Chemical warfare guinea pigs: The servicemen who volunteered to be poisoned
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- Опубліковано 7 вер 2024
- In 1983, a 19-year-old signaller stepped into a chamber at the MOD's 'chemical defence establishment' at Porton Down.
For 30 minutes he walked around in circles to the beat of a metronome while sarin gas was pumped through vents in the room.
That young signaller was Ian Foulkes.
Ian was part of a research effort that ran for more than half a century - it was known as the Human Volunteers Programme.
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This gentleman is lucky he was told anything as a policy of his time there. My dad did National Service circa 1948 and told me of tests that were performed on them "common cold research". They were told nothing else either before, during or afterwards.
That's likely correct. There was a review of the programme in the 2000s and it's clear that the extent and type of consent varied a lot though the life of the programme . In the early years the norm appears to have been to have given very limited information.
I was in the Guards in the seventies and I remember them asking for volunteers, which I think were a fairly permanent feature on part one ( or two orders ). I remember thinking how crazy do to have to be to put your hand up for this!.
I am amazed at how Forces News is editorially independent and sometimes quite critical of the MoD. This is unimaginable in most countries, even Continental European countries. Britain is very clearly leading the world in terms of freedom of the press!
@@nobodyisbest only of past events. Nothing current or impactful.
It's called being Woke. You Got that?
You routinely saw notices seeking volunteers for Bio - Chemical warfare agents testing
Allegedly you were compensated depending on where the agent was placed on the body and the type of agent
I was looking at volunteering but ‘warned off’ by a colleague who had volunteered previously
Many were not briefed fully and indeed some died
Brave man. Thank you.
Thank you, I don't think I was that!
Was there for many weeks, loved it ,, extra money , great food and a pub that was walking distance from the accommodation block.
Anything for an easy to get to pub 🤣
@@meme4one 😂
Often saw this on part 2 orders and they could have offered me a king’s ransom, but no way was I ever going to volunteer for this.
1:20 only a Brit will joke about being a nerve agent Guinea pig.
Indeed.
I was young and stupid when I did NAPS trials in the '80's hence Gulf War syndrome without going to gulf war one
Good old Naps, been fighting my pillow since.
Very interesting report. Thank you to all these brave people.
Been Porton Down twice, one was EYES were they simulated the nerve agent with colour filters
An one was sleep deprivation for 40 hours
Easy money (extra pay)
Plus break from the base with no loss of leave
I had a friend that regulaly volunteered for this.
Mick was know to us all as "The ugliest man in NATO".Whenever he needed extra money, he would disappear to carry out testing.
Unfortunately, Mick is no longer with us.😢 Not due to the testing.
RIP Mick Ellis.
See you at the Final RV.👍👍🫡🫡
Tell us more of Mick.
@@MootingInsanity Mick Ellis was a Vehicle Electrician like myself. We were attached to 1st Battalion The Black Watch and 1st Battalion The Royal Scots in Werl, Germany.
Mick was a brilliant VE. He was in B Company fitter section and I was Fire Support fitter section.
Mick could drink to sink a battleship!
One of the most honourable and friendly guys you could ever meet!👍😁
As I say, he would volunteer to go to Porton Down whenever he was skint!
Saw some hideous pictures of when he had blister agent put on him. Thing was, it didn't make him look any more hideous than he looked normally!🤣🤣🤣
With us normally being posted around every 3 years, I lost touch with him.
It was only a few years ago, that I met up with another colleague that served with us and he told me that Mick had been found deceased in his bunk one morning. He thought it was drink related, but wasn't entirely sure.
RIP Mick Ellis. Your stag is done.
Till the Final RV.👍👍🫡🫡
During the late 90s whilst on a large ex on the plain we were having a maint day when the vans from Porton Down turned up. They asked for volunteers to undergo trials for an extra day's pay. No takers so several lads were voluntold. Luckily I wasn't one of them.
My (non) experience of Porton Down. Advertised on unit orders in the 1980s, request for volunteers for work at Porton Down which included special pay. Anything to get out of daily routine within the regiment, loads of us went to the admin office to sign up! We had one lad who took part in experiments years beforehand within the regiment, and he told us about what happened to him. He was asked to place his bare arm into a glass chamber and he was swabbed with something. The swabbed area started to blister and he could feel incredible pain, and then the area was swabbed with a cream, and his skin returned to normal. His health after that was never the same, he was always prone to infections. My application to take part was withdrawn!
