New book documents Cold War experiments on kids

PHILADELPHIA — A half century later, Charlie Dyer still vividly remembers the day he was picked to join the "Fernald Science Club."

It was 1954 and at 14, he had already spent nearly half his life in a succession of Massachusetts institutions that unflinchingly labeled kids like him "morons." But his new place, the Fernald State School in Waltham, seemed like it might be different.

"They picked some of the oldest guys and asked us if we wanted to be in this club," Dyer, 72, said in an interview from his home in Watertown, Mass. "We all got together and decided, why not? We'll get time off the grounds."

The boys were promised presents, outings to the seashore, trips to Fenway Park and extra helpings of oatmeal.

"It was like Christmas," Dyer recalled. "Red Sox games, parties. I got a Mickey Mouse watch that I still have."

It took decades before Dyer learned that he and the boys he still considers brothers were little more than guinea pigs. A state task force in 1994 found Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists fed the unwitting boys radioactive oatmeal and milk for a Quaker Oats nutrition study.  (more...)

New book documents Cold War experiments on kids