Secret Army volunteer's widow blames VA for spouse's death

Secret Army volunteer's widow blames VA for spouse's death
By Saundra Young, CNN
March 3, 2012

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Secret Cold War program tested chemical and biological agents on 7,000 soldiers
Program vet Wray Forrest died in 2010 after he was diagnosed with heart trouble and cancer
Widow accuses VA of neglecting her ailing husband
VA wouldn't answer questions about the case due to a pending lawsuit

(CNN) -- "I promised Wray I would never give up the fight." It was a wife's final pledge to her dying husband, who was once identified as Medical Volunteer No. 6692 at Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland.

In 1973, Army Pvt. Wray Forrest spent two months at Edgewood as a volunteer human test subject in a top secret Cold War research program studying chemical and biological weapons.

His widow, Kathryn Forrest, says those tests were his undoing.

During his time at Edgewood, Wray participated in at least five different tests. In one, Kathryn says he was given high doses of Ritalin. In a deposition he gave before his death, Wray described the effect it had on him.

"It wound up making me want to do things very rapidly and in a rushed manner," he says in the deposition. He says he was "wound up like a golf ball teed off in a tile bathroom. Bouncing off the walls."

Ritalin is a Schedule II drug -- a class of drugs considered dangerous and addictive. Large doses can cause dizziness, jitteriness, cardiac arrhythmia, stroke, high blood pressure, even sudden death. Wray was injected with various substances at Edgewood, according to court documents. And his story is just one of many.

In fact, from 1955 to 1975 more than 7,000 soldiers each spent two months at Edgewood. Overall, they tested at least 250 different chemical and biological agents.
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Vietnam veterans finally know rumor of drug experiments were true

Vets feel abandoned after secret drug experiments
By David S. Martin, CNN
updated 8:56 AM EST, Thu March 1, 2012

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Tim Josephs blames secret Army program for health issues, including Parkinson's disease
Facility tested potentially lethal gases, narcotics and LSD on animals and humans
Cold War research initially aimed to defend against Soviet chemical or biological attack
The VA has contacted and offered free medical evaluations to thousands of veterans

Programming note: Join CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta for more from his investigative report on U.S. soldiers used as drug test subjects. Watch "CNN Presents," this Sunday night at 8 and 11 ET/PT.

(CNN) -- The moment 18-year-old Army Pvt. Tim Josephs arrived at Edgewood Arsenal in 1968, he knew there was something different about the place.

"It just did not look like a military base, more like a hospital," recalled Josephs, a Pittsburgh native. Josephs had volunteered for a two-month assignment at Edgewood, in Maryland, lured by three-day weekends closer to home.

"It was like a plum assignment," Josephs said. "The idea was they would test new Army field jackets, clothing, weapons and things of that nature, but no mention of drugs or chemicals."

But when he went to fill out paperwork the morning after his arrival, the base personnel were wearing white lab coats, and Josephs said he had second thoughts. An officer took him aside.

"He said, 'You volunteered for this. You're going to do it. If you don't, you're going to jail.

You're going to Vietnam either way -- before or after,'" Josephs said recently.

From 1955 to 1975, military researchers at Edgewood were using not only animals but human subjects to test a witches' brew of drugs and chemicals. They ranged from potentially lethal nerve gases like VX and sarin to incapacitating agents like BZ.
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