Seastorm.com

Case Summary: James R. Thornwell

James R. Thornwell was a US soldier interrogated in France in 1961 under a covert US Army program called "Operation Third Chance." Operation Third Chance in Europe, and Operation Derby Hat in Asia, shared similarities with Project Bluebird, Project Artichoke, and Project MKULTRA, the latter two of which ran concurrent with Operation Third Chance. While other US military personnel were subjected to unwitting LSD tests, Thornwell is believed to be the only  US soldier interrogated for an alleged crime who was also unwittingly given LSD and subjected to extreme psychological and physical duress. It does appear that non-Americans had been subjected to such tactics, however, during post-war ops under Bluebird, Artichoke, Third Chance, and Derby Hat.

Between 1977 and up to his death in 1984, James R. Thornwell was the subject of several national news stories focused on his experience as a non-consensual human test subject, the destruction of health and of life that allegedly resulted from the experience, and his pursuit of justice via the Freedom of Information Act and Federal Torts Claim Act. Once it appeared that Thornwell's FTCA lawsuit could move forward, he was given - and accepted - a small settlement (all things considered) by congress.

I found James R Thornwell's story interesting and compelling for a number of reasons, not the least of which being that it appears that Thornwell was also attacked with electronic (biomedical, directed energy, wireless) weapons, meaning that he likely had nonconsensual biomedical implants and that in fact, there was a high probability that the health problems he experienced, and what ultimately killed him really had nothing to do with the LSD, and everything to do with biomedical weapons.

Up until September 2025, there was no Wikipedia page for James R Thornwell, despite his significant role in the history of post-war covert nonconsensual human subjects research by the US federal government. So I collected newspaper articles and other sources and wrote and submitted the article on James R. Thornwell. As of this date (Oct 20, 2025) the Thornwell article is flagged as an "orphan" because it does not link to any other article in Wikipedia. So I may remedy that by writing an article on Operation Third Chance.

Eventually I'll make my case in writing about the use of biomedical weapons on Thornwell, though I have already discussed it, and the context around it, in my "History of LSD research" videos, especially video 7.

Since I spent so much time collecting articles and other information about Thornwell, I decided to place a lot of this source material in a gallery (below) so that others interested in investigating his life and efforts towards normalcy and justice from a fate he certainly did not deserve - can make use of some of the groundwork that I have done for my own research.

Consider that James Thornwell was considered to be a very promising high school and young college student. He was intelligent, ambitious, and outgoing. Instead of giving him every opportunity to reach his potential as a man and as an American citizen, while serving his country in the Army, his life was destroyed by covert operations in US government - in the name of scientific research? Is this how we treat our brightest citizens? Should just we let this go? Should we allow this type of "research" to continue? Should we allow the wrongs to be repeated again and again?

Featured Video Excerpts