ptsd Edgewood Arsenal Experiments

[The Old medic]

Between 1952 and 1975, the US Army acknowledged that 7,200 GI's were involved in the medical experimentation program. These guys were exposed to all kinds of war gases, to hallucinogenic drugs, to all kinds of stuff.

I am one of the "medical volunteers". I had no idea that they had tested psychoactive drugs on me, until Sept, 2009. I asked the National Personnel Records Center for a copy of my 201 (Personnel) File, and enclosed in it were 4 pages of medical records from Edgewood Arsenal. Clearly written on one of those pages were the words, "OK for psycho chems" followed by a set of initials.

I contacted the web site that the Edgewood Arsenal Web Pages for medical volunteers refers you to, in order to discover what they actually tested on you. I gave them my register number from Edgewood Arsenal (which is clearly shown on those pages of medical records).

To my surprise, I was informed that I do not appear on the official Army list of persons tested at Edgewood Arsenal. I was then asked to describe my experiences there, and after a couple of minutes, the man I was speaking to (A Naval Captain in rank) said, "Well, that's 100% consistent with the kinds of testing they were doing there".

He then informed me that "other agencies" were also doing testing at the same time, and if I had been tested by one of them, the Army would not have kept my records.

I asked, "You mean the Army supplied people to other agencies for testing, but didn't keep any records on them or what was tested on them"? He replied that this was correct.

SO, IF YOU WERE AT EDGEWOOD ARSENAL AS A MEDICAL VOLUNTEER, YOU MAY NOT HAVE BEEN OFFICIALLY A U.S. ARMY MEDICAL VOLUNTEER! Even though you were assigned to an Army unit (Company B in most cases), you were under Army supervision, you were eating Army chow, you were receiving Army Pay and Army TDY pay, you were not in the U.S. Army testing program, so they may well have no record on you at all.

Isn't that great? The Army has told Congress that it has a complete list of all of those volunteers, and what they were tested with, but that was not the truth. They supplied personnel to other agencies, and they kept no records at all of what was done to those ARMY personnel that they "loaned our".

So, it wasn't bad enough the the U.S. Army tested LSD, PCP, BZ and God alone knows what other crap on its own personnel, but it also loaned out its personnel to other agencies and there are no known records on what those personnel were tested with.

Lucky us, to have been tested by such a benevolent government.

I lost my first wife, my Army career, another marriage, had a lifteime of PTSD symptoms, and radically changed as a person after being at Edgewood Arsenal. I went from being a happy-go-lucky, very outgoing guy, to being a recluse, suspicious of virtually everyone, with no friends and unable to stay in one place for any length of time. I never had a temper, after Edgewood I would explode at the drop of a pin. I have had flashbacks of that place for 42 years now, horrible nightmares, etc.

And now, I will likely never know what the heck they tested on me. I do know that it caused hallucinations, but which of many different drugs they used (or which combination of drugs), I will never know.

Lucky us, the Medical Volunteers of Edgewood Arsenal. We were promised medals, promotions and other good things would happen to us. Instead, all too many of us got a lifetime of misery, and we can not get any VA Disability for it; we can not sue the government for it; there is absolutely nothing that we can do to get any redress from our own government.

[RETIREDCGIS]

Between 1952 and 1975, the US Army acknowledged that 7,200 GI's were involved in the medical experimentation program. These guys were exposed to all kinds of war gases, to hallucinogenic drugs, to all kinds of stuff.

I am one of the "medical volunteers". I had no idea that they had tested psychoactive drugs on me, until Sept, 2009. I asked the National Personnel Records Center for a copy of my 201 (Personnel) File, and enclosed in it were 4 pages of medical records from Edgewood Arsenal. Clearly written on one of those pages were the words, "OK for psycho chems" followed by a set of initials.

I contacted the web site that the Edgewood Arsenal Web Pages for medical volunteers refers you to, in order to discover what they actually tested on you. I gave them my register number from Edgewood Arsenal (which is clearly shown on those pages of medical records).

To my surprise, I was informed that I do not appear on the official Army list of persons tested at Edgewood Arsenal. I was then asked to describe my experiences there, and after a couple of minutes, the man I was speaking to (A Naval Captain in rank) said, "Well, that's 100% consistent with the kinds of testing they were doing there".

He then informed me that "other agencies" were also doing testing at the same time, and if I had been tested by one of them, the Army would not have kept my records.

I asked, "You mean the Army supplied people to other agencies for testing, but didn't keep any records on them or what was tested on them"? He replied that this was correct.

SO, IF YOU WERE AT EDGEWOOD ARSENAL AS A MEDICAL VOLUNTEER, YOU MAY NOT HAVE BEEN OFFICIALLY A U.S. ARMY MEDICAL VOLUNTEER! Even though you were assigned to an Army unit (Company B in most cases), you were under Army supervision, you were eating Army chow, you were receiving Army Pay and Army TDY pay, you were not in the U.S. Army testing program, so they may well have no record on you at all.

