Category: Biological Warfare

Asbestos Training Schools for WWII today are still schools and sites of charitable organizations in San Francisco

Support for Families with Children for Disabilities, The San Francisco Pride Office, Aids Legal Referral Project and the National Housing Law Project are at 1633 Mission St. San Francisco whic was one of many vocational schools used to train civilians to wrap pipes on ships with asbestos for the war effort. The site also taught welding and other skills necessary in ship building.

I ran into this listing for Treasure Island in the journal “Asbestos” while doing a search of a periodicals database and this led me to the “San Francisco War Production Training School” and its multiple sites listed below.

Asbestos 1944-08: Vol 26 Iss 2
Asbestos 1944-08: Vol 26 Iss 2

“San Francisco War Production Training School”

I found this pamplet describing the courses and locations. I will note if the site is still a school today and its google map location. Unforunately the courses were probably the same courses in each facility. I noted the Asbestos Training course and its description, they also taught welding and htis was very important in the shipbuilding for World wAr II. The Kaiser shipyards in Richmond were able to produce an entire liberty ship in 4 hours of time. The Japanese thought this was propaganda until they were able to confirm it. An amazing accomplishment that required training of hundreds of people at a time. I noted the 1633 mission site as it was the Shipbuilding School.
“San Francisco War Production Training School” – Pamplet –

San Francisco Public Schools – War Production Training Program.

Introduction:
This is short pamplet describes the San Francisco School system’s World War II training programs.

San Francisco Public Schools

War Production Training Program

Free training for War Production workers is offered by the United States Government in cooperation with the San Francisco Public Schools with classes conducted in the following locations:

  • Shipbuilding School – 1663 Mission St. Google Map
  • Samuel Gompers Trades School – 22nd and Bartlett Sts. Note: Currently City College of San Francisco – Mission Center – Article on the Samuel Gompers Trade School building – Google Map
  • Balboa High – Onondaga Ave. and Cayuga Ave. Note: Still a High School Google Map
  • James Denman Junior High – Onondaga Ave. and Otsego Ave. Note: Still a Junior High School Google Map
  • San Francisco Junior College – Balboa Park – is currently San Francisco City College Note: Link on the history of the site – Google Map
  • Abraham Lincoln High – 22nd Ave. and Santiago St. Note: Still there, still a school – Google Map
  • George Washington High – 32nd Ave. and Anza St. Note: Still a school – Google Map
  • Presidio Junior High – 30th Ave. and Geary St. Note: Name change to Presidio Middle School still in operation – Google Map
  • Roosevelt Junior High.- Arguello Blvd. near Geary St. Note: Still in operation Name change Roosevelt Middle School – Google Map
  • Marina Junior High – Fillmore and Bay Sts. Note: Still in operation, Name change to Marina Middle School – Google Map
  • Galileo High – Van Ness Ave. and Francisco St. Note: Still in opration, Name is Galileo Academy of Science and Technology – Google Map
  • Polytechnic High – Frederick St. and Arguello Blvd. Note: The good news it is new construction, no longer a school

Other Locations:

  • Treasure Island – Chemical, Biological and Radiological training site that used Mustard Gas and all land contaminated with chemical weapons are by law not capable of being transfered to civilian authorities. The sale to the City is against the law, DOD regulations and the Chemical Weapons Convention which has a deadline for compliance of December 31, 2023.
  • Aquatic Park
  • Sperry Gyroscope Co.
  • Maritime Hall
  • Ship Invader

Offices: War Production Training
93 Grove St.; Joseph E. Clisham, Director

Shipbuilding School, 1663 Mission St.

Samual Gompers Trades School
Room 214, 22nd and Bartlett Sts.

Supervisors:
T. Paul Dutcher, Paul O’Rourke, E. A. Wolfe

Entrance Requirements

Those interested in enrolling in War Production Training Classes may obtain information at the United States Employment Service, 1690 Mission Street, or may enroll directly at the school where the instruction is given. This instruction is free and is available without discrimination to all persons, male or female, employable in War Production Work.

