Storage and Transportation of Toxics

When toxics were stored in 55-gallon drums instead of ton containers, as necessity or convenience sometimes required, problems of corrosion and leakage multiplied. If the drums were shipped and stored standing on end they were likely to trap rain water on top and rust. If they were placed on their sides some of the bungs at the ends were likely to leak. Eventually CWS decided that in depots, at least, it was better to leave the drums on their sides and keep inspecting them for leaks, than to risk accelerated corrosion through rusting.  

Toxic Gas Yards, Midwest Chemical Warfare Depot, Pine Bluff Arsenal, 

The unit was duly brought into being at Camp Sibert as a section of the RTC Specialist Schools. Its enlisted men came from the 1st and 2nd 

2 History of Guard and Security and Tech Escort Detachment, December 1954, p. 7. Hereafter cited as Guard and Security. 

Regiments of the RTC, and the officers were attached from the CW Officers Replacement Pool. On 1 February 1944 the unit was transferred to Headquarters Detachment I, Chemical Warfare Center at Edgewood, where it remained for the rest of the war. Its strength rose to a wartime peak of about three hundred and fifty officers and enlisted men. The unit carried on a three-week training program for all men assigned to it. 

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