During several wars, especially the Cold War, biological weapons were being employed around the world. This became a huge problem, and America wanted to make sure its Armed Forces were capable of surviving them. That led to the Department of Defense starting Project 112. During this experiment, the government sprayed several ships as well as hundreds of Navy sailors with nerve agents. Sarin and VX were among the ones they used.
[Image via Martin Lisner/Shutterstock.com]The idea was to test the effectiveness of decontamination procedures & safety procedures known at the time. The Pentagon would later reveal that the official name for these experiments was actually “Project Shipboard Hazard and Defense, or SHAD. It was not quite as catchy as Project 112, but it helped many find out about the experiment. The Veterans Administration began studying SHAD and how it affected the Navy sailors. It was found several did have long-lasting problems.