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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class. It's a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello everybody, I'm Eves and you're tuned into

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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class, a show where we travel

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Speaker 1: back in time one day at a time. Today is

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Speaker 1: March seventeen. The day was March seventeenth, nineteen sixty eight.

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Speaker 1: The chief of the Ecology and Epidemiology branch of Dugway

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Speaker 1: Proving Ground got a call saying thousands of sheep were

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Speaker 1: found dead in the Skull Valley area of Utah. The

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Speaker 1: incident is connected to chemical and biological weapons testing at

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Speaker 1: Dugway Proving Ground, a U. S Army facility in Utah.

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Speaker 1: Geneva Protocol prohibited the use of chemical and biological weapons

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Speaker 1: in war. Though it went into force in it did

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Speaker 1: not define restrictions regarding the production and storage of such weapons.

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Speaker 1: Dugway Proving Ground was established in nineteen forty two during

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Speaker 1: World War Two, as the US thought that the German

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Speaker 1: and Japanese militaries may be developing these weapons. Because the

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Speaker 1: site was so remote, conventional weapons testing and ranger desert

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Speaker 1: training took place there as well. Some of the weapons

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Speaker 1: tested included artillery shells, aerial bombs, and aerial spray tanks

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Speaker 1: made to disperse chemical and biological agents. On March thirteenth,

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Speaker 1: nineteen sixty eight, a jet sprayed three and twenty gallons

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Speaker 1: of v X nerve agent across Dugway and a weapons test.

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Speaker 1: V X is a tasteless, odorless nerve agent that was

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Speaker 1: developed in the United Kingdom in the early nineteen fifties.

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Speaker 1: It is extremely toxic. Its symptoms include blurred vision, headache, cough,

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Speaker 1: and vomiting. Exposure to large doses can cause convulsions, paralysis,

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Speaker 1: and even respiratory failure, leading to death. In the following days,

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Speaker 1: ranchers began noticing that their sheep were dazed, collapsing and dying.

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Speaker 1: They began calling veterinarians for help, but the vets could

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Speaker 1: not diagnose the illness. People began to suspect that the

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Speaker 1: nearby Dugway proving Ground was responsible for the deaths of

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Speaker 1: the sheep. On March seventeen, Dr Keith Smart of the

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Speaker 1: Ecology and Epidemiology branch of Dugway got a call saying

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Speaker 1: that rancher Alvin Hatch reported three thousand sheep did in

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Speaker 1: the Skull Valley area. Some of the sheep died within

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Speaker 1: twenty four hours, while others lived for weeks before dying.

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Speaker 1: In the end, around six thousand sheep died due to

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Speaker 1: the VX nerve agent. Though spokespeople for the Dugway facility

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Speaker 1: denied any weapons testing. In the days before the sheep died,

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Speaker 1: U S Senator Frank Moss released a document that said

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Speaker 1: Dugway had released v X nerve agent on March thirteen.

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Speaker 1: Other tests involving chemical warfare agents took place that day,

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Speaker 1: but only the aerial spray test of v X nerve

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Speaker 1: agent was associated with the death of the sheep. In

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Speaker 1: subsequent investigations, it was found that the jets were leasing

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Speaker 1: the v X had a malfunction in their delivery tanks

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Speaker 1: and released the nerve agent at a higher altitude than intended.

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Speaker 1: This made the VX spread farther than the Dugaway testing

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Speaker 1: grounds and effect sheep in Skull Valley. The Army never

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Speaker 1: released a full report on the incident, but it did

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Speaker 1: pay around three dred and seventy six thousand dollars for

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Speaker 1: the sheep. At the end of the investigation, officials and

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Speaker 1: people in the region weren't too concerned with the investigation

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Speaker 1: because the military was a big employer in the state,

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Speaker 1: but the incident did raise concerns about the development of

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Speaker 1: chemical and biological weapons. In November of nineteen sixty nine,

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Speaker 1: Congress did pass a law forbidding the open air testing

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Speaker 1: of any legal chemical more biological warfare agent within the

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Speaker 1: United States, with exceptions. In the nineteen seventy two Biological

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Speaker 1: Weapons Convention banned the development, production, and stockpowing of biological

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Speaker 1: and toxin weapons. I'm Eves Jeffcote and hopefully you know

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Speaker 1: a little more about history today than you did yesterday.

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Speaker 1: email at this day at i heart media dot com.

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Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening, and have a fantastic twenty four

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Speaker 1: hours until we see you again. For more podcasts from

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