Gwyn Winfield reports on the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center’s centennial
Chemically aged W
e are running out of CBRN centennials to celebrate. There was a bumper year in 2015
following on from the initial world war one release of chlorine in 1915, and 1916 saw the opening of European chemical centres like Porton Down. As Jan Medemma points out, we have 1917 to thank for the centennial of mustard agent. Due to the late entry of the US into the war, we also have the centennial of the opening of Edgewood Chemical and Biological Centre (ECBC) to celebrate in 2017. With the exception of some of the smaller European chemical corps, the next major celebration that awaits the CBRN community will come in 2037 when tabun hits its century. ECBC certainly made more of the
centennial than other research organisations have. A day of activities was organised around a new statue that had been commissioned, but was not on show. The great and the good of the US CBRN community stepped up to praise the facility and ruminate over its 100 year legacy. Acting director of the centre, Dr Eric Moore, was first up and as such dug deep into ECBC’s roots in search of future strength. “Why was Edgewood chosen? The original capabilities for CW development happened in US universities, and then due to the need for great transport links and proximity to DC, Aberdeen proving ground was chosen. “Thanks to the proximity to the
Chesapeake and the Atlantic it had a great capability for transporting munitions across the ocean to Europe. So even though it was originally designed as a chemical shell production plant, it was always there to respond to world events. It also led in research, so the M1 mask, which was fielded in 1918, was an improvement over the British and French masks then in use. “If we fast forward to ECBC in the
cold war, when the USSR embarked on weapons to terrify the world, ECBC and
other institutes never had a capability to match the Russians, but still managed to keep up, even with fewer people, and made the best detectors and protection devices. The Amerithrax attacks resulted in ECBC developing leading screening processes and most recently as regards Syria, we made history by miniaturising hydrolysis equipment that could work at sea – and that was momentous.” The CBRN history
of the centre is well known, and will be even better understood thanks to a new book on the subject that the team were handing out. Less appreciated, however, is the role ECBC played in the equal rights movement, as Dr Moore explained. “What we are celebrating is the people, since they made all this happen. ECBC has always been a progressive force in society. Firstly, we were a major employer of women, with nurses working on chemical casualties and the respirator production line. In terms of race, African Americans helped build the original Edgewood arsenal and by world war two, half the workforce was black. We expect everyone to play a role in current missions and also in the future. The past 100 years have been marvellous and further wonders and challenges
What the future statue will eventually look like ©ECBC
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CBRNe WORLD June 2017 CBRNe Convergence, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indiana, USA, 6 - 8 Nov 2017
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