War gasses! He was working on war gasses!

[Jonathan Chance]

Holy Cow!

My father-in-law (now deceased) served in the Army in the 50s...right after Korea. He'd gotten a degree in chemistry and did his time using his skills. That's what we've known.

Now mix in that I'm running some departments for a publisher of military-oriented titles. We'll shortly be launching a new magazine focused on Special Operations Technology.

With me so far?

I'm compiling a list of locales and personnel for the inaugural issue. We won't run it (for those concerned) but we will use it to build a knowledge base of the industry and to create our initial circulation.

And I come across some old program information that rung a bell. "Special Troops...Dept XXX", I mutter. "Why does that ring a bell?"

Suddenly it occurs to me! That's the same base at which my F-I-L served! And he was making gasses!

He'd told us tales of testing gasses. He referred to them as 'gas mask tests'. Take some poor bastard, give him a mask, put him in a sealed room and release the stuff. Ugh.

Put two and two together (and I'm not revealing everything I know here) and I'm led to the conclusion that my F-I-L was working on war gasses!

YOW!!!

Betcha thought this was about Saddam, didn't you?