Chemical Weapons Testing Created Controversy at Dugway

Yvette D. Ison History Blazer, July 1995 During the early months of American involvement in World War II, the U.S. War Department began to intensify research in chemical warfare defense. Cautious about conducting chemical tests in well-populated areas such as the military arsenal in Maryland, the War Department sought a more spacious, unpopulated area in which to conduct research. Western …

A Dummy Called “Hurricane Sam” Gave Pilots a Safety Edge

W. Paul Reeve History Blazer, March 1995 Following World War II America’s rapidly advancing military technology produced jet planes with the capability of reaching speeds in excess of 500 miles per hour. At such high velocities pilots had trouble safely escaping from their planes during emergencies. Between 1949 and 1956 only 20 percent of pilots who ejected did so without …

War and Protest

Linda Sillitoe History of Salt Lake County Salt Lake County residents closely watched the escalating war in Southeast Asia, and both support and protest tended to focus within the valley, where military industry played a major role. The state sent “more than its share of young men to Vietnam,” placing fifth in military participation despite the deferments available for LDS …

The Cold War, Korean War, and the Resurrection of Utah’s Defense Establishment

Thomas G. Alexander Utah, The Right Place In 1946, Winston Churchill warned that an “Iron Curtain” had fallen over central Europe, an image that galvanized the public imagination. The Soviet Union had begun installing puppet governments throughout Eastern Europe; and American, British, and French troops occupied western Germany. Communist guerillas unleashed attacks on the Greek government, and the USSR reluctantly …

Cold War Prosperity

Thomas G. Alexander Utah, The Right Place The wartime buildup, which had revitalized the defense installations and carried uranium fever to the Colorado Plateau while killing southwestern Utahns and leaving Navajo miners with incurable cancer, brought prosperity to the Wasatch and Oquirrh Fronts. This urban prosperity spread from the defense installations to private companies supplying goods and services to the …

Utah and the Cold War

Rebecca Whetstone Utah, like the rest of the world, was greatly affected by World War II. The end of the war marked the rise of two superpowers: the United States and the Soviet Union. The two countries supported differing ideologies. The United States embraced capitalism while the Soviet Union supported communism. These differing economic systems set the two countries against each other, created suspicion …