Toxic Dangers and Responsibilities, May 1945
Eighty years ago, in May 1945, the dangers and the responsibilities faced by soldiers in the U.S. Chemical Warfare Service became frighteningly clear. The 760th Chemical Depot Company was stationed near Oro Bay in what is now Papua New Guinea, maintaining the central American stockpile of toxic chemical bombs for the South West Pacific. The 760th was ready to supply many thousands of toxic munitions for what President Roosevelt had promised would be a massive “retaliation in kind” if Japan resumed using its own toxic chemical weapons, as it had done earlier in China.