![]() ![]() Though first researched by the French, the Germans had been the first to put chemical gases into action during the war in 1915. A new weapon had been introduced into the battlefields: chemical gases. Even before President Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany in April 1917, the stories rising out of the European trenches caused major concern. While the United States had managed to avoid becoming directly involved, the rising tensions made that option less and less viable as time went on. The year was 1916, and the Great War had raged on for nearly two years, with multiple countries involved in its conflicts. ![]() The neighborhood, long a popular spot for leaders of government to reside, was rattled in the wake of the discovery, which awakened the ghosts of World War I and an old agreement between American University and the United States Army. Their verdict? The objects were unexploded mortar and artillery shells – and there might be more in the area. Within hours, 25 homes in the upscale neighborhood had been temporarily evacuated as munitions crews from the Army Technical Escort Unit at Aberdeen Proving Grounds investigated. Fire Department… who called the police… who called the bomb squad. On January 7, 1993, an alarming headline greeted readers of The Washington Post: “25 HOUSES EVACUATED AS WWI SHELLS EXAMINED.” The previous day, a backhoe operator digging a trench in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest Washington had uncovered a suspicious object. Soldiers training with gas masks to prepare for chemical exposure during combat at Camp Leach in future Spring Valley neighborhood. ![]()
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