Capable interviewers are on duty from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m. at the Samuel Gompers Trades School, 22nd and Bartlett Streets, and at the Shipbuilding School, 1663 Mission Street. Those interested in additional information as to the courses offered or the employment possibilities are welcome at these two locations.

All courses are designed for the needs of the industry concerned. Hours are arranged for the convenience of the majority of the students. New classes are started as the need demands.

These courses have the endorsement of the War Manpower Commission, Labor, Management, and the United States Employment Service.

Training is Offered in the Following Trades:

Aircraft Engine Mechanics
Aircraft Assembly Mechanics
Aircraft Sheet Metalsmith
Aircraft Mechanics (Pan-American Airways)
Acetylene Welding
Arc Welding
Communications (Land-line Morse, Teletype, Mux)
Asbestos Pipe Covering
General Machine Shop
Marine Drafting and Layout
Marine Electrical Installation
Marine Machine Shop
Marine Steamfitting and Pipefitting
Seamanship
Sheet Metal Fabrication and Layout
Radio Repairman – (Signal Corps)
Shipfitting
Ship-Lofting
Shipwright and Joiner

Asbestos Pipe Covering

All ship steam pipes, hot water lines, and steam boilers are covered in a fireproof jacket of asbestos. Refrigeration systems are all insulated with cork and hair felt. This material is then covered with canvas that must be sewed or pasted, The work is not heavy, and workers in this field are in great demand at all times. Only men are employable at the present time. The industry encourages those in allied fields such as painting, plastering, brick laying, tile setting, and cement finishers, to take this training.

This is a pre-employment course, and those who complete the work begin employment at journeymen’s rate of pay.

Featured

6 Nuclear sites within walking distance of California Department of Public Health Building, UC Berkeley Richmond and EPA Region 9 Lab

If the State and the Feds cannot look out for its own people how can we rely on them to protect the public?

The Califormia Department of Public Health (CDPH) regulates all of the radiological contamination in the State of California. The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) Building, EPA Region 9 lab and the University of California Berkeley Richmond Campus are located right in the heart of Nuclear Alley in Richmond CA. This series will highlight 6 nuclear industry companies in the Port of Richmond that held Atomic Energy Commission Licenses for Nuclear Waste, worked directly with radioactive isotopes (radioactive elements like Uranium, Plutonium, Strontium 90, Cesium 137, Cobalt 60, Carbon 14 etc) and built machines used in the Nuclear Weapons industry.

Tracerlab/EAL building at 2030 Wright Avenue has been looted, it is a nuclear waste site and made radiological equipent for the Nuclear Industry. Google maps street view

All are within walking distance of these government facilites and they have never been cleaned up for their nuclear purposes. These government facilities need to be evacuated, because they were constructed after the contamination, which means:

  • Every surface exposed during contruction inside the walls and out will have to be swabbed to determine alpha and beta particles for identification of the isotopes as well as gamma readings for radiation.
  • All samples taken as evidence for all of Region 9 which includes, CA, OR, WA, HI, NV, the Pacific and the 148 Tribal Nations in all cases where the EPA and CDPH buildings have existed will have to be thrown out and resampled.
  • And most importantly every employee and every living being who stepped in these facilties will have to be evacuated and monitored for exposure for the rest of their lives.

Stauffer Chemical in Richmond CA processed uranium NRC records 1962
Stauffer Chemical Richmond on list of 153 Sites for the Nuclear Weapons Industry
Nuclear Fuel Rods Transported to and from the Port of Richmond CA
Tracerlab at 2030 and Berkeley Scientific at 2200 Wright Avenue Richmond CA – Nuclear Devices and testing
Tracerlab dumping Nuclear Waste At Sea, building looted in Richmond CA
Ocean Transport of Richmond dumped nuclear waste at sea – 1 of 6 Nuclear Weapons sites within walking distance of CDPH building, UC Berkeley Richmond and EPA Region 9 Lab
Chevron Richmond CA dumping nuclear waste at sea and burying on site

Also note the Navy dumped nuclear waste directly into San Francisco Bay in 1946 and they covered it up by making sure to not notify the barge operators what they were dumping. Here is that COVER UP Document and a separate set of orders for all Navy Bases on the West Coast, the Pacific and Norfolk Naval Bases.

