The History Channel program featured both researchers and study participants
A documentary about “Project Whitecoat,” a United States Army biological research program in which Seventh-day Adventist non-combatants played a significant role, aired on Sunday, August 20. The History Channel program featured both researchers and study participants as it examined the lasting impact of the project on the development of vaccines against biological warfare agents.
Project Whitecoat ran from 1954 to 1973 and allowed United States citizens to serve in the military while maintaining a non-combatant status. It attracted 2,300 Seventh-day Adventists who contributed to the study of diseases and their cures. Most of the experiments were held at Fort Detrick in Maryland were all tightly monitored by the U.S. Army.
“The army ultimately found its volunteers for this scientific experiment from a most unusual place, the Seventh-day Adventist Church,” said Colonel Arthur Anderson of the United States Army Research Institution for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) who was interviewed for the documentary. “The reason for this was that the young men from the Adventist Church believed in serving in the military in non-combatant duty. There were very few types of positions they could serve in without having to bear arms.” Project Whitecoat provided such an opportunity.
“This group of men became a researcher’s dream,” said Dr. Frank Damazo, project liaison with the Adventist Church. “They all believed in abstinence from tobacco, drugs, and alcohol.”
Dean Rogers, a Whitecoat volunteer from 1970 to 1971, says “We, as Adventists, felt that we really shouldn’t be involved in the killing part of war. It made sense that we could support our country without taking life.” Rogers participated in an experiment for eastern encephalitis, but spent most of his time working in the auditing office at Walter Reed Army Hospital. Whitecoat volunteers kept paperwork updated, worked in laboratories and hospitals, and took care of patients. “The Whitecoats, in many ways, kept things running,” Rogers says.
“The results of the Whitecoats have not only benefitted the military, but have influenced hundreds of thousands of civilians,” says Richard Stenbakken, director of Adventist Chaplaincy Ministries for the Adventist Church worldwide. “The church believes in being good citizens, as long as that doesn’t interfere with our responsibility to God. The church’s recommendation is that its members serve as non-combatants, based on Biblical teachings.”