OK, Not The Mama, or not the B-1, seems it was the F-117 Stealth from what I just read, but if I recall correctly no one publicly knew what the hell it was for sure at the time (1994), and I think B2 stealth (my mistake, not the B1) was what they (ABC News) thought was being tested (pure speculation in the news story), but back then the public (including me) did not even know that stealth was possible or under development, so like others have said, it does nor really matter which one it was, as it is irrelevant to the story and point I was trying to make.
Quoting from:
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/pages/news.html
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"During the 1980s, the men say, classified materials were burned at least once a week in 100-yard-long, 25-foot-wide pits. With security guards standing at the edge, Air Force personnel threw in hazardous chemicals such as methylethylketone, a common cleaning solvent, and other things, such as computers, that produce dioxin when burned. The toxic brew, including drums of hazardous waste trucked in from defense facilities in other states, was ignited with jet fuel and typically burned for eight to 12 hours, the men say. [/FONT][FONT=VERDANA,ARIAL]
Helen Frost says her husband, after being exposed to the thick, black fumes, endured constant headaches and itchy eyes. But, like many of the men, he continued to work because his pay -- about $50,000 a year -- was high and the work was consistent, she says. [/FONT]
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In the mid-1980s, however, dozens of Area 51 workers began developing breathing difficulties, chest pains, neurological problems and chronic skin inflammation -- all classic signs of exposure to toxins. The burning especially affected those who worked outdoors in maintenance and construction, about 150 to 300 yards downwind from the pits. [/FONT]
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The skin condition, which they called "fish scales," broke out on their hands, legs, backs and faces. They say they used emery boards and sandpaper to remove the embarrassing scabs. "I never saw anything like it. We would get it dried up in one spot, and then it would pop up somewhere else," says Stella Kasza, another plaintiff. [/FONT]
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The workers contend that when they asked for protective gear, Air Force officers rebuffed them. "They told us we could buy our own masks and then pointed to the gate and told us we could leave if we didn't like it," recalls one of the John Does, who, like the others, believes that the officers resented the civilians' higher wages. Though the workers used gloves they purchased themselves, they say base-security policy prevented them from bringing in any other protective gear. [/FONT]
Here are some links to the rest of the story:
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/pages/news.html
Also:
ABC News Groom Toxic Suit Transcript
Source: ABC World News Tonight
with Peter Jennings
August 1, 1994.
[Supplement to the Groom Lake Desert Rat. The transcript is followed by a press release from George Washington University concerning the suit.]
FORREST SAWYER (fill-in anchor): Some government employees are going to court this week, charging that their work has made them sick. What makes their claim so unusual is what they do and where--at a super secret military base called Groom Lake whose very existence we first reported just a couple of months ago. Here's our legal affairs correspondent Cynthia McFadden.
CYNTHIA MCFADDEN: These people are not your average commuters. [Workers boarding jets at McCarran Airport.] Among them are engineers and technicians helping develop America's most secret new weapons. Every day they fly a half an hour into the desert from Las Vegas on an airline that doesn't exist.
[In desert.] The planes land at an air base just behind these hills. Showing it to you would be a crime. And if you have ever worked at the air base, talking about it is a crime. And yet some of the workers say they now must talk about environmental crimes they say the government committed.
VICTIM (in shadow, voice disguised): We all done a lot of coughing while the smoke was blowing in our direction. I developed cancer. I guess I'm not cured of it.
CYNTHIA MCFADDEN: This man and at least a dozen others say that throughout the 1980s a deadly smoke was produced by weekly burnings in huge pits at the air base.
WITNESS (in shadow, voice disguised): There were several trenches about 300 feet long and about 25 to 30 feet across and about 25 feet deep.
CYNTHIA MCFADDEN (to WITNESS): What was the purpose of the trenches?
WITNESS: For the destruction of classified material.
CYNTHIA MCFADDEN: Materials like those used to make the stealth fighter invisible to radar. Where better to dispose of the secret compounds than the secret air base, as seen in this 1988 Russian satellite photograph. An air base where the environmental laws didn't seem to reach.
WITNESS: The running joke was, it was the place that didn't exist, so consequently anything could occur there.
CYNTHIA MCFADDEN: The Air Force says that while we can't take a picture of the base, they can't object to our showing you this Russian photo. It shows where workers say the trenches were located.
VICTIM: It was thick black smoke. Sometimes it was thick gray. The smell was very nauseating. It would burn your eyes. It would burn your throat.
CYNTHIA MCFADDEN: And the smoke, say some of those who worked in it, made them sick.
VICTIM: I developed a rash, skin rash. I used sandpaper to get the scale off, because it's the only way I can remove it.
CYNTHIA MCFADDEN (to VICTIM): Do other men that you worked with describe a similar rash?
