They volunteered to serve their country. They had no idea what their country had in mind.
Winnipeg Sun
Friesen, who’s now 77 and lives in Winkler, was pulled from training at Camp Shilo in 1945. He was among more than 2,500 young recruits who took an oath of secrecy to participate in a top secret mission — most at a military base in Alberta, others at the National Research Council in Ottawa.
They didn’t know their mission would entail being exposed to poisonous gases, and that they’d be denied medical care for days so scientists could study the horrifying effects.
The soldiers were marched into a field at what is now CFB Suffield near Medicine Hat where they were exposed to mustard gas vapours. Fifteen minutes later they were taken back to the base where they were put in a cold chamber for three hours, Friesen recalls.
“We were still wearing our contaminated clothing sitting in there.”
But that wasn’t the end of it. They were then taken to a hot chamber.
“We were made to perspire which opened our pores. That’s when the fireworks started,” Friesen said. “The vapours trapped in our clothing got into our skin and we got huge blisters all over, including the most tender parts of our bodies.”
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“We didn’t know what we were going into,” said Tanner, now 77 and living in Kelowna, B.C. “They didn’t tell us what we’d be doing — they said it was top secret. It sounded like something from James Bond.”
After being gassed, the soldiers were taken to the base hospital where they assumed they’d be treated but that didn’t happen despite their cries for care.
“They didn’t give us anything for the pain and they didn’t treat our blisters,” Friesen said. “They just kept us under observation so they could see how our bodies reacted to the gas exposure.”
Many of the men who were gassed in Suffield have not been able to have children, others have been plagued by lung ailments, and other have battled cancer. It’s unknown how many are still alive.
They were paid an additional dollar a day as compensation. Ottawa refused to acknowledge the testing even took place until 1988. Today, defense minister David Pratt announced a $50 million tax-free payout to the estimated 2000 soldiers who were affected.
About damned time.