Eighty years ago, on March 5, 1945, Lt. Col. Wyss from U.S. Chemical Warfare Headquarters in Calcutta visited Ondal Advanced Chemical Park in West Bengal, India. The purpose of his visit was to reassess the stockpile of toxic chemical bombs then being maintained at Ondal by the 771st Chemical Depot Company (Aviation). Immediately after Wyss’s visit, the soldiers of the 771st began a major project to dispose of tens of thousands of chemical bombs that were judged to be either unneeded or unusable.

Eighty years ago, on February 3^rd, 1945, the 802^nd Chemical Company (Air Operations) participated in the official opening of North Field on Guam. They had arrived on Guam just two weeks earlier, assigned to establish and operate a “Class V Air Chemical Ammunition Depot” supporting the B-29s of the 314^th Bomb Wing, XXI Bomber Command. Commander of the XXI, Gen. Curtis LeMay, was ….

80 years ago in January 1945, the 760th Chemical Depot Company was establishing its position as the most important American depot for toxic chemical bombs in the South Pacific. They are among the 66,000 soldiers of the U.S. Chemical Warfare Service whose work during World War Two deserves more recognition than it has received.

Units in the US Chemical Warfare Service during WWII often consisted of white commissioned officers and African American NCOs and enlisted men. This is the story of First Sergeant Julius A. Lockett.

Dobodura, Papua, 1951. American mustard gas bombs lying at the end of the airstrip at Embi. The bombs have been ignited, possibly to assist scavengers to salvage scrap metal. (Donor M. Keary) Australian War Memorial P01362.004

Long-secret documents from WWII show that the US Army’s 771st Chemical Depot Company buried thousands of M47A2 mustard-filled bombs at Ondal Airbase in British-ruled India. The 769th Chemical Depot Company helped bury hundreds of similar bombs at nearby Chakulia Airbase. Practically, legally and morally, the US should acknowledge its responsibility to remediate these burial sites.

By May 1944, the US had equipped four airbases near Kharagpur, India with 130 of America’s newest and largest bombers, the B-29 Superfortress….

I can't read (or even recognize) Hindustani, but this photo seems to match an item from the March 1945 Organizational History Report of the US 771st Chemical Depot Company ….

… examples worthy of examination include the “rape of Nanjing” by Japanese soldiers in China and the British “counterinsurgency” tactics during the Boer War… [and} America’s strategic bombing of Japan during WWII.

At long last, Hoosier Scientist has posted a THIRD “Question Worth Considering.”

By most measures, my father qualifies as a member of America’s “Greatest Generation.” His assignment to a secret military operation kept him from feeling or being fully recognized as part of that group.

Learning with Math Machines has been a central part of my life since 2007 and I cherish the good times of working with Robert Chaney, Marta Gruesbeck, Jason Andrew, Marion Prince and the many teachers who participated in our workshops. After 13 years, however, the new environment of COVID-19 has made it clear that our system of extended in-