on what criteria should parents look for in choosing a school? steve perry has some answers in tonight's "perry principles." >> hi, dr. perry. my son is 2 1/2 years old and my wife and i are just starting to look into kindergarten programs. sense of duty to my country to go and serve. >> i went straight to ft. bragg. it was just the thing to do. that was my obligation, that was my duty, as an american. >> i was drafted and i was sent to ft. sill and placed in the 85th missile detachment. we were supposed to be security guards for the nuclear warheads that were to go on the pershing missiles. >> three american soldiers, tim josephs, frank rochelle, bill blazinski. called to arms nearly a half a century ago, from different backgrounds, but about to share an experience that would change each of their lives at edgewood arsenal military base in maryland. >> a couple of doctors from arsenal came and gave a presentation. >> they presented it as not everyone would be chosen. >> there would be a guaranteed three-day pass every weekend. >> three-day passes are the rule. >> no duties, no guard duty, no kitchen police. >> this is what we filled out. they ask you about your criminal background, they asked you if you drank, they asked you about your parents, they asked you about your brothers and your sisters. silly questions like, did you like your mother better than you did your father? >> well, i took the test and got chosen and you got a couple days off at home and then reported to edgewood for two months. >> when you got chosen, were you excited? >> yes, i was glad to go. it was like a plum assignment. you would get all the weekends off and the idea was that they would the test new army field jackets, clothing, weapons. things of that nature, but no mention of any drugs or chemicals. >> in the beginning, that's what we were told, that we'd be doing, testing equipment, not testing drugs. >> but edgewood arsenal was testing drugs. beginning in 1955. >> this is edgewood arsenal, the united states' army's chemical commodities center. >> this was the cold war. and the united states wanted defenses against a possible soviet chemical attack. >> psychochemical attack may come in the form of an explosion, an invisible vapor, a cloud of smoke. >> the u.s. was also developing psychochemical weapons of its own. >> here's a group of normal soldiers responding correctly to a series of routine drill commands. after receiving a small dose of lsd, they're confused and undisciplined. >> edgewood arsenal was where much of the research took place. using men like tim josephs. >> when i go out there, just did not look like a military base. more like a hospital. >> describe it. what was it that you saw? >> everyone's in lab coats. some military doctors, i guess, and some were civilian doctors. but you were well aware that you were a private and they were a captain and up. and i expressed my concern right from the beginning. and they took me aside and said, you know, you volunteered for this. if you don't do it, there's most likely prison and a dishonorable discharge. >> you were intimidated? >> yes. >> coerced? >> yes. >> forced? >> forced. >> you didn't sign up for this? >> no, not at all. >> i reported up there on september the 3rd, and that started my ordeal. i trusted my government, i trusted the army. we were assured that we would not be harmed in any way. >> they said, don't worry? was that the right message for them to be giving you? >> not at all. >> you trusted them? >> sure. >> and how about now? >> i don't trust them very much at this point. >> and there's good reason for that. the army was testing substances ranging from lsd to nerve gas. on human subjects. coming up -- >> private zadrosni received a high dose of the agent. in moments, he won't be able to focus his eyes. >> video of what went on behind closed doors at edgewood arsenal and the health problems these veterans say followed them from edgewood and haunt them to this day. 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[ male announcer ] tempur-pedic brand owners are more satisfied than owners of any traditional mattress brand. ♪ it's the perfect time to save up to $300 on select mattress sets. tempur-pedic. the most highly recommended bed in america. lead paint poisoning affects one million children today. if you're pregnant or have young children and your home was built before 1978, you could be at risk. learn how to protect your family. to find your home's danger zones, the health effects, or just to find help, log on to leadfreekids.org. will be giving away passafree copies of the alcoholism & addiction cure. to get yours, go to ssagesmalibubook.com. during the cold war, the u.s. military launched a top-secret program to see what sometimes-dangerous chemicals could do to the body and the mind. veterans of these tests say they faced health problems long after the drugs wore off. and they say the government has not lived up to its promise to take care of them. some of the army films you're about to see have never been broadcast before. >> these are the men of baker company. a special volunteer troop detachment at edgewood arsenal, maryland. >> for 18-year-old army private tim josephs, the tests started almost as soon as he arrived at edgewood. home to a top-secret military testing program, using human subjects. >> sometimes it was an injection, other times, it was a pill. >> they tell you what it is? >> the drugs or chemicals were referred to as agent 1 or agent 2. one test i was involved, i was pretty much out of it all day, and that afternoon, i woke up with parkinson's symptoms, immediately. >> so you had tremor. >> and aching in the limbs and arms, and it's a numbness. >> in this flask is a compound called cf. >> bill blazinski was exposed to cs, tear gas, three times at edgewood. >> this chamber looks familiar. >> this army film shows volunteers in the gas chamber at edgewood, exposed to cs. >> the affects were apparent almost at once. >> your eyes water, your nose runs, your skin burns. you start throwing up. it's a real mess. >> in another test, blazinski received an injection before being taken to a room with padded walls, like this one. >> i'm sitting on the bed and i'm looking at the wall, all of a sudden i'm looking at it and it starts fluttering like