Researchers working withClass III cabinets at the USBWL,Camp Detrick,Maryland (1940s). Cabinet air was filtered and drawn by negative pressure from the room and cabinet systems.
The USBWL was created afterSecretary of War HenryL. Stimson requested theNational Academy of Sciences (NAS) in 1941 to review the feasibility of biological warfare (BW). The following year, the NAS reported that BW might be feasible and recommended that steps be taken to reduce U.S. vulnerability to BW attacks. After that, the official policy of the United States was first to deter the use of BW against U.S. forces and secondarily to retaliate if deterrence failed.
In 1969, the USBWL ceased to exist when PresidentRichard Nixon disestablished all offensive BW studies and directed the destruction of all stockpiles of BW agents and munitions.[6]
Three deaths related to occupationalbio-agent exposures occurred during the USBWL program. (Additionally, an unnamedlieutenant died in a pump explosion in Building 201 in 1943.)
William Allen Boyles, a 46-year-old microbiologist, contractedanthrax and died on 25 November 1951. Boyles Street, on Fort Detrick, is named in his honor. His internal organs were harvested after his death to isolate the anthrax contained in them.[7]
Joel Eugene Willard, a 53-year-old electrician, died in 1958 after contractingpulmonary anthrax. Willard Place, on Fort Detrick, is named in his honor.
Albert Nickel, a 53-year-old animal caretaker, died in 1964 after being bitten by an animal infected withMachupo virus. Nickel Place, on Fort Detrick, is named in his honor.
The army made details of these deaths public in 1975.
The "Fort Detrick Reunion Group" met most years between 1991 and 2008 when they disbanded for lack of participants. When they met atNallin Pond in 1994, their numbers peaked at 400. They consisted of a diverse group of USBWL participants ranging from animal caretakers to top scientists.[8]
^Sulfide, National Research Council (US) Subcommittee on Zinc Cadmium (1997),"Historical Background of the U.S. Biologic-Warfare Program",Toxicologic Assessment of the Army's Zinc Cadmium Sulfide Dispersion Tests, National Academies Press (US), retrieved2025-07-18
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