The restriction would be waived for former service members who participated in secrecy oath programs that prevented them from disclosing a mission or seeking benefits for service-connected illnesses or injuries.
Sponsored by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the legislation specifically identifies Vietnam-era service members who were human test subjects from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s in Army experiments using chemical warfare agents and hallucinogenic drugs.
“Government-employed scientists including former Nazi Germany scientists, tested mustard agents, psychedelics, nerve agents and other dangerous chemicals,” according to the legislation.
Service members in experiments at the former Edgewood Arsenal Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland were sworn to secrecy and threatened with court-martial or criminal charges if they violated it.
“Upon leaving service in the Army, veterans of the program could not seek benefits provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs for disabilities relating to the program without violating their secrecy oaths,” according to the legislation.
By secrecy oath, the military was referring to any non-disclosure agreement that prevented service members from disclosing or discussing covert missions. After leaving the military, the veterans could not seek compensation for injuries connected to the experiments until the secrecy oath was lifted in 2006, according to the legislation.
The bill was introduced in November and referred to the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. Blumenthal is a committee member.
As the incoming top Democrat of the committee, Blumenthal plans to reintroduce the legislation in the new Congress and will continue fighting to ensure Edgewood veterans receive full benefits, his office said.
“I was experiencing health problems before the oath was lifted but was not able to file a claim for compensation,” said Army veteran Frank Rochelle, 71, of North Carolina.
“Compensation should not be timed to when the secrecy oath ended because injuries were incurred prior to that,” said Rochelle, a former corporal whose service from 1968-1970 included a tour in Vietnam.
Vietnam-era service members were considered volunteers in the classified studies by the U.S. Army Chemical Corps. They signed consent agreements prior to participating.
But veterans later said they were not fully informed about the nature of the tests or the risks to their health.
“We have boxes and boxes of papers we’ve collected over the years about the testing, but we got nothing when we filed claims for compensation,” said Michelle Josephs, wife and full-time caretaker of 76-year-old Army veteran Tim Josephs, another Edgewood participant. “We were told it was ‘informed consent.’ Tim and the others had volunteered. But these were a bunch of 18- and 19-year-old guys who had no idea the government would give them things harmful to them.”
“We fought for years for benefits and then finally gave up,” she said.
Because the statute governing veterans benefits requires veterans to apply within one year of discharge to receive retroactive benefits, veterans of the program were only eligible for benefits beginning from the date of their disability application, according to the legislation.
Rochelle took part in the military studies in 1968 at the former Edgewood Arsenal, where he received drugs orally and by injection.
“I never knew what they were giving me,” he said. “I pretty much lost consciousness after 10 minutes. I was delirious for about two days. All I remember is breathing in this one inhalation.”
The chronic medical problems that Rochelle developed after the experiments made him unemployable, according to VA records.
Rochelle obtained his military medical records in 2001 and found he was administered a chemical known by the code name, CAR-302,668. The drug was described as a “deliriant drug” developed in the 1960s and tested at Edgewood.
He also learned from medical records that he received a drug called EA-2233, a high-potency, synthetic form of THC, a psychoactive ingredient found in cannabis. Rochelle said he developed significant problems with his concentration and memory after receiving the drug.
“In my VA files, my medical problems are documented as due to the Edgewood experiments,” said Rochelle, who is 100% disabled.
He is now seeking disability compensation dating back to his discharge in 1970 and he continues to have respiratory problems that doctors determined were related to aerosol sprays that he and other service members inhaled through a mask.
Rochelle also has a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder connected to his service at Edgewood.
His case is on appeal before the U.S. Veterans Court of Appeals, which ordered retroactive compensation in 2024 in three other cases involving Edgewood veterans.
“By complying with their secrecy oaths, the veterans of the program lost the ability to receive the full veterans’ benefits they earned,” the legislation said.
The legislation would require no later than three months after a secrecy oath is lifted, the military must identify and notify the affected veterans about their ability to apply for full benefits retroactive to their date of discharge.
“Veterans of other secrecy oath programs may face the same hurdles to obtaining benefits. While some veterans of secrecy oath programs received limited relief in the courts, there is uncertainty about the scope of benefits available to those veterans,” according to the legislation.
A 2023 ruling in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington enabled service members who volunteered at Edgewood to obtain VA disability compensation retroactive to their date of discharge, potentially affecting 3,000 to 5,000 veterans believed to be alive.
If signed into law, the OATH Act would codify this decision for Edgewood veterans — “allowing them to avoid litigation and inconsistent outcomes between cases” — and enable veterans who served in other secrecy oath programs to backdate their benefits, Blumenthal’s office said.
Mark Jones, an attorney who represents several Edgewood veterans in cases seeking compensation, said the VA states publicly it has a process in place to handle claims for earlier effective dates. But the Edgewood veterans’ requests continue to be denied, he said.
“They are telling the veterans in decision letters that they do not have such a process in place,” Jones said. “I have the paperwork to support the fact that the VA is lying.”
Tim Josephs, a former Army sergeant, was given a cocktail of drugs that caused him to hallucinate and experience tremors when he served as a human test subject at Edgewood for three months in 1968.
Neurological problems, including depression, nightmares, and extreme anxiety, persisted in the decades following military service, said Michelle Josephs, speaking for her husband, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease 20 years ago. The medical condition limits his ability to have conversations.
Michelle Josephs said she did not learn about the experiments from her husband until the couple received a phone call several years after his discharge in 1969 from the military. The person identified himself as a federal government employee with questions about his participation in the studies, she said.
“We had just gotten married, and I was a nursing student. Someone from the government called. Tim did not ever call them back because he was so disgusted and didn’t trust them. I said, ‘What is this about?’ " she recalled. “That’s when he told me about the experiments.”
The couple later obtained his military health records that included information about participation in the Edgewood studies. Michelle Josephs said her husband was administered nerve agents and antidotes to them. Tim Josephs pursued disability claims with the VA but was denied.
“We’ve had a lot of expenses over the years. At one point his medications were $3,000 a month,” she said. “He gets so worked up over this, and then nothing happens. We’re demoralized.”
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