a flag does. >> careful control of these chamber tests resulted in a dose of only 2 parts per million. >> frank rochelle tested a similar drug in aerosol form. >> i inhaled and exhaled and inhaled and exhaled. >> a low dose of agent was fed into the mixing bowl. >> this army film shows a soldier at edgewood named carpenter undergoing the same type of test. >> within an hour, carpenter's hands will feel cold, his face, hot. borderline hallucinations will come late in the experiment. >> like the soldier in the film, frank rochelle experienced hallucinations. >> people were calling my name and there was nobody around. there were animals coming out of the walls. it appeared that all my freckles were bugs on my skin. and i took a razor and i tried to cut some of them out. >> what is this business over here in the corner, the lying down and the looking at the wall? >> in all, some 7,000 military volunteers or more were part of chemical tests at edgewood from 1955 to 1975. the military tests did at least 250 chemical and biological agents during the cold war, including potentially lethal nerve agents like vx and sarin. drugs like bz, tear gas and hallucinations. volunteers were ordered not to ever tell anyone what had happened at edgewood. >> the thing about this whole program, you were told up-front, you don't talk about this. you don't tell nobody about it. we couldn't even talk to our doctors. we couldn't talk to our physicians. >> it was hammered into us, that we were never supposed to talk about this. it was top secret. >> these days, blazinski says he's suffering from inflammatory bowel disease and a cancer of the blood. frank rochelle also has health issues. >> i have breathing problems, i have nightmares, you know, that i still remember and think about the tests. >> tim josephs has parkinson's disease, a condition that forced him to retire early. >> the whole thing stinks. i'll tell you, americans, if they knew about it, would not tolerate it, this kind of can behavior toward our veterans. they would not allow it to happen. >> attorney gordon erspammer is suing the department of defense and the department of veterans affairs on behalf of those at edgewood. >> what do you expect to get for them? >> they're not going to get anything out of this case, except for perhaps medical care. they're not going to get any money. they want to get proper notice of the substances they received, the doses, and the health effects. many of them have never been notified of anything. they were mistreated and they don't want to let this be swept under the rug and have everyone die and never see the light of day. that's why they're doing it. >> we wanted to talk about the lawsuit with the v.a. and defense department. they declined to be interviewed on camera, citing the pending litigation. they gave us a statement instead. the department of defense said it has made it a priority to identify all service members exposed to chemical and biological substances. and the va has offered free medical evaluations to thousands of veterans. >> on the fighting front, ground action has been quiet today. erspammer says most veterans have never been contacted by the v.a.. >> the v.a. just doesn't want to know. >> and the v.a. has denied almost all edgewood-related health claims. >> our government has not fulfilled their duty. they have a duty to find and recognize every person and they got a duty to give them medical treatment. >> they're hoping that we die off. you apply, you get turned down, and it just goes on for years and years. and they want to wear us down. they want to use young men as guinea pigs and throw them away. >> that was so disturbing. >> yeah. >> what is happening with the lawsuit? >> well, it's moving, but pretty slowly. and it's who reemphasizing that the edgewood veterans are not asking for money, specifically, but there's a lot of delays in a case like this. one of the hardest thing just trying to find documents from so many years ago. it's likely to go to trial next year, but it could take five more years after that. >> thanks, sanjay. up next, it's been called one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. and after you see our next report, you will understand why. x cocomimingng s soooonn exextrtra a bubutttter titickcketets,s, s swon pepengnguiuin n jojouruy jujuninioror m minints momoviviefefononee evevilil p pririncncee bobollllywywoooodd 3-3-dd shsharark k atattatack nened d ththe e hehead 5%5% c casashbhbacackk ririghght t nonow,w, g getet 5 k onon m movovieies.s. itit p payays s toto d di. imagine if you could always see life [music] in the best light. every time of day. outdoors, or in. transitions® lenses automatically filter just the right amount of light. so you see everything the way it is meant to be seen. maybe even a little better. experience life well lit, ask for transitions adaptive lenses. but when she got asthma, all i could do was worry ! specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information. everyone works as a team. and i only need to talk to one person about her care. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. the sleep number bed. the magic of this bed is that you're sleeping on something that conforms to your individual shape. wow! that feels really good. it's hugging my body. it works in a minute. i can get more support. if you change your mind once you get home you can adjust it. so whatever you feel like, the sleep number bed's going to provide it for you. at our semi-annual sleep sale, save $400 to $700 on our most popular bed sets. sale ends soon. only at the sleep number stores. where queen mattresses start at just $699. in mexico, powerful drug cartels have reached into nearly every sector of society, including the press. for journalists covering the raging drug war, it has become a deadly beat. many have been silenced through murder, threats, and intimidation. reporters feel they can't do their jobs, because reporting on the drug trafficking can get them killed. and most of those murders go uninvestigated and unpunished. in the past ten years, the criminal justice system has failed to successfully prosecute more than 90% of the crimes against the press. kaj larsen travels to sinaloa, one of mexico's most dangerous states. >> in some cities in mexico, there are no crime reporters left. since 2000, more than 60 journalists have been killed here. much of what is really happening on the streets is never reported. sinaloa is one of mexico's most violent states. bloody street battles between rival cartels and mexican security forces have left a trail of bullet casings and bodies. this is culiacan, home to some of mexico's top drug lords. it's a dangerous place, especially for journalists. 