Operation Drop Kick was conducted between April and November 1956 by the
US Army
The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...
Chemical Corps[Rose, William H.]
An Evaluation of Entomological Warfare as a Potential Danger to the United States and European NATO Nations
, U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command, Dugway Proving Ground
Dugway Proving Ground (DPG) is a United States Army facility established in 1942 to test biological and chemical weapons, located about southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah and south of the Utah Test and Training Range.
Location
Dugway Provin ...
, March 1981, via '' thesmokinggun.com'', accessed December 25, 2008 to test the practicality of employing mosquitoes to carry an
entomological warfare
Entomological warfare (EW) is a type of biological warfare that uses insects to interrupt supply lines by damaging crops, or to directly harm enemy combatants and civilian populations. There have been several programs which have attempted to instit ...
agent in different ways. The Chemical Corps released uninfected female mosquitoes into a residential area of
Savannah, Georgia
Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Brita ...
, whose residents had agreed to participate in the project, and then estimated how many mosquitoes entered houses and bit people. Within a day, many reports of mosquito bites were received.
In 1958, the Chemical Corps released 1,000,000 mosquitoes in
Avon Park, Florida
Avon Park is a city in Highlands County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9,658, up from 8,836 at the 2010 census but down from the 2018 estimated population of 10,695. It is part of the Sebring, Florida Metr ...
.
These tests showed that mosquitoes could be spread by means of various devices.
The 1964 movie ''
Dr. Strangelove
''Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb'' (known simply and more commonly as ''Dr. Strangelove'') is a 1964 political satire black comedy film co-written, produced, and directed by Stanley Kubrick. It is loosely ...
'' also refers to an Operation Drop Kick.
The TV series ''
Archer'' refers to Operation Drop Kick as the codename of a CIA mission to take over a country in
Latin America
Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...
.
See also
*
Unethical human experimentation in the United States
Numerous experiments which were performed on human test subjects in the United States in the past are now considered to have been unethical, because they were performed without the knowledge or informed consent of the test subjects. Such tests ...
*
Operation Big Buzz
*
Operation Big Itch
*
Operation May Day
References
{{U.S. biological weapons
Drop Kick
A drop kick is a type of kick in various codes of football. It involves a player intentionally dropping the ball onto the ground and then kicking it either (different sports have different definitions) 'as it rises from the first bounce' ( rugby ...
Drop Kick
A drop kick is a type of kick in various codes of football. It involves a player intentionally dropping the ball onto the ground and then kicking it either (different sports have different definitions) 'as it rises from the first bounce' ( rugby ...
Drop Kick
A drop kick is a type of kick in various codes of football. It involves a player intentionally dropping the ball onto the ground and then kicking it either (different sports have different definitions) 'as it rises from the first bounce' ( rugby ...
1956 in the United States