Johnston Atoll is one of the most isolated land masses on Earth. As the only shallow water and dry land area in a million square miles of ocean, Johnston Atoll is an oasis for coral reef species and bird life. The atoll has no native population. It is an unincorporated territory of the U.S., administered from Washington, D.C. by the U.S. Air Force and managed cooperatively by the Air Force, Army, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a National Wildlife Refuge.
Nerve agent is lethal in very small quantities.
A single drop of the nerve agent VX, placed on the skin, can kill an adult. In the 1960s, the U.S. military had a major chemical weapons stockpile on the island of Okinawa. In 1969, an accidental leak of the deadly nerve agent VX on Okinawa injured 23 U.S. servicemen and one civilian. In 1990, the U.S. military removed its stocks of chemical weapons from a newly-reunified Germany, and shipped them to Johnston Island. A small stock of chemical artillery shells came from the Solomon Islands in 1991.