Western Chemical Warfare School

The West Coast Chemical Warfare School, as indicated, was established at Camp Beale, Calif., in December 1943 and was transferred to Rocky 

Mountain Arsenal in May 1944. Before the school opened, instructors were chosen from among former members of the faculty of the Chemical Warfare School at Edgewood and the recently deactivated War Department Civilian Protection Schools at Seattle, Palo Alto, and Los Angeles. It was fortunate that the CWS had access to competent instructors, for the press of administrative duties accompanying the opening of the new school left little time for close supervision of teachers. - The authorized courses were  

Unit Gas Officers (4 weeks) Identical with the course standardized at Edgewood Arsenal. 

Navy Gas Course (Officers) (6 days) Defense of naval forces and shore stations against gas attack offensive use of chemicals by naval forces. 

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Careful plans were made at the Western Chemical Warfare School in connection with the redeployment training projected for the final struggle with Japan. Fortunately, it was possible to discard these plans when the enemy capitulated in August 1945, and the school was inactivated in September 1945. ... 

The Western Chemical Warfare School was an experiment in preparedness which would have paid appreciable dividends had operations in the final stages of World War II taken a different turn. As it was, experience in the conduct of this school demonstrated that, given a nice combination of facilities, training know-how, and proper direction, a gratifying satisfactory end product of instruction will result. The school was small and its immediate training objectives were modest yet the success with which it accomplished its mission indicated that, if necessary, it could easily have undertaken a more ambitious program. 

In July 1943 the CWS asked the ASF for authority to establish a chemical warfare school toward the West Coast. The recommendation was advanced as a means of providing final instruction for military personnel moving into Pacific theaters of operations and of eliminating extensive travel for those selected at western stations for training in chemical warfare. The functions of the new school would be (i) to provide for short technical refresher courses of one-week duration for CWS officers in the Far West who were scheduled for overseas duty (2) to provide short courses for units gas officers who could not be economically sent to the Chemical Warfare School at Edgewood (3) to conduct training for civilians, as directed by the Office of Civilian Defense and (4) to meet requests of naval authorities for training naval personnel on the Pacific coast in gas defense. ... 

Academic procedures at the western school were identical with those developed and practiced at the Chemical Warfare School. The original corps of instructors were all products of the older school, and relieving officers... 

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