Chemical Warfare Service, National Army

The Gas Service was enlarged to meet the demands of its many responsibilities whenever men and equipment became available. For example, a completely staffed and equipped laboratory arrived in France early in 1918 and an officers training camp was organized in France later in the year. The provision of a laboratory had been one of the projects of the Office of Gas Service since the time of its organization in the United States in October 1917. The increasing demands on the service resulted in the reorganization of Fries s immediate office in March 1918 to combine offense and defense into a Military Division and to establish a Technical and a Production and Supply Division. In May the Military Division was again separated into Offense and Defense Divisions. Finally, in June, the Gas Service in the United States was converted into the Chemical Warfare Service, National Army. The Gas Service, AEF, became the CWS AEF, officially the... 

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. 

Project-research, a method of organizing research by stipulation of projects and allocation of these to individuals or teams of scientists in separate laboratories, was developed in the United States during World War I in research on chemical warfare. This research was initially conducted largely by academic chemists as volunteers and later by them in the Research Division of the Chemical Warfare Service of the U. S. Army. Many of the leading American chemists in the 1920s shared the common experience of research on chemical warfare. The model of project-research was tried by the leaders of the division of chemistry and chemical technology of the National Research Council in order to allocate specific research problems and foster cooperative research after the war. 

By April 1915, Germany introduced gas warfare. In 1917, the Secretary of the Interior charged the Bureau of Mines with working on gas problems, and the Bureau engaged the Chemistry Committee of the National Research Council (NRC) to help initiate the work. The NRC Committee along with others in academe and the chemical industry constituted what ultimately became the Chemical Warfare Service of the U.S. Army. The gases and protective equipment were produced at Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland and New York City, respectively (Skolnik Reese, 1976). 

Fig. 3-25. Edward B. Vedder (1878-1952) was director of pathology at the Army Medical School (now Walter Reed Army Institute of Research) from 1904 to 1913. It was during this period that he wrote his seminal book on beriberi. After serving in the Philippines during World War I, Colonel Vedder returned to the Army Medical School in 1919. It was there that he wrote this still-useful book on chemical casualties. From 1925 to 1929 he was chief of medical research for the Chemical Warfare Service. He had an illustrious civilian academic career following his retirement from the army. Photograph Courtesy of National Library of Medicine. Bethesda, Md.

Historical Survey 2006, pp. 111-27, pp. l4of National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), RG175, Chemical Warfare Service (1917-1963) RG544, US Army Materiel Command (1941-1973) also Balmer 2006a, pp. 7i6f Ede 2011. 

Another change which took place with the formation of the Chemical Warfare Service in the National Army was the redesignation of the... 

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. ... 

There are several published volumes which discuss the origin and activities of the Chemical Warfare Service in World Wat I. These include Benedict Crowell, America s Munitions, i ij-i iS (Washington GPO, 1919) Amos A. Fries and Clarence J. West, Chemical Warfare (New York McGraw Hill, 1921) and Medical Aspects of Gas Warfare, Volume XIV of the series MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE UNITED STATES IN THE WORLD WAR (Washington GPO, 1926). Volumes XV and XVI of the series UNITED STATES ARMY IN THE WORLD WAR (Washington GPO, 1948), prepared by the Historical Division, Special Staff United States Army, contain data on the Chemical Warfare Service, American Expeditionary Forces (AEF). More valuable as a source of information is the official history of the Chemical Warfare Service, American Expeditionary Forces, a copy of which is on file in the Chemical Corps Historical Office. Especially useful in this history are the appendixes which ate copies of pertinent directives. On the organizational development of the Chemical Warfare Service in the zone of interior, the most fmitful sources of information are M. T. Bogert s and W. H. Walker s History of the Chemical Service Section, on file at the Technical Library, Army Chemical Center, Maryland, and the annual reports of the CWS for the years 1918, 1919, and 1920. The retired CWS files in the National Archives contain some important documents. 

Government agencies other than the Chemical Warfare Service also showed concern over the threat. These included the Institute of Health of the U.S. Public Health Service, the Council of National Defense, officers of the staffs of the Surgeons General of the Army and Navy, and G-2 of the Army. 

For information on industrial mobilization planning and on the scanty procurement and supply activities of the peacetime period, the author used pertinent retired files of the Chemical Warfare Service the War Department Assistant Chief of Staff, War Plans Division (WPD), G-3, and G-4 and The Adjutant General s Office. Footnote citations throughout the volume which give file numbers preceded by the abbreviation "CWS indicate documents from the retired files of the Chemical Warfare Service. Records of the Assistant Chiefs of Staff G-3 and G-4 are indicated by the prefixes "G-3 and "G-4, respectively, those of The Adjutant General s Office by the prefix "AG. At the time this volume was written the majority of these records were in the custody of the Department of the Army. Since then, however, these records have been transferred to and are in the custody of the National Archives. 

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. 

The next day, Manning sent a letter to Dr. C. D. Walcott, Chairman of the Military Committee of the National Research Council (NRC), which had been created the year before, offering the Bureau s services in creating a chemical warfare program for the army. On 12 February 1917, Dr. Walcott replied to Manning s letter, stating that he would bring the matter to the attention of the Military Committee. 

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