Military Sites
As early as 1943, the U.S. military began studying various chemicals’ applications for vegetation control together with the University of Chicago. Then in early 1945, incipient mixtures of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T were first tested by the U.S. military in Florida at the Bushnell Army Airfield, against the tropical foliage and crops there. The military conducted additional tests elsewhere in later years, in California, Indiana, Kentucky, Montana, North Dakota, New York, Hawaii, and other places.
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The U.S. Department of the Army Chemical Corps at Fort Detrick, MD, then developed tactical herbicide formulations and spray equipment in anticipation of the intensifying war on the Korean peninsula.
By the early 1960s, the more developed formulations of 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D were being tested across the U.S. and around the world, in India, Thailand, and Canada, among other countries. 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D were ultimately used for defoliation, while other organic arsenicals were used for crop destruction. Spray equipment had also been adapted to enable aerial spraying at controlled rates and concentrations.
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Information about where herbicides were used, stored and tested is still incomplete. What is known is that herbicides were shipped to Vietnam from several U.S. ports, including Baltimore, Seattle and New Orleans, early on in the war; and from Mobile, Alabama and Outport of Gulfport, Mississippi, after 1966. Once they arrived at the Port of Saigon, they were stored at either the 20th ARVN Ordnance Depot in Saigon or the 511th ARVN Ordnance Depot at the Da Nang air base, until they were sent to their final destinations.
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The VA has updated a list of these locations and more on their website in 2019. But while this updated list includes some new locations, it has left out sites that were on an earlier version.
In the U.S.
Eglin Airforce Base, FL
The major center for U.S. testing of herbicides was the Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. Between 1961 and 1971, nearly 59,000 gallons of Agent Purple, Orange, White, and Blue were sprayed there. Soil sampling at the test site conducted in 1970 until 1987 confirmed TCDD contamination. Because additional residual Dioxin had also been found at storage and loading sites west of the airstrip, mitigation efforts at the base began and concluded in 2001.
Fort Detrick, MD
Fort Detrick (previously Camp Detrick) was the headquarters for the Department of the Army’s Biological Laboratory which was responsible for developing the technical aspects of the military defoliation program. Between 1946 and 1968, the military tested 2,4,5-T, 2,4-D, picloram, cacodylic acid and other herbicides to determine which combination or concentration would be most effective for tactical purposes against trees and crops.
Other U.S. Sites
According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, between 1947 and 1969, the U.S. military tested herbicides containing 2,4,5-T in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, New York, Rhode Island, and Texas.
Outside of the U.S.
Gagetown, New Brunswick, Canada
Between December 1966 and October 1967, the U.S. military tested Agent Orange, Purple and Blue and other herbicides at Canada’s Gagetown military base, which had been used by the U.S. National Guard and Reserve forces for many decades. Since testing began, Canadian military and civilians have claimed to have suffered from Dioxin-related illnesses, and in 2007, the Canadian government announced a $95.6 million compensation package.
Guam and American Samoa
The U.S. has denied that herbicides were tested, stored, or transported via Guam and American Samoa. But reports have found that the U.S. shipped 5,000 55-gallon barrels of Agent Purple to Guam in 1952 to be used during the Korean war. A 2018 GAO report examining the use of herbicides on Guam, however, found that use of Agent Orange on the island could neither be proved nor disproved. Veterans who served on Guam have provided affidavits to the VA that they sprayed Agent Orange on the island and disposed of barrels in a landfill. As a result of the PACT Act, veterans who served in Guam or American Samoa between January 9, 1962, and July 31, 1980, are presumed to be exposed to herbicides and qualify for VA Benefits if they have one of the conditions associated with the herbicides.
Korea
During the Korean War, the U.S. considered using herbicides and reportedly shipped 5,000 gallons of Agent Purple and spray apparatus to Guam in 1952. While the herbicides ultimately were not used, procurement records show that 19,250 gallons of Agent Orange were shipped to Korea in March 1968 to be sprayed along the DMZ.