1946-12-04 ACID AND OTHER DECONTAMINATING SOLUTIONS USED IN CLEARING SALT WATER SYSTEMS MAY BE DISCHARGED INTO HARBORS

Safety Regulations have changed over the years and all sites cleaned up in the past, those standards are nuclear accidents today. All sites need to be re-evaluated for radiological contamination.

Safety levels of nuclear radiation have changed over the years making previous cleanups are now nuclear accidents

EPA Regulations on proximity means the UCSF and UC Berkeley Ergonomics Lab is within 200 feet of the Stauffer Chemical Plant making it part of the site.

The EPA has regulations on Proximity to toxic waste sites. I went into the law in detail in this article on the contamination range of Treasure Island to San Francisco.

Downtown San Francisco within Contamination Range of Treasure Island Atomic, Biological and Chemical Warfare training sites

To the EPA everything within 200 feet of a site is on the site. In this case of UC Berkeley everything to the east of Egret Way, which is where the UC BErkeley Bus drives down to unload students is within the 200 feet fo the Stauffer Chemical Company.

Near Neighbors are everything from 200 feet to a quarter of a mile and that makes the EPA Region 9 Laboratory within that range.

A Second Near Neighbor class is everything from a quarter of a mile to a mile away and that encompases the California Department of Public Health.

Then you have ranges for water and dust contamination that can go 4 miles, so these sites are all within a mile of the California Department of Public Health and all sites are within the wind range contamination of each other and the city of Richmond.


245 biological experiments on US citizens in cities and bases, Navy Biological Warfare Lab in SF Bay

Film of the Navy purposely contaminating 43 square miles of San Francisco with Serratia marcescens in 1950 and in color, at 2:25 “Naval Concepts of Chemical and Biological Warfare” Naval Concepts of Chemical and Biological Warfare (1952), Department of Defense Film Production, National Archives and Records Administration Catalogue # 428.MN.9170A, Declassified NND Authority # 64044

This article will be divide up in sections:

ABC Warfare Defense, Navy Training Course, Bureau of Naval Personnel, NAVPERS, 1960 10099 p 124
notice Alcatraz in the background and the headlands
  • Biological testing involving human subjects by the Department of Defense, 1977 hearings before the Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research of the Committee on Human Resources, United States Senate, Ninety-fifth Congress, first session … March 8 and May 23, 1977
    • p 124
  • Biological testing involving human subjects by the Department of Defense, 1977 hearings before the Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research of the Committee on Human Resources, United States Senate, Ninety-fifth Congress, first session … March 8 and May 23, 1977
    • p 125
  • Biological testing involving human subjects by the Department of Defense, 1977 hearings before the Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research of the Committee on Human Resources, United States Senate, Ninety-fifth Congress, first session … March 8 and May 23, 1977
    • p 126
    Continue reading “245 biological experiments on US citizens in cities and bases, Navy Biological Warfare Lab in SF Bay” →

    Fort Baker Biological Lab for (LAIR) Letterman Army Institute of Research on the Presidio

    Today Fort Baker is a part of the Golden Gate National Park where they have a children’s museum and activities on the location of the US Army’s Biological Research Field Laboratory that was closed down when an outbreak of Q Fever swept the base in 1979. The Army called it an accident as they were experimenting on Sheep and goats that just so happen to have Q Fever, and the disease infected the base. There could be no other reason because the US signed onto the International Treaties that banned biological weapons in 1972.