My Dad told me he did his Advanced NBC instruction course there. They put a drop of live blister agent on the back of his hand. Would have been early 60s I think.
We would get notified in Station Routine Orders, asking for volunteers to test for the common cold but were told (by people that had been previously to Porton) that it was for nerve agents and the like.
Yep mate, I remember that. Thank God I never fell for it..
@@scroggins100 I thought about it but not too long.
As soon you write _"human experiments"_ on a official paper - you better stop any thing you're doing
I ask myself how many were unknowingly tested in the west but especially in the east and still today in china
I was at Larkhill in the eighties and appeals for volunteers at porton down regulary came up on the orders board ... we just used to laugh and walk away shaking our heads and saying ' how stupid do they think we are ? ' .. or words to that effect .. I did end up doing a weeks site guard at winterbourne gunner though ... only on the outside of the restricted arears though ..
No way would I have signed up for this!
There was a advert in 1984-5 for double pay and some holiday if you volunteered . No one was daft enough ,word was it was not cold research. knew a hippy who was able to function on LSD with regular use.
Double pay and holiday was not an incentive used during the Nerve Agent trials. It's up there with "well you signed the indemnity form" allowing them to do what they did...
What's the story of the outfit at 06:55 ?
This is was part of the trials on the Porton range I think. I assume to measure dispersion of an agent. Let me see if I can dig up the source.
LSD's long lasting and very real after effects aside, the man climbing the tree could easily have died and should have been immediately stopped.
This must be a joke 😂
A volunteer is a man who did not understand the question...
I don’t agree, I volunteered for loads of stuff and had a great time. Depends what one volunteers for.
@@johnnunn8688 I Voluntold for 2 xNI, 1x Gulf 1 x Bosnia 1xKosovo....and didn't have a great time....Depends on what one is voluntold for...
At 0.46s thought video was going to another type of vid😮!
_He liked that for sure_
Like Orange agent in Gagetown CFB in New Brunswick, Canada...
Look at DRES in Canada
Kids these days! This is a recruiting opportunity 😆
Never heard of this
We killed national service men in the early 50s in tests fro. what my grandad told me. He wqs national service in korea
if they told me, you will be given lsd/shrooms & you get to play with dummy grenades, I'd sign up in a heartbeat
*IV sarin?* you`d have me smoking crack before I'd try that
In forces news We Trust
France was the first country to use chemical weapons in the First World War, not Germany
Tear gas, yes. But Germany were the first to use posion gas
@@lankinator. yes, but tear gas is still a chemical weapon
Seeking compensation? Bro you volunteered to sniff Sarin 😂
This was a totally volunteer program with extra pay, medal?? I know guys with combat injuries that do not qualify for compensation. He states he was given multiple offers to bail out. Fetish collection in the loft and a Legend in is own lifetime.
The Marines do this to recruits 😆
I mean 😫
Why are they showing Yank troops?
Because of the IWM copyright on much of the UK materials. There is footage, but it's costly to use
Shame on you Forces News. These people, often little more than kids, were not fully informed into what they were being exposed to. This is washing the disgusting tretment of serving soldiers, many of whom inevitably suffered long lasting, often debilitating, aftereffects.
Framing the cynical abuse of young men as some kind of heroic endeavor. Shame on you.
It seems he’s getting off of this.
Crazy to think that this video doesn't violate UA-cam policy. But Donut Operator can't even make a Shooting Breakdown.
Your clue might be in the channels' differing names.
Why should this violate policy
@@pepperroni6252UA-cam have very sharp policies on "Drug use" So surprisingly it hasn't been taken down
They were used as an alternative to ROP’s when my regiment was stationed in Tidworth give me an arm full of anthrax over a weeks 6 n 10 any day of the week 😂
Wow 😯 Well done to all who participated 🫡 First is definitely the scariest part 😳😱
I only knew one idiot who wanted to volunteer for that...we talked him out of it.
He wasn't a bright lad 😂