Mist Over the Deck: Project SHAD’s Invisible Enemy

Between 1962 and 1973, the U.S. military released unknown chemical and biological agents on its own servicemen—without their knowledge or consent.

This episode of Unsettled: The Hidden Record investigates Project SHAD (Shipboard Hazard and Defense), a series of Cold War-era experiments in which American ships were exposed to aerosolized “simulants” meant to test biological and chemical warfare defenses. Sailors were told nothing. Some were doused in mist. Others were tracked by air.

The Department of Defense denied the project’s existence for decades, until whistleblowers and classified documents forced partial disclosure. Even then, many of the health consequences were buried, redacted, or dismissed.

What did they release? Who authorized it? And why has no one been held accountable?

This is not a conspiracy. This is the blueprint of a test that never asked permission—and never gave warning.