VICTIM: One in particular, yes. He had it all over his body.
CYNTHIA MCFADDEN: What happened to him?
VICTIM: He died.
CYNTHIA MCFADDEN: Robert Frost was a sheet metal worker at the base, until he started developing these rashes. Neither he nor his wife could figure out what had caused them. Just before his death, they sent a tissue sample to Peter Kahn, an expert on hazardous chemicals. His conclusion? Robert Frost had been exposed to types of dioxins and dibenzofurons, which are not normally seen in humans.
PROF. PETER KAHN ("Rutgers University"): My only reaction is, what on earth has this man been exposed to?
CYNTHIA MCFADDEN: Frost died in 1989 of cirrhosis of the liver, but his widow Helen says that while Frost did drink, he was no alcoholic. She believes the real cause of her husband's death was working at Groom Lake.
HELEN FROST: Who does the government think they are that they can go around killing people. That's called murder.
CYNTHIA MCFADDEN: The Air Force told Mrs. Frost that it had nothing to do with her husband's death, so she and her daughters, along with a dozen others who worked at the air base, have hired themselves a lawyer.
PROF. JONATHAN TURLEY (to Frost family): Many of our clients may be developing more extensive injuries similar to your father's.
CYNTHIA MCFADDEN: They want to lift the secrecy surrounding the burning and find out what the workers were exposed to. The government's position has been that these people have no right to go to court, that national security demands continued secrecy. Air Force and Environmental Protection Agency officials said that they would not comment on the pending legal action.
PROF. JONATHAN TURLEY ("George Washington Law Center"): The secrecy oath doesn't mean that my clients have stopped being citizens of the United States. It doesn't mean that they are non-persons and they've got a non-injury.
CYNTHIA MCFADDEN: The government says there were no environmental crimes committed there at Groom Lake, the Air Force base that doesn't exist. They say, nobody's sick. Jonathan Turley and his clients say given a chance they can prove otherwise.
Cynthia McFadden, ABC News, on the road to Groom Lake.
Continued at:
http://www.geocities.com/area51/Shadowlands/6583/bases024.html
and:
http://www.reviewjournal.com/webextras/area51/1994/lawsuits/basesuit.html
http://www.projectcensored.org/static/1995/1995-story21.htm
"In 1994, five unnamed civilian contractors and the widows of contractors Walter Kasza and Robert Frost sued the
USAF and the
United States Environmental Protection Agency. Their suit, in which they were represented by
George Washington University law professor
Jonathan Turley, alleged they had been present when large quantities of unknown chemicals had been burned in open pits and trenches at Groom.
Biopsies taken from the complainants were analyzed by
Rutgers University biochemists, who found high levels of
dioxin,
dibenzofuran, and
trichloroethylene in their body fat. The complainants alleged they had sustained skin, liver, and respiratory injuries due to their work at Groom, and that this had contributed to the deaths of Frost and Kasza. The suit sought compensation for the injuries they had sustained, claiming the USAF had illegally handled toxic materials, and that the EPA had failed in its duty to enforce the
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (which governs handling of dangerous materials). They also sought detailed information about the chemicals to which they were allegedly exposed, hoping this would facilitate the medical treatment of survivors. Congressman
Lee H. Hamilton, former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told
60 Minutes reporter
Leslie Stahl, "The Air Force is classifying all information about Area 51 in order to protect themselves from a lawsuit."
[32]
Citing the
State Secrets Privilege, the government petitioned trial judge U.S. District Judge Philip Pro (of the
United States District Court for the District of Nevada in Las Vegas) to disallow disclosure of classified documents or examination of secret witnesses, alleging this would expose classified information and threaten national security.
[33] When Judge Pro rejected the government's argument,
President Bill Clinton issued a
Presidential Determination, exempting what it called, "The Air Force's Operating Location Near Groom Lake, Nevada" from environmental disclosure laws. Consequently, Pro dismissed the suit due to lack of evidence. Turley appealed to the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, on the grounds that the government was abusing its power to classify material.
Secretary of the Air Force Sheila E. Widnall filed a brief that stated that disclosures of the materials present in the air and water near Groom "can reveal military operational capabilities or the nature and scope of classified operations." The Ninth Circuit rejected Turley's appeal,
[34] and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear it, putting an end to the complainants' case.
The
President continues to annually issue a determination continuing the Groom exception.
[35][36][37] This, and similarly tacit wording used in other government communications, is the only formal recognition the U.S. Government has ever given that Groom Lake is more than simply another part of the Nellis complex.
An unclassified memo on the safe handling of F117 material was posted on an Air Force website in 2005. This discussed the same materials for which the complainants had requested information (information the government had claimed was classified). The memo was removed shortly after journalists became aware of it.
[38]"
