Prior to creation of the Web site, many veterans would have been reluctant or even opposed to talk about once-classified tests, with code names like Project 112/SHAD (Shipboard Hazard and Defense), that they were told had to remain secret, according to Dr. Michael Kilpatrick, director of strategic communications for the Defense Department's Military Health System under the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs.

"We need to get the word out to say that it's OK to talk about these things," Kilpatrick said.

The Defense Department and VA want the Web site — fhp.osd.mil/CBexposures — to be a link for helping vets with insurance, treatment and any legal claims possibly related to tests that took place long ago.

The Web site so far has generated about 130 e-mail inquiries and 20 phone calls to the Defense Department. Kilpatrick said that if there's a "preponderance of evidence," or 50 percent chance or more, that a caller's claim is service-connected, that person will get any necessary help through the VA.

Kilpatrick said the site has generated for the VA about 500 disability claims, with 90 approved. About a dozen of those cases, he said, are directly related to tests involving chemical and biological agents or simulants.

Of the 12 cases linked to tests, a third of those may be psychological problems, Kilpatrick said. Those problems may stem from the fact that for 30 or 40 years, people have lived with knowing they took part, sometimes without consent, in tests about which they knew little or nothing. Life interruptions like flashbacks and disturbed sleep for those people, similar to someone who might experience post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), persist even today, Kilpatrick said.

Chemical testing

The Web site has information about decades-old Dugway tests that included the use of 17 different chemical and biological agents. The government also wants to hear from people linked to the Deseret Test Center, headquartered at Fort Douglas. From 1962 to 1973, officials at the center organized tests using dangerous materials in numerous locations at sea and on land during World War II and the Cold War.

But Utah-based military watchdog Steve Erickson said the Web site is too little — and too late. "They wait until everybody's dead, and then they reveal the truth."

Bartling's daughter in Murray went to the Web site and retrieved a few phone numbers for her father. Bartling called and was on the receiving end of more questions than he asked. He has received a few calls back, and now he's waiting for more information about what went on 48 years ago at the Utah base.