"Project CD-22, the first of the human research projects, involved the study of Q fever in animals and humans in the laboratory and the field. Operation Whitecoat followed this effort. Operation Whitecoat volunteers largely consisted of Seventh-Day Adventist draftees, who were trained as medics but whose religious convictions forbade combat. Approximately 2300 individuals participated in the program. The Army completed about 150 studies during the Operation Whitecoat years. Experimenters exposed volunteers to disease-causing agents such as Q fever and tularemia under strict protocols to study immunity to disease and to conduct drug therapy. Whitecoat volunteers also participated in safety studies of vaccines designed for protection against Venezuelan equine encephalitis, Eastern and Western equine encephalitis, plague, tularemia, Q fever, yellow fever, chikungunya virus and Rift Valley fever."