publish additional fact sheets in early fall. According to the DoD, the work to be done at Dugway in August will complete the investigation of all Project 112 tests conducted by the Deseret Test Center.

Earlier reports from inside the DoD and elsewhere indicated that Project SHAD covered many more than these 29 acknowledged tests. From emails received here at DefenseWatch and from published news reports across the nation, it appears that the extent of these tests far exceeded the limited scope of the current DoD investigation. In fact, they have only revealed the tip

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