Aberdeen Proving Ground

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Information plaque on US40 to Aberdeen Proving Ground

The Aberdeen Proving Ground ( APG ) is the oldest research and development facility of the United States Army and is located near Aberdeen in Harford County in the US state of Maryland . It opened on October 20, 1917 and covers an area of ​​72,500 acres , which is the equivalent of approximately 29,300 hectares . Around 3,900 military and almost 3,000 civilian employees are employed on the site of the largest single site of the Army Research Laboratory . Traditionally, research and tests in the field of ballistics and conventional ammunition took place there (Ballistic Research Laboratory, BRL). Poison gas was tested here during the First World War.

history

The United States Army Ordnance Museum , which is the largest open-air museum in the USA for large military equipment from around the world, is located on the premises of APG . The Aberdeen Proving Ground also plays a role in computer history, the ENIAC was installed here in the late 1940s, mainly for ballistic calculations in the Ballistic Research Laboratory. Furthermore, one of the 13 root name servers (h.root-servers.net) is located in the Aberdeen Proving Ground . In 1996, the base attracted political, media and public attention when a sexual abuse scandal shook confidence in the United States Armed Forces .

Edgewood Arsenal

In the course of the limited war laboratory experiments, the US Army Chemical Corps secretly tested the use of poison gas (and also Agent Orange , psychoactive drugs and other chemicals) and protective mechanisms from 1955 to 1975 . The experiments took place in the part of the Aberdeen Proving Ground known as Edgewood Arsenal . Small doses of the substances were tested on around 7,000 military personnel.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. T. Passie, U. Benzenhöfer: MDA, MDMA, and other "mescaline-like" substances in the US military's search for a truth drug (1940s to 1960s). In: Drug testing and analysis. Volume 10, number 1, January 2018, pp. 72-80, doi : 10.1002 / dta.2292 , PMID 28851034 (review).
  2. Us Department Of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Heal: Edgewood / Aberdeen Experiments - Public Health. In: publichealth.va.gov. December 26, 2017, accessed April 16, 2018 .

Coordinates: 39 ° 28 ′ 21 ″  N , 76 ° 7 ′ 48 ″  W.