Army photo from 1964 shows dumping of mustard gas containers in the Atlantic Ocean.

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GETTING IT WRONG: American History Magazine Blows Chemical Weapons Facts

October 18, 2014
By: Dave Rogers

How could a major national magazine absolutely miss the facts in a major article on chemical weapons?

American History Magazine published an article by David Jackowe in its December issue that totally missed, or ignored, the fact that mustard gas was first made at the Dow Chemical Company in 1918.

Dr. Jackowe is a physician in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, who writes about history, art and medicine.

Ironically, soldiers from a government facility at Hastings-on-Hudson were among the troublesome military personnel who descended on Midland, Michigan, and made a dreadful hash of a heroic effort to match the Germans in gas warfare in World War I.

The worst offender was a womanizing Army doctor from New York City who harassed the nurses and mistreated his soldier patients. The entire project was canceled by the commanding general after a nurse retaliated by putting drops of mustard oil in the doctor's shoe.

The doctor went to the Chemical Warfare Service headquarters, showed his injured foot and was able to initiate FBI investigations of both Herbert Dow and the nurse, Winnifred Murphy of Midland.

Luckily, the tide of the war had turned in favor of the Allies when the order scrapping the Dow mustard gas project came from Washington.

The Justice Department probe was soon dropped and Mr. Dow was lauded by the military leaders and called "the savior of his country" by the Detroit News for the firm's monumental production contributions to the war effort.

Jackowe's article is entitled "Poison Gas Comes to America: How Making Chemical Weapons in World War I Broke Ground for the U.S. Military-Industrial Complex."

Neither Dow nor Dr. Albert W. Smith, faculty member from Case School of Applied Science, who teamed up for the tremendous accomplishment, got so much as a passing mention in the article.

However, Jackowe makes the startling revelation that 674 casualties resulted from mustard gas production at Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland, the only other site besides Midland that was able to make mustard during the war.

My latest book, "The G-34 Paradox: Inside the Army's Secret Mustard Gas Project at Dow Chemical in World War I," reveals that about a dozen casualties occurred from mustard gas production at Dow, although two soldiers died from exposure to the volatile chemical.

Research on the book, published by Historical Press L.L.C., of Bay City, was based on files of the correspondence between the government, Dr. Smith and Herbert Dow, company founder, in the 1917-1918 period. Those files, archived by the Chemical Heritage Foundation, Philadelphia, would have given the writer of the American History Magazine the full story had he consulted them.

Dr. Jackowe, however, makes an important point in noting that an estimated 30 percent of American battle casualties in 1918 were caused by exposure to mustard gas.

And American History accompanied Dr. Jackowe's article with a startling photo of one ton canisters of mustard gas being dumped from a barge in the Atlantic Ocean in 1964.

As a physician, his summary opinion should carry some weight among those concerned with the proliferation of chemical warfare: "The hazards of producing the toxic gases would lead to new standards for worker and soldier safety. Mustard gas in particular was so horrific in its effects, causing more chemical casualties than all other agents combined, that world opinion finally turned against the poisons, creating the climate for the first lasting agreement regarding chemical weapons."

Unfortunately, the world still must deal with the poisoning of the oceans so callously done over decades, outlined in the book. And the difficulty of regulating rogue nations who can easily obtain and use chemical weapons.