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The 267th Chemical Company was a military unit of the U.S. Army Chemical Corps responsible for the surety of chemical warfare agents dubbed "RED HAT" deployed to the Islands of Okinawa, Japan and subsequently Johnston Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.〔 A recently discovered Army document reveals that the true mission of the 267th Chemical Company was the operation of the Okinawa deployment site as part Project 112. Project 112 was a 1960s biological warfare field test program that was conducted by the Deseret Test Center.〔 Okinawa is not listed as a test site under Project 112 by the U.S. Department of Defense.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://mcm.dhhq.health.mil/cb_exposures/project112_shad/shadfactSheets.aspx )〕 == Unit History == On April 20, 1945 the 267th Chemical Service Platoon (SVC) was activated at Fort Richardson, Alaska, but the platoon was inactivated on Nov. 1 of the same year, primarily because of the end of World War II.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://johnstonmemories.com/wordpress/?page_id=1068 )〕 The platoon was re-designated on November 30, 1962, and activated on Okinawa on December 1, 1962 as 267th Chemical Platoon (SVC) with an authorized strength of 2 officers and 72 enlisted men.〔 The unit was assigned to U.S. Army Depot, Okinawa at Chibana. According to a document outlining the units history that was re-discovered in 2012, the 267th Chemical Platoon (SVC) had the mission of operation of Site 2, U.S. Department of Defense Project 112 a top secret Cold War testing program which was aimed at both human, animal, and plant reaction to Biological Warfare. In a letter, sent March 26, 1966 by Capt. Charles H. Vogeler, Commander of the Army Chemical Corps, responding to the commanding officer of the 196th Ordnance Battalion, the history of the 267th Chemical Platoon was outlined as follows:
For its outstanding contributions to fulfillment of the 2d Logistics mission, the 267th Chemical Company was awarded the Meritorious Unit Citation for 18 military operations in Southeast Asia during the period of October 1965 to December 1966.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Chemical Ammunition Company History via johnstonmemories.com )〕 According to unit records obtained from the Chemical Corps museum, the 267th Chemical Company either deployed to Vietnam or supported operations there from February 1966 to August 1967 and from July 1, 1970 to December 31, 1971. After a nerve gas leak in 1969 injured 23 members of the 267th and one civilian, the United States Government had directed the removal of all toxic gases from Okinawa, Japan. The relocation mission brought about Operation Red Hat which was internationally publicized. The removal operation of all chemical munitions from Okinawa resulted in the 1971 relocation of the chemical weapons and the redeployment of the 267th Chemical Company to Johnston Atoll in the Central Pacific during Operation Red Hat. The cargo discharge from the USNS Private Francis X. McGraw (T-AK-241) at Johnston Island on September 21, 1971 completed the movement phase of Operation Red Hat, and the 276th Chemical Company completed its redeployment to Johnston Atoll on Sept. 27, 1971.〔 For outstanding execution of Operation Red Hat, members of the 267th Chemical Company were commended by General Westmoreland, General Rossen, Lieutenant General Lambert, Major General Hayes, and Major General Pennington when the unit was awarded its second Meritorious Unit Commendation. Numerous reorganizations and authorized strength changes took place between September 27, 1971 when the unit arrived at Johnston Island and late 1979 during a time when the unit was assigned between the U.S. Army, Pacific, Forces Command, and Western Command. A May 1975 letter to a member of the 267th Chemical Company from his Commander notes that the primary mission on Johnston Island consisted of maintaining a forty-one acre chemical munitions storage area, called Red Hat, having forty-three storage structures containing about 13,000 tons of munitions.〔 A Johnston Atoll orientation packet from the same time period explains that the mission of the 267th Chemical Company, noted to also be known as "Red Hat," was to provide for the storage, maintenance, security, issuance, and surveillance of chemical munitions.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.va.gov/vetapp08/files1/0806141.txt )〕 In 1976 the company came under the 45th General Support Group. In October 1983, the 267th Chemical Company was re-designated under the Johnston Island Chemical Activity. This re-designation included the assignment of a platoon of Military Police for security. On November 9, 1984, the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, General Maxwell Thurman, visited Johnston Atoll and initiated significant changes to the structure of the organization. On July 8, 1985, Johnston Island Chemical Activity became the United States Army Chemical Activity, Western Command, a major subordinate command of Western Command. The change included the reorganization of the chemical activity at Johnston island into three components called the Military Police Company (MPC) to provide physical security for toxic chemical munitions and facilities located on Johnston Island Atoll, and on order, conduct island defense; the Headquarters / Headquarters Detachment (HHD) to provide administrative support including personnel and budget management, logistical support, chemical surety matters, personnel security, training management, treaty compliance and on order, support the deployment of a response force for personnel decontamination operations in the Pacific area of response; and the Chemical Ammunition Support Division (CASD) to handle the poison munitions.〔 Subsequently, on August 30, 1990, the activity was renamed the U.S. Army Chemical Activity, Pacific (USACAP) to coincide with the re-designation of U.S. Army, Pacific Command. Worldwide attention was focused on Johnston Atoll that same year, when chemical munitions were moved from West Germany, under the code name Operation Steel Box."〔 During the period of June 1990 to June 1991, USACAP had assisted in the start-up of the Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System (JACADS), the transfer of retrograde of chemical munitions from Germany during Operation Steel Box, and the recovery of chemical munitions from the Solomon Islands in Operation Kalama Express. These events resulted in the unit receiving the U.S. Army Superior Unit Award on July 20, 1992 from the Secretary of the Army.〔 In October 1993 the Department of the Army’s Environmental Support Group noted that the mission of the 267th Chemical Company on Johnston Atoll was overseeing the "storage, safeguard, maintenance, and security for ready to issue chemical agents;" rabbits were used as "live monitors" and "VX" rockets were assigned to the island.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.va.gov/vetapp97/files2/9717517.txt )〕 On November 1, 1994, USACAP reorganized by combining the HHC and CASD into one unit called the Chemical Ammunition Company (CAC).〔 On November 29, 2000, the last of the chemical weapons at JACADS was disposed of. The last disposal operation destroyed more than 13,000 VX filled land mines. The island had held over 400,000 rockets, projectiles, bombs, mortars, containers and mines. The U.S. Army Chemical Activity Pacific (USACAP) was deactivated during a Chemical Surety Decertification ceremony on Johnston Island held on April 11, 2001. The ceremony signaled the completion of 30 years of guarding America's cache of chemical weapons in the Pacific. The chemical unit and its predecessor's sole mission had been to guard chemical weapons shipped from Okinawa beginning in 1971. Two years after the last chemical weapons on Johnston Atoll at were destroyed, the Army submitted the plan to dismantle the JACADS facility which the US Environmental Protection Agency approved in September 2002. Demolition on the facility, home to the incinerators, laboratories and control rooms, took place from August–October 2003, and by November 2003, all infrastructure had been removed from the Atoll. A plaque dedicated to JACADS personnel was placed on Johnston Island at that time. By 2001 the 267th Chemical Company was stationed at Camp Carroll in Waegwan, South Korea and assigned to the 23rd Chemical Battalion as part of 19th Theater Support Command (Provisional). The unit was charged with decontaminating personnel and equipment in the aftermath a North Korean chemical attack. On June 24, 2004 the 23d Chemical Battalion was ordered to inactivate the 267th Chemical Company. The 23rd Chemical Battalion was then reassigned to Fort Lewis, Kentucky in late 2004. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「267th Chemical Company」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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