While the 1960s movie and TV series "The Wackiest Ship in the Army" poked fun at the idea of the Army sailing ships, the Army's Dugway Proving Ground and Fort Douglas actually had a secret navy to test germ and chemical arms in the Pacific.
Unlike the Hollywood comedies about World War II, Dugway's
Vietnam War era work was deadly serious:
- Their ships sailed through clouds of germ and chemical agents, and some sailors now blame cancer and other diseases they suffer on it - or on the mix of chemicals used for decontamination.
- While germ and chemical tests usually occurred in remote areas oft the Pacific for safety and secrecy, at least one test was conducted in San Francisco Bay.
- Some of the ships had already been contaminated by radiation when used earlier as test ships during ocean nuclear bomb tests - which sailors also say may have sickened them.
- The ships also conducted tests designed to see if migratory birds could be infected far from an enemy's shores to later fly in and spread diseases
- or whether examining birds from afar could show if enemies were working with deadly germs.