Waitt, Alden

Waitt, Alden H. Gas Warfare The Chemical Weapon, Its Use, and Protection Against It. Rev Edn. New York Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1944. 

An Act of Congress signed into law on 2 August 1946 changed its name to the Chemical Corps (CmlC), effective 6 September 1946. See also FIRST GAS REGIMENT FRIES, AMOS A. GILCHRIST, HARRY LORENZO HANLON, JOSEPH T. WAITT, ALDEN HARRY. 

WAITT, ALDEN HARRY (1892-1981). American military officer. Waitt served in combat with the U.S. Army Chemical Warfare Service (CWS) during World War I. He continued to serve in the CWS after the war and eventually headed that service following the end of World War II. In 1948 he was promoted to the rank of major general and was named to head the newly designated Chemical Corps (CmlC), the successor to the CWS. Waitt is the author of Gas Warfare The Chemical Weapon, Its Use and Protection against It (1942), which draws upon his World War I experience as a combat gas officer, as the position of chemical warfare advisor was known. 

The CWS continued to maintain stockpiles of the key World War I-chemical agents during the 1930s. Captain Alden H. Waitt, then Secretary of the Chemical Warfare School at Edgewood Arsenal and later Chief Chemical Officer, summed up the CWS s planning for the next war in 1935 ... 

Major General Alden H. Waitt, who replaced Porter in November 1945, assessed the future of chemical warfare in 1946 ... 

The classic American text is Amos A. Fries, Chemical Warfare (New York McGraw Hill, 1st ed., 1921). For the postwar tactical literature, see Augustin M. Prentice, Chemicals in War A Treatise on Chemical Warfare (New York McGraw Hill, 1937) Col. Alden Waitt, Gas Warfare, the Chemical Weapon Its Use and Protection against It (New York Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1943) Frederick A. Hessell, Chemistry in Warfare Its Strategic Importance (New York Hastings House, 1942). 

Interv, Hist Ofi with Rowan, 26 Sep 58. General Rowan was an assistant division gas officer and later division gas officer under Fries. (2) Interv, Hist Off with Maj Gen Alden H. Waitt, USA (Ret,), 13 May 61. 

Comments by Maj Gen Alden H. Waitt, USA (Ret.), 1955, on draft copy of this chapter. (i) Wiseman, Cas Warfare, p. 126. (2) Rpt of AC CWS (USCWC 53/1, 27 Oct 43), for Fid Opns (Waitt) to USCWC, 27 Oct 43 . (3) Unlike the U.S. Army, the British Army had no central organization dealing with chemical warfare. Different arms and branches handled chemical warfare duties. For instance. Ordnance was responsible for the supply and maintenance of chemical weapons and equipment in the field the Royal Engineers performed laboratory analysis the Pioneer Corps furnished smoke companies while staff advice was provided by GSC officers trained in chemical warfare and assisted at higher headquarters by technical officers who were trained chemists. The limited amount of materiel and manpower in the British Army was a governing factor in determining the effort which could be devoted to gas weapons. See USCWC 96, 21 Feb 44, Min of Mtg, 12 Feb 44. 

CWS, Brig. Gen. Alden H. Waitt, CWS, Assistant Chief for Field Operations. 

Ltr, Lt Col Kenneth A. Cunin, CO, 83d Cml Bn to Brig Gen Alden H. Waitt, 12 Sep 43. The influence of this demand on the organization and operation of the Officer Candidate School is discussed below in Chapter XV. 

The authors are indebted to the many veterans of the Chemical Warfare Service who through interviews and otherwise aided them in writing the volume. Among these were several whose assistance was most helpful Maj. Gen. William N. Porter, Maj. Gen. Alden H. Waitt, Maj. Gen. Charles E. Loucks, Brig. Gen. Henry M. Black, Col. Harry A. Kuhn, Lt. Col. Selig J. Levitan, and Col, Raymond L. Abel. 

Unfortunately, except for blister gases, there is no practical method of detecting gases other than the sense of smell, wrote Brig. Gen. Alden H. Waitt early in the war. But sensory tests were hazardous and uncertain, particularly for chemicals with little odor or which were masked by the enemy or by field conditions, and the CWS had long sought rapid, foolproof chemical and physical tests. 

Members of the Chemical Advisory Committee receiving Army Certificates of Appreciation from Brig. Gen, Alden H. Waitt, November 1945- Prom left (front) Charles S. Munson, Warren N. Watson, James W. McLaughlin, Harry L. Derby, General Waitt, Col. Harry A. Kuhn. From left (back) George W. Merck, Lammot... 

The War Department would not approve sufficient funds for proper storage of toxic agents, but neither would it approve funds for disposing of toxics in appreciable quantities. Consequently the CWS "couldn t afford to keep [mustard and lewisite] or dispose of it. Comment of Maj Gen Alden H. Waitt, former Chief Chemical Officer, on margin of draft copy of this chapter, Sep 58. 

Haber, F. (11), p. 79. This conclusion was based on a report made by the Surgeon General of the U.S. Army in 1920. Of the 275,000 American casualties, more than A were caused by poisonous gas, but only about 2% of gassed soldiers died, compared to 25% of those who suffered injuries by other weapons. As Colonel Alden Waitt of the U.S. Army s Chemical Warfare Service concluded, the man wounded by gas had about twelve times the chance to live, in comparison with his fellow soldier suffering from the effects of traditional weapon. Those who have opposed gas weapons on the basis of inhumanity have long since been halted by the facts. Waitt, A. H. 1942. Gas Warfare. New York Duell, Sloan and Pearce, p. 5. 

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