I was part of a team to work out the details with the Soviets to demil/destroy our respective stockpiles.
Sorry to hear about your great uncle - they didn't know it at the time but Mustard (HD) is a very active carcinogen - so you can maybe survive the blistering and the blinding - but it will kill you in the end.
I don’t envy you being on that detail. I’m guessing that all went well with it.
I served with a Chaparral/Vulcan battalion in Germany whose mission was short range air defense for Bitburg, Hahn, and Spangdahlem. When the Air Force had an alert, I reported to the Wing Command Post, where I would spend the next 4 days in the CP (we had two officers with a TS, my BC and me...). I took a shaving kit and 3 clean sets of fatigues.
My first alert was memorable. I was briefing the Wing Cdr on the deployment of our weapons systems, when the NATO Evaluation Team hit them with an NBC input. The Base Disaster Preparedness Officer was called to the "Eagles Nest", where he immediately recommended Alarm Red, i.e. full mask and protective gear.
The Eagles Nest went silent when I, an Army butterbar, interjected, "Colonel, may I make a recommendation?" I said, "Colonel, here's 3 reasons for NOT going Red, though Yellow may be appropriate:"
Ramstein (the location of the "attack") is 60 miles southeast, but the winds are westerly.
Soman is a nonpersistent nerve agent.
It's raining like hell outside, neutralizing any effects of this agent.
Wing Cdr said, "let's go Alarm Yellow." In the background, I saw the NATO team chief nodding in approval.
15 minutes later, I heard the Wing Cdr's voice boom out, "as long as I'm in command, any time there's an NBC input, I want that Army Lieutenant up here." So it was, for the next year and a half.
I never thought it was a big deal, NBC Officer was one of my extra duties in my battery, I received excellent training at Vilseck. A couple of years later, when I was on Battalion staff, I scored a week at the NATO school in Oberammergau, one of the most beautiful towns in the world.