Operation Steel Box

At a United States Army Site near Clausen, West Germany, 100,000 GB and VX filled American chemical munitions were stored in 15 concrete bunkers.

[2] The program sponsor, the Military Sealift Command, brought in the prestigious naval architecture firm, George G. Sharp, Inc. of New York City, as project manager to oversee the design-development efforts to modify and outfit the two crane ships for the mission and assigned former Electric Boat submarine engineer Jim Ruggieri, P.E., as project engineer.

The vessels were outfitted with a collective protection system – or a positive pressure system used to pressurize the house relative to the cargo hold as a means of preventing inadvertent weapon gas migration in the event of a containment failure; manned Laboratories – to provide a safe and comfortable environment to scientists to perform analyses of the products; unmanned “sniffer” and alarming modules to sample cargo hold air to detect containment failures, as well as detect and alarm positive pressure system failure; power generation modules to supplement ship power and emergency power provisions, and specialized communications modules to permit coordination with security forces.

[2] The transport ships avoided the Panama Canal, for security reasons,[1] and took the route around Cape Horn, the tip of South America.

[5] Other concerns raised included the security of the shipments, which were refueled at sea and escorted by U.S. guided missile destroyers, while they were en route to Johnston Atoll.

[2] In Australia, Prime Minister Bob Hawke drew criticism from some of these island nations for his support of the chemical weapons destruction at Johnston Atoll.