2019: I was exposed to nerve agent on Okinawa

Okinawa.
Source: The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 17 | Issue 20 | Number 2 | Article ID 5319 | Oct 15, 2019
Mit freundlicher Erlaubnis von Japan Focus.

“I was exposed to nerve agent on Okinawa” – US soldier sickened by chemical weapon leak at Chibana Ammunitions Depot in 1969 breaks silence on what happened that day.
Jon Mitchell

On July 8 1969, 19-year old US soldier Daniel Plemons was working at Chibana Ammunition Depot, Okinawa, in one of the most dangerous – and secretive – jobs in the US military: the maintenance of chemical weapons.

“There were 500-pound (227 kg) bombs filled with nerve agent and we were sandblasting the old paint off them before repainting and stenciling their markings. Our team had finished around 25 – then I started having trouble breathing and my vision became strange. Thinking it was just the dust, I stepped outside for a moment but when I went back inside, everybody was gone. I found them out the back of the building and they yelled at me to inject myself with my automatic springloaded antidote. I injected it into my upper thigh. It hurt – but that’s what saved my life.”

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