RICHMOND, Ky. — Community members and government officials celebrated at Eastern Kentucky University the destruction of the last M55 rocket containing VX Nerve Agent. 

What You Need To Know

  • The last of VX Nerve Agent Chemical Weapons have been destroyed in the United States

  • These weapons were stored in nine different locations across the United States

  • The Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant is destroying the remaining chemical weapons in Kentucky

  • Four out of the five weapons in Kentucky have been destroyed

A project that has been in the works for nearly three years in Madison County is being recognized as an enormous achievement, the destruction of another chemical weapon in Kentucky. 

“These weapons were weapons of mass destruction. The United States developed them as well as other countries. Ours was to make sure that it’s a deterrent so other countries would not use these weapons against our soldiers or our homeland,” Michael Abaie, with the Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternative said.

Abaie says the weapons were stored in nine different locations across the United States around the time of World War II. 

“All the countries that had declared stockpiles signed that treaty in the 80s. So everyone got after to destroy their chemical weapon stockpiles, and the United States is the last remaining country to destroy their stockpile,” Abaie said.

Abaie says their recent destruction was on the M55 rockets containing VX Nerve Agent, and completing this campaign, they successfully destroyed the entire stockpile of VX Nerve Agent in the United States. 

“So as we complete our destruction, we can now hold them accountable by saying, ‘Hey, we’ve destroyed ours. You need to destroy yours,’” Abaie said.

Community member Craig Williams has lived in Madison County for nearly 45 years, and says the safety of destroying these weapons has always been a concern. 

“For the longest time people weren’t aware of the fact that they were even here,” Williams said.

And knowing that four out of the five chemical weapons were safely destroyed, Williams says brings relief to his community. 

“There’ll be one more celebration when the GB rockets are gone, and the entire history pile is eliminated and the risk associated with it no longer hovers over this community,” Williams said.

The weapons were destroyed by neutralization, a technology that separates the nerve agent from the explosive and then neutralized in hot water and sodium hydroxide. An agreed form of destruction, Williams and Abaie say, was the safest for their community. 

Within the next couple of months, Madison County will start on the destruction of GB rockets, destroying the entire U.S. stockpile of chemical weapons by the end of September 2023. 

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