Puerto Rico
​From 1956 to 1957 and then again from 1966-1968, the U.S. Department of Defense conducted tests of 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D and other herbicides in Puerto Rico. Most tests were conducted in the area of Mayaguez in the western half of the island.
Thailand
​The U.S. tested the use of herbicides at the Pranburi Military Reservation south of Bangkok in 1964. It also stored Agent Orange at the Udorn Airbase in northeast Thailand at various times between October 1968 and September 1969, where it was loaded onto airplanes for spray missions in northern Laos. In addition, the U.S. military used ‘non-tactical’ herbicides, including 2,4,5-T to spray the perimeters of numerous air bases in Thailand where U.S. forces were located. U.S. veterans who served on bases in Thailand between January 9, 1962, and June 30, 1976, are now presumed by the VA to have been exposed to Dioxin-contaminated Agent Orange.
Storage and Transit Sites
Before their use in Vietnam during Operation Ranch Hand, herbicides were shipped out of Bayonne, NJ; Oakland, CA; New Orleans, LA; Baltimore, MD; Seattle, WA; Mobile, AL; and Gulfport, MS. The chemical companies shipped the 55-gallon barrels of herbicides by rail to ports, whereupon they were transferred to pallets and then loaded onto cargo ships.
Gulfport, MS
Starting in 1968, herbicides to be shipped to Vietnam were stored at the Seabees base in Gulfport, MS. During Hurricane Camille in 1969, 1,400 barrels of Agent Orange and Agent Blue were blown into the water; up to 240 barrels were never recovered. After Operation Ranch Hand ended, the surplus inventories of herbicides remaining in the U.S. were shipped to the Seabees base and stored there until 1977. During this time, there was frequent leakage and spills; some of the barrels had deteriorated. In April 1977, 15,470 barrels (about 845,350 gallons) of herbicides were removed from their drums, transported and then loaded onto the M/T Vulcanus, an incinerator ship. Detectable levels of TCDD were found in the soil at the Seabees base. Between May 1987 and February 1989, the contaminated soil was removed and incinerated, and in 1991, the former storage area was layered over in order to reduce runoff of Dioxin. Further mitigation measures are still needed.
Johnston Island, Pacific
In April of 1972, a total of 25,220 drums of Agent Orange in Vietnam were shipped to Johnston Island in the South Pacific. They were stored there until they were emptied and loaded onto the M/T Vulcanus, and destroyed at sea in 1977. The soil on the storage site was treated using an on-site thermal desorption technology between June 2003 and March 2004. Veterans who served on Johnston Atoll or were on a ship that landed there between January 1, 1972, and September 30, 1977, are now presumed exposed to herbicides and eligible for benefits.
Kelly Airforce Base, San Antonio, TX
Approximately 106,260 gallons of 2,4-D and 38,940 gallons of 2,4,5,-T were stored at Kelly Airforce base after use of Agent Orange ended in Vietnam. In 1972, it was transferred to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for brush control programs. In addition, the base stored 173,910 gallons of Agent Blue. Testing of the site in 1997 found Dioxin levels were within the range allowable in Texas. In 1997, the Airforce removed 3,000 cubic yards of topsoil from the former storage site that was contaminated with arsenic.
Read on to learn more about how the term, "ecocidal warfare," came to be; present-day consequences of wartime uses of herbicides in areas known as "hotspots"; and the early testing period of tactical herbicides in manufacturing sites and the long-term impacts there.
Ecocidal Warfare
The destruction and devastation of the verdant, lush tropical-agricultural landscape was so great that the terms “ecological warfare” and “ecocide” were coined, and frequently invoked, to describe what took place in the war’s aftermath ...
Hotspots
As early as 1943, the U.S. military began studying various chemicals’ applications for vegetation control together with the University of Chicago. Then in early 1945, incipient mixtures of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T were first tested by the U.S. military in Florida ...
Manufacturing Sites
Agent Orange-Dioxin contaminated not only areas of south Vietnam, but also where the chemical was manufactured, stored, tested or disposed of, in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world ...