34-year-old javier valdez carlinas covers drug trafficking in an area where bodies turn up almost every day. it's a small, tenacious newspaper he launched in 2003. javier has somehow mentioned to report on the drug trade and stay alive. >> translator: you experience a lot of fear. you have to be looking in your mirror to see if somebody is following you. there isn't any safe place. not even your home. >> when you write an article about narco trafficking, are you afraid that somebody will retaliate against you? >> i'm always scared. you know how dangerous it is to the commander who works for traffickers. it's better to censor myself, because i want to continue to the write. silence is a form of death, of complicity. i'm not dead, i'm alive. >> but in life, he walks a very fine line. javier and his colleagues have received threats, and in one morning in september of 2009, two grenades were hurled into the office, causing damage, but no injuries. just days before the attack, the paper had published a series on narco trafficking. i asked him who was responsible. >> translator: we don't know. it could be the government, the military, the police, the narcs. since in this country no one investigates, the only thing we know is the kind of weapon they use. >> but the message was clear. >> translator: they wanted us to be scared. we are scared. we are more scared than before, but we know this job has to be done. javier took me along on a story he's investigating into the disappearance of an 18-year-old boy named jorge. in the past five years, more than 5,300 people have disappeared in mexico. the boy's mother tells javier, just days after jorge advantaged in 2010, she was asked to identify the body of a boy his age. >> the body was in bad condition. i couldn't recognize the body. >> she asked for a dna test, but has never gotten the results. >> translator: people know they can continue to kill and there won't be any punishment. that's the case of jorge. there are no results of the investigation, because they haven't even come here to investigate. >> in culiacan, life is cheap. the cemetery is full of the graves of young men and elaborate mausoleums built by the narco traffickers. the growing strength of the cartels has tipped the balance of power here. many areas are now completely lawless. this is an area outside of culiacan, it's a very dangerous area, and we're going to go out on patrol with the state police who have taken over this area, because it's too dangerous for the local police to operate. last year, 50 police officers were killed here. with more advanced military training, the sinaloa state police hope to deploy more units like this one. but in many areas across the state, they remain outgunned by the cartels. as the patrol wraps up, we head back into culiacan before dark. >> that's the reality of downtown culiacan. military police on one side of the street, funeral procession on the other. javier tells me in this war, no one is safe. in the past eight years, three journalists have been killed in the culiacan area. what happens here in culiacan when a journalist is killed. >> nada. >> translator: nothing. that's the saddest part. nothing happens. nothing happens with the injustice, the corruption, the impunity. no organization says, hey, this is enough. >> what kills journalists in mexico is impunity. >> veteran journalist mike o'connor has covered conflicts around the world. as the mexico representative for the committee to protect journalists, he's investigated some of the worst cases. >> you could kill a journalist and almost be guaranteed of getting away with it. >> he's the first call for many reporters under threat. >> for the most part, in mexico, journalists feel they can't do the job and don't do their job, because to practice journalism in mexico, among the journalists i talk to, will get you killed. >> for javier, it's a daily struggle. >> translator: it's sad to live in a city where the principle feeling is terror. terror to go out, terror of dying in a shooting. this is what you feel. and it's palpable, every day. >> next, we meet one journalist whose three editors were attacked and two murdered. but she refuses to give up. >>wear not going to let the bad guys win. we now return to "cnn presents," with your host tonight, randi kaye and dr. sanjay gupta. >> tijuana, mexico, near the u.s. border, has been along the front license of mexico's drug battle. >> the tourists who once went there to party, well, they're gone, leaving rival cartels to battle over the lucrative drug trade route into the united states. >> kaj larsen heads across the border to meet one brave journalist who dares to report on the drug cartels. >> reporter: the northern border of mexico's become a deadly beat for the press. but here in tijuana, next to the u.s./mexico border, one newspaper has continued to report on the drug trade and on government corruption, despite threats, attacks, and the murders of two of its editors. >> unfortunately, we learn how to live and how to work in this difficult situation. >> this is the secretary of security. >> reporter: adella knows the dangers firsthand. >> it's all narco trafficking. >> the journalist is the director of zeda newspaper here in this violence-racked border town. >> do the cartels have the ability to silence the press? >> of course. because they have impunity. they can nab journalists, they assassin journalists. >> reporter: a passion to write landed her a, job here as a young reporter 22 years ago. every week, adella and her team publish stories on organized crime and government corruption. but their work has come at a high price. the two founders of zeta were attacked. felix miranda was murdered in 1988, and jesus blanco barely survived a 1997 assassination attempt. in 2004, another painful loss. editor ortiz franco was gunned down after publ