    But the Army used Q Fever (Coxilella Burnetii) in Biological Warfare Experiments from 1951 through 1967 at the Dugway Proving Grounds. See Main article “245 biological experiments on US citizens in cities and bases, Navy Biological Warfare Lab in SF Bay“

  • Biological testing involving human subjects by the Department of Defense, 1977 hearings before the Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research of the Committee on Human Resources, United States Senate, Ninety-fifth Congress, first session … March 8 and May 23, 1977
    • p 135
  • Biological testing involving human subjects by the Department of Defense, 1977 hearings before the Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research of the Committee on Human Resources, United States Senate, Ninety-fifth Congress, first session … March 8 and May 23, 1977
    • p. 136

    During Desert Storm the Army claimed that the disease Q Fever had infected its soldiers in the field and that this was the first time it was seen by the military. That does not square with the records above. If they truly did not know about it, what does that say about the waste and lack of care in preserving documents?

    See: Anderson, A. D., Smoak, B., Shuping, E., Ockenhouse, C., & Petruccelli, B. (2005). Q Fever and the US Military. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 11(8), 1320-1322. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid1108.050314.

    Given that all of this research is classified at the time, has anyone in the military ever decided to keep track of research so as to avoid accidents like this or to build on previous research instead of inventing the wheel every time a disease crops up?

    LAIR Letterman Army Institute of Research (LAIR) was at the Presidio next to Letterman Army Hospital. Fort Baker was the field laboratory for both entities and the NRC regulated the Radiological Labs at all three locations. Here are is a the cover letter and map of the Radiation facilities from December 6 1991.

    EARTHDAY 2021 PROTEST SAN FRANCISCO video

    These are the people I am fighting for to publish the Navy reports on my Treasure Island website and on this Disaster Area website documenting the Navy’s contamination of Hunters Point shipyard by the US Navy’s Radiological Defense Laboratory based at Hunters Point and at Treasure Island, the Navy’s Atomic, Biological and Chemical Warfare Training Center.

    And if you want a sample of the Navy’s own sources, of what they dumped and polluted at Hunters Point Shipyard, here is their Health and Safety report from 1960 documenting the exposures by building number and listing the radiological accidents just for 1960
    U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory., Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory. (1961). Radiological safety at USNRDL: annual progress report health physics division ; 1 January to 31 December 1960. San Francisco, California: U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory. Note: This text is searchable on that website

    Treasure Island – Naval Training Bulletin. 1956-57 June p 12 Damage Controlman, Class A Courses

    Schools Command, US Naval Station, Treasure Island Calif., Naval Training Bulletin. 1956-57 June p 12 HathiTrust page

    1. Fire Fighting (3 weeks fire-fighting; 1 week portable pumps) 4 weeks
    2. Atomic and Chemical Defense Monitoring – 3 weeks
    3. Basic Woodworking Tools and General Carpentry 4 weeks
    4. Welding, Mathematics, and Blueprints 4 weeks
    5. Practical Damage Control 4 weeks
    6. Painting and Plastic Pipe Repair 2 weeks, 2 days

    Treasure Island – Biological and Chemical Training on USS Pandemonium Dec 1956 Naval Training Bulletin

    USS Pandemonium being built for Biological, Chemical training. Naval Training Bulletin December 1956 pp 9-11. HathiTrust Link
    Note the students training:
    Page 10: July 1955 – – Students practice Biological and chemical warfare countermeasures on deckhouse.
    PAGE 10: Lower right Construction work is suspended temporarily for class drills.
    pAGE 11: September 1956 – – A class hoses down the main deck aft. The 40 mm and K guns have just been acquired.

    Naval Training Bulletin December 1956, pg. 9

    1953-Biological Warfare Training Manual at Treasure Island, San Francisco CA

    Film of the Navy purposely contaminating San Francisco with Serratia marcescens in 1951 and in color, “Naval Concepts of Chemical and Biological Warfare” Naval Concepts of Chemical and Biological Warfare (1952), Department of Defense Film Production, National Archives and Records Administration Catalogue # 428.MN.9170A, Declassified NND Authority # 64044

    Navy Reports that indicate the Biological Warfare training was concurrent with the Radiological Warfare Decontamination Training at Treasure Island. This constant testing caused an incident in 1950 whereby 11 people were infected by a bacterium that produced a pneumonia that cost a man his life. Senator Edward Kennedy was very upset about this in a 1977 hearing and chewed out the Army official who told the committee about the problem.

