Dugway Proving Ground
The attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 jarred the United States and its military forces. They suddenly realized a need for increased military capacity in many areas including more knowledge in chemical and biological warfare.
On Feb. 6, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt withdrew 126,720 acres of Utah land from the public domain for use by the War Department.
Dugway Proving Ground (DPG) was established soon after and testing was underway by summer. Tests included pioneer work on mortars, incendiary bombs, chemical weapons, and modified agents as spray disseminated from aircraft. In 1945 the installation size was increased when part of the Wendover Bombing Range was transferred to the proving ground.
After the war, DPG was combined with the Deseret Chemical Depot to form a single command called the Dugway Deseret Command and later the Western Chemical Center.
The installation was placed on standby status until 1950 when it resumed active status and acquired an additional 279,000 acres of land. Work continued through the 1950s with added responsibilities as defense weaponry evolved.
In 1954, DPG was declared a permanent installation. In 1968, the Fort Douglas-based Deseret Test Center and DPG combined and became known as the Deseret Test Center until 1973 when it again became Dugway Proving Ground and part of the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command.
Today, DPG encompasses nearly 800,000 acres with state-of-the-art laboratories, test chambers and extensive field-test grids, and is the nation’s Major Range Test Facility Base (MRTFB) responsible for testing and evaluating nearly all Department of Defense (DoD) chemical and biological defense capabilities and support systems. Along with MRTFB activities, Dugway supports additional critical U.S. Army and DoD testing and training, including the development, testing, and integration of unmanned aircraft systems. For more than 75 years, the important work accomplished at Dugway has strengthened the readiness of our nation’s defenders against persistent and evolving threats.
Training
Dugway's main operations include the "BRAUCH" training facility, constructed from various shipping containers. It simulates underground environments for military training. There are also various buildings and rooms that serve specific purposes. Like the decontamination testing chamber, the wind-tunnel testing room, and the material test facility.
The BRAUCH facility is made up of old shipping containers that are hooked together to simulate an underground environment such as caves and tunnel complexes, so military units such as special forces can train for those environments.
The Smartman Laboratory facility, which houses the Smartman dummy, a model that's used to simulate human contact with chemical agents, including the infamous VX nerve agent. Specifically, the Smartman helps the lab develop more effective individual protection respiratory equipment,— essentially, gas masks.
A variety of chemists, chemical analysts, and technicians work on-site. And the use of airtight chambers and gas masks is not only common, but mandatory. Despite all of this dangerous experimentation, the work done at Dugway hasn't always been properly contained.
The Dugway sheep incident That marked the start of a worrisome track record. It happened when overhead planes spewed out the nerve agent into the wind, accidentally sending it into nearby farmland in Skull Valley. Within the next couple of days, farmers found thousands of sheep dead in their fields. The Army compensated the farmers and lent them bulldozers to bury the sheep. But the accident sparked a whole debate on the use of chemical weapons in warfare.
In 1994 a Senate hearing on veterans' health focused specifically on Dugway veterans and civilians. A report found that people at Dugway were exposed to biological and chemical simulants believed to be safe at the time, but that the Army had later stopped using many of them because "they realized they were not as safe as previously believed."
One veteran, who was accidentally sprayed in the face with the chemical DMMP in 1984, found himself wheezing and coughing the next day — symptoms that ended up lasting several weeks. Despite this, he was given only cough medicine and antibiotics by the Dugway Army Hospital. The Dugway Safety Office assured him that the chemical was safe. But by 1988, officials at Dugway had reevaluated the simulant's danger and were concerned it could cause cancer and kidney damage.
In 2011, the facility slipped up again: It went on lockdown after workers lost a vial containing the VX nerve agent. Nobody was permitted to enter or exit the facility, not even the employees.
Lack of Training and Corruption
In 2016, the CDC and the Department of Defense launched a major investigation when a review team found that Dugway had been operating dangerously for several years without the government's knowledge.
The reports singled out the head colonel in command at Dugway, Brig. Gen. William King.
The Army's accountability investigation recognized King as unqualified, lacking the education and training to effectively oversee biosafety procedures crucial to Dugway's operation. The report admonished him, saying he "repeatedly deflected blame" and "minimized the severity of incidents." It even says King "fails to recognize" how serious the incidents truly were. And how serious were the incidents, exactly? Well, under King's command, the facility mistakenly shipped live anthrax to other labs. And not just once, but multiple times. For over a decade.
That same report revealed that workers had been regularly and deliberately manipulating data in important records. Records meant to verify that pathogens being transported elsewhere were killed and safe for researchers to handle without protective gear.
What Girls & Guys Said
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Holy fuck lol shipping live anthrax without peoples knowledge that’s messed. Im sure there are lots of secrets yet to uncover
Yeah it’s definitely a mysterious place, people consider it Area 52, however the next mytake will show the real Area 52.
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