Wallace L. Pannier | Bioweapons scientist, 81
HAGERSTOWN, Md. - Wallace L. Pannier, 81, a germ-warfare scientist whose top-secret projects included a mock attack on the New York City subway with powdered bacteria in 1966, died Thursday in Frederick, Md., of respiratory failure and other natural causes, his wife said.
HAGERSTOWN, Md. - Wallace L. Pannier, 81, a germ-warfare scientist whose top-secret projects included a mock attack on the New York City subway with powdered bacteria in 1966, died Thursday in Frederick, Md., of respiratory failure and other natural causes, his wife said.
Mr. Pannier worked at Fort Detrick, an Army installation in Frederick that tested biological weapons during the Cold War and is now a center for biodefense research. He worked in the Special Operations Division, a secretive unit operating there from 1949 to 1969, according to family members and published reports.
The unit developed and tested delivery systems for deadly agents such as anthrax and smallpox.
Mr. Pannier told the Baltimore Sun in 2004 that team members staged their mock attack on the New York subway by shattering light bulbs packed with powdered bacteria on the tracks. They tracked the germs with air samplers disguised as suitcases.
The special-operations unit's existence wasn't publicly divulged until 1975.
Mr. Pannier's wife of 61 years, Betty, said she and their two children knew nothing about the nature of his work before then.
- AP