Isn't that great? The Army has told Congress that it has a complete list of all of those volunteers, and what they were tested with, but that was not the truth. They supplied personnel to other agencies, and they kept no records at all of what was done to those ARMY personnel that they "loaned our".

So, it wasn't bad enough the the U.S. Army tested LSD, PCP, BZ and God alone knows what other crap on its own personnel, but it also loaned out its personnel to other agencies and there are no known records on what those personnel were tested with.

Lucky us, to have been tested by such a benevolent government.

I lost my first wife, my Army career, another marriage, had a lifteime of PTSD symptoms, and radically changed as a person after being at Edgewood Arsenal. I went from being a happy-go-lucky, very outgoing guy, to being a recluse, suspicious of virtually everyone, with no friends and unable to stay in one place for any length of time. I never had a temper, after Edgewood I would explode at the drop of a pin. I have had flashbacks of that place for 42 years now, horrible nightmares, etc.

And now, I will likely never know what the heck they tested on me. I do know that it caused hallucinations, but which of many different drugs they used (or which combination of drugs), I will never know.

Lucky us, the Medical Volunteers of Edgewood Arsenal. We were promised medals, promotions and other good things would happen to us. Instead, all too many of us got a lifetime of misery, and we can not get any VA Disability for it; we can not sue the government for it; there is absolutely nothing that we can do to get any redress from our own government.

[RETIREDCGIS]

Between 1952 and 1975, the US Army acknowledged that 7,200 GI's were involved in the medical experimentation program. These guys were exposed to all kinds of war gases, to hallucinogenic drugs, to all kinds of stuff.

I am one of the "medical volunteers". I had no idea that they had tested psychoactive drugs on me, until Sept, 2009. I asked the National Personnel Records Center for a copy of my 201 (Personnel) File, and enclosed in it were 4 pages of medical records from Edgewood Arsenal. Clearly written on one of those pages were the words, "OK for psycho chems" followed by a set of initials.

I contacted the web site that the Edgewood Arsenal Web Pages for medical volunteers refers you to, in order to discover what they actually tested on you. I gave them my register number from Edgewood Arsenal (which is clearly shown on those pages of medical records).

To my surprise, I was informed that I do not appear on the official Army list of persons tested at Edgewood Arsenal. I was then asked to describe my experiences there, and after a couple of minutes, the man I was speaking to (A Naval Captain in rank) said, "Well, that's 100% consistent with the kinds of testing they were doing there".

He then informed me that "other agencies" were also doing testing at the same time, and if I had been tested by one of them, the Army would not have kept my records.

I asked, "You mean the Army supplied people to other agencies for testing, but didn't keep any records on them or what was tested on them"? He replied that this was correct.

SO, IF YOU WERE AT EDGEWOOD ARSENAL AS A MEDICAL VOLUNTEER, YOU MAY NOT HAVE BEEN OFFICIALLY A U.S. ARMY MEDICAL VOLUNTEER! Even though you were assigned to an Army unit (Company B in most cases), you were under Army supervision, you were eating Army chow, you were receiving Army Pay and Army TDY pay, you were not in the U.S. Army testing program, so they may well have no record on you at all.

Isn't that great? The Army has told Congress that it has a complete list of all of those volunteers, and what they were tested with, but that was not the truth. They supplied personnel to other agencies, and they kept no records at all of what was done to those ARMY personnel that they "loaned our".

So, it wasn't bad enough the the U.S. Army tested LSD, PCP, BZ and God alone knows what other crap on its own personnel, but it also loaned out its personnel to other agencies and there are no known records on what those personnel were tested with.

Lucky us, to have been tested by such a benevolent government.

I lost my first wife, my Army career, another marriage, had a lifteime of PTSD symptoms, and radically changed as a person after being at Edgewood Arsenal. I went from being a happy-go-lucky, very outgoing guy, to being a recluse, suspicious of virtually everyone, with no friends and unable to stay in one place for any length of time. I never had a temper, after Edgewood I would explode at the drop of a pin. I have had flashbacks of that place for 42 years now, horrible nightmares, etc.

And now, I will likely never know what the heck they tested on me. I do know that it caused hallucinations, but which of many different drugs they used (or which combination of drugs), I will never know.

Lucky us, the Medical Volunteers of Edgewood Arsenal. We were promised medals, promotions and other good things would happen to us. Instead, all too many of us got a lifetime of misery, and we can not get any VA Disability for it; we can not sue the government for it; there is absolutely nothing that we can do to get any redress from our own government.

My MEDVOL registration number was 6856. January 1975 - April 1975 was my tour of duty. Yesterday I went to the VA for a Compensation and Pension physical exam. I have no clue of the procedure. Has any former Edgewood Arsenal participant ever received compensation?

[Testvet]

yes there are a few many if us "test vets" had other SC issues that did not have to bring the Edgewood issues into the awards......yes mention Edgewood and 90% of the time your claim will be denied very few claims are approved the ones that I do know that have been approved have been for PTSD caused by the symptoms that developed after Edgewood .........almost all of the SC Edgewood vets are SC because of PTSD everything is they tell you they can't prove it would have harmed you......