    NIH report on Serratia infections

    United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Human Resources. Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research. Biological Testing Involving Human Subjects by the Department of Defense, 1977: Hearings Before the Subcommittee On Health And Scientific Research of the Committee On Human Resources, United States Senate, Ninety-fifth Congress, First Session … March 8 And May 23, 1977. Washington: U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1977.

    United States Navy Biological Warfare Defense, Civil Engineer Corps, United States Navy, TECHNICAL PUBLICATION NAVDOCKS TP-PL-4; REV. 15 April 1953 (REPRINTED 1 SEPT 1953 INCORPORATING PRIOR CHANGES)
    Department of the Navy, Bureau of Yards and Docks, Washington 25, DC    :

    A1.05 Simulant Agents
    Simulant BW agents are microorganisms or compounds having little or no pathogenicity or toxicity, but otherwise resembling true BW agents in certain characteristics or properties, such as viability, size, food or cultural requirements, growth characteristics, persistency, and routes of invasion. They are particularly useful in field testing the behavior of munitions, determination of effect of particle size on penetration of the air passages of animals, survival of vegetable and spore-bearing organisms under experimental and environmental conditions, testing of protective devices and procedures, and for training. purposes. Examples of microbial simulants are serratia marcescens or Bacillus prodigiosus, a vegetable nonsporulating organism, and Bacillus globigii, a spore-forming rod-shaped bacterium. Continue reading “1953-Biological Warfare Training Manual at Treasure Island, San Francisco CA” →

    Treasure Island Atomic, Biological, and Chemical Warfare for Medical Officers

    Medical News Letter, Vol. 33, No. 12 op. 20
    Training in ABC Warfare for Medical Officers -A Four Weeks’ Course

    Course #5 convening 4 January 1960
    Location: U.S. Naval Schools Command, Naval Station, Treasure Island, San Francisco, Calif.
    Student Clearance Required: SECRET
    Reporting Time and Place: Prior to 2200, 3 January 1960, Personnel Office, U.S. Naval Schools Command, Bldg. 28

    Course Objectives

    The course is designed for experienced active duty Naval Medical officers possessing SECRET security clearance. It will stress the medical aspects of modern warfare and of military peace time operations, including problems incident to atomic, biological, and chemical weapons systems, nuclear propulsion, mass casualties, and isotope programs. Military aspects of the weapons systems and military countermeasures will also be considered so that Medical officers may function effectively on a staff and can reasonably assess the medical compromises imposed by the military situation. Outstanding speakers, both military and civilian, will be on the program. The course will include visits to the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory and the Naval Biological Laboratory; it will also include several practical exercises and drills. Texts will be provided for permanent retention Continue reading “Treasure Island Atomic, Biological, and Chemical Warfare for Medical Officers” →

    Treasure Island CA – Biological and Chemical Training Center US Navy Medical News Letter, Vol. 29, No. 5 Friday, l March 1957 page 14

    Description of the Atomic, Biological and Chemical training center at Treasure Island Navy Base including the showers necessary to decontaminate the students from the Biological and Chemical Training Center at Treasure Island.

    The Evolution of the USS Pandemonium US Navy Medical News Letter, Vol. 29, No. 5 Friday, l March 1957 page 14

    The old adage, “Big oaks from little acorns grow, ” was recently demonstrated at the Biological and Chemical Warfare Defense School at Treasure Island, Calif. In July 1955, an old deckhouse served as a mockup for shipboard training in biological and chemical warfare counter-measures. Today, the deckhouse has grown into the USS Pandemonium, a full-scale mockup of a 173 PC.
    The Pandemonium has been designed throughout for the teaching of all phases of ABC shipboard defense and recovery techniques. It was constructed from a set of general plans of the PC-1170 and !rom photos of the PC-116. Continue reading “Treasure Island CA – Biological and Chemical Training Center US Navy Medical News Letter, Vol. 29, No. 5 Friday, l March 1957 page 14” →