Chemical Warfare Service mission

Development of the Chemical Warfare Service Mission in the Emergency Period... 

The Chemical Corps originally established the Chemical Warfare Service (CWS) in 1918, motivated by the horrors of gas warfare that they witnessed during WW I. In 1922, it created a Medical Research Division. Its mission was to defend against chemical agents. 

As indicated earlier, the War Department set up a co-ordinating agency known as the Office of Gas Service in October 1917. This clearinghouse for chemical matters consisted of a director and representatives from the Ordnance and Medical Departments and from the Chemical Service Section of the National Army—a section established at the same time as the Gas Service with a principal mission of providing the AEF with a chemical laboratory. In February 1918 the Chemical Warfare Service and the Gas Division were joined in a move that failed to provide the administrative centralization and the prestige that could only come from the formation of an independent gas corps. This final step was taken bn 28 June 1918 with the creation of the Chemical Warfare Service, National Army, with Maj. Gen. William L. Sibert as director. 

In the process of CWS expansion gray areas of mission responsibility were clearly defined, much of this work done under the direction of Maj. Gen. William N. Porter who became Chief, Chemical Warfare Service, in May 1941. This effort to define responsibilities resulted in expanded duties for the CWS, for example, development of a high explosive shell for the 4.2-inch mortar and the acquisition of complete responsibility for the incendiary bomb program. In 1941 the War Department gave the CWS the mission of biological warfare research. 

Seven Chemical Warfare Service laboratory companies saw service overseas between 1941 and 1945. The essential mission of the laboratory company in the field was to analyze and evaluate enemy chemical materiel and to maintain technical surveillance over CWS supplies. These functions made it a major source of technical intelligence, both as to enemy capabilities for chemical warfare and the storage life of CWS ammunition and protective items. At first conceived of as a more or less mobile entity capable of following an army in the field, it was in practice treated as a semifixed installation of a theater communications zone, a status better suited to its more than ten tons of laboratory equipment. 

The War Department general order establishing the Chemical Warfare Service had provided that it would continue until six months after the termination of hostilities or until the general order itself was amended, modified, or rescinded. An act of Congress of ii July 1919 extended the life of the CWS until 30 June 1920. On 28 November 1919 the War Department defined the CWS peacetime mission as follows ... 

The mission of the Chemical Warfare Service with respect to its principal preoccupation, gas warfare, was therefore somewhat complex. Primarily the CWS was expected to provide insurance for American military forces against the shock of sudden gas attack. Hand in hand with this mission went responsibility for maintaining a state of readiness for quick retaliation. These two constituted explicit responsibilities. In a broader sense, an implicit function of the CWS was to provide military support for a national policy, that of dissuading others from resorting to the gas weapon. This was accomplished, as matters turned out, more by the strength of U.S. preparedness for toxic warfare than by the cogency of political agreements. 

Within the confines of limited appropriations and personnel, the Chemical Warfare Service carried out its restricted peacetime mission. Ad ... 

In 1923 the War Department modified the CWS training mission. Training of the noncombdtant branches of the Army "other than the Chemical Warfare Service was ordered confined to defensive aspects. Training of the combatant arms was to include the "use of smoke, incendiary materials, and nontoxic gases. Training of CWS persoimel was to be conducted in accordance with the provisions of the National Defense Act, that is, it was to cover both the offensive and defensive aspects. ... 

The gas mission of the Chemical Warfare Service had thus crystallized by the close of 1942 as the result of almost a year of staff studies, discussion, alarms, and War Department directives. A number of factors had combined to bring about a more realistic attitude toward gas warfare than had been present at any time since 1918. Of these, the most impelling was the fear that the enemy might initiate gas warfare. Under the leadership of Secretary Stimson, Assistant Secretary McCloy, General Marshall, and General Porter, the War Department began active preparations to meet such a contingency in a manner that would insure American supremacy in this field. 

General Porter remained Chief of the Chemical Warfare Service throughout the war and into the period of demobilization, retiring from active duty on 13 November 1945. His personality had a profound influence on the development of the CWS mission, and in a very definite sense the success of that mission was the measure of General Porter s accomplishment. 

War Department directives provided that chemical warfare training should cover the fields of smoke, incendiary, and gas yet the primary concern of the CWS prior to World War II was unquestionably with gas. Since the service had been created by Congress as an answer to the military threat of toxic chemicals, the status of the CWS as an independent technical service could scarcely have been justified if it were not prepared to cope with this major menace. Fear of gas was largely fear of the unknown, and its antidote was, in large measure, to acquaint troops with toxic agents and how to counteract them. To impart such understanding was the primary training responsibility of the Chemical Warfare Service and the point of departure for the whole CWS mission. 

The CWS protective mobilization plan contemplated that training of other components at the Chemical Warfare School would be discontinued upon mobilization, when the school would reorganize for its primary mission of training CWS troops. Two types of courses were specified in the new setup successive thirty-day refresher classes of seventy-five officers, and a series of classes for enlisted specialists (meteorologists). This program would have proven inadequate, even had it been followed. Yet there was no evident inclination in 1940 to extend the school training of CWS officers. In recommending to the War Department the courses to be conducted at the school between i July 1940 and 30 June 1941, the CWS proposed only six courses, none of them specifically for preparation of Chemical Warfare Service officers for active duty. ... 

Supervision of training in defense against gas warfare remained the principal mission of the Chemical Warfare Service so far as training the Army in chemical warfare was concerned. Next came the supervision of training in the use of smoke. This was followed, in order of priority, by training in the use of the flame thrower and defense against the employment of incendiaries. 

Nor was the distinction between plan and reality confined to the training activities of the Chemical Warfare Service. After responsibility for the development, procurement, and storage of incendiary bombs was transferred from the Ordnance Department in the fall of 1941, the CWS undertook a program for which no peacetime plans had been drawn, a program that developed into one of the most important wartime efforts. The assignment of the biological warfare mission to the CWS shortly before the outbreak of war led to large-scale research and development in this new field of endeavor. 

A resume of work done by the British may be found in the series of reports British Gas Mission to the U.S.A., A General Record of the American Chemical Warfare Service and the Relations therewith of the British Gas Warfare Mission. CWS, H-I to H-10. 

Supply Mission statements of the branch depots and chemical sections may be found in S. J. Hemleben and E. M. Loughery, Hist of CWS in World War II, vol. IV, Chemical Warfare Service Supply Program, pt. V, Distribution, app. A. (MS Monograph). 

This volume, the second in a series of three devoted to the Chemical Warfare Service (CWS) in World War II, now the Chemical Corps, covers research, development, procurement, and distribution of chemical warfare materiel. It traces the history of these activities from the World War I period, when the CWS was activated to supervise the offensive and defensive aspects of gas warfare throughout the Army, until the end of World War II. The first volume in the series, Organizing for War, discusses the development of the CWS organization and mission as well as personnel management and military training. The third volume, entitled Chemicals in Combat, will deal with chemical warfare activities in the theaters of operations. 

CHEMICAL CORPS (CmlC). A branch of the U.S. Army established 6 September 1946 out of the War Department s Chemical Warfare Service (CWS). According to the U.S. Army Chemical School, Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, the mission of the CmlC is to... 

Mission. The U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense is the nation s lead laboratory for research to advance the medical prevention and treatment of chemical warfare casualties. The Institute also has a clinical training mission and conducts the Medical Management of Chemical Casualties Course for health care providers from all armed services. 

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