Jim Patterson, Enewetak Atoll (1979) Glimmer of Lights

Introducing a series of narrative articles about the Atomic Cleanup Veterans of Enewetak Atoll.

The following are first-hand accounts told by comparatively few survivors of the Enewetak Atoll Atomic Debris Cleanup Mission, Marshall Islands; a mission that took place from 1977-1980. Their stories appear as told to T-M Fitzgerald(published author, veteran, veteran advocate) because theirs are tales needing to be known.

Read - H.R. 5980: Mark Takai Atomic Veterans Healthcare Parity Act

Introduction: “Where in the World is Enewetak?”

Enewetak is just one of many atolls and islands in the Pacific Ocean’s Marshall Island chain. Located about 2,365 nautical miles SW of Hawaii (just north of the equator), the Marshall Islands were once a major testing ground for nuclear weapons post WWII. This island chain is also home to the project called Cactus Dome, a 350’- wide blast crater located at the northern end of Runit Island that has become known as the ‘Nuclear Trashcan of the Pacific.’

Between 1948-58, forty-three nuclear weapons were detonated over Enewetak and its sister islands. Among these tests were ‘Ivy Mike’ and ‘Castle Bravo’ (a device 1000X as powerful as the bomb ‘Little Boy’ which was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan post Pearl Harbor.)

In 1977, a coalition of United States military forces and civilian support teams were sanctioned to ‘clean’ the islands of residual radioactive fallout. Men, many who were mere teenagers back in the day, were tasked with cleaning the contaminated fallout from the nuclear testing that occurred throughout the previous three decades. Keep in mind, that as recent as 2012, the United Nations reported that the cumulative effects from all that nuclear testing had effectively caused near-irreversible environmental contamination. There was a problem beginning in 1977 and currently, effects from that exposure have begun to manifest, taking toll on many surviving Enewetak vets and contractors today. Four decades later, survivors are telling their stories because the world needs to know.

Personal story by Jim Patterson

Branch: Army MOS: 62B20 Heavy Eqp. Mechanic Location: Lojwa Year:1979

Quote: “I think that I’d like the world to know that this gov’t doesn’t care too much for its veterans. We’re all expendable.“

“I am but one of a few of the survivors of the 1977-1980 Enewetak Atoll Atomic Debris Cleanup Mission that took place in the Marshall Islands. A major focus of this group has been to help one another with information and moral support during some of the challenging times we’ve encountered following our time in service at Enewetak.

A secondary focus/goal is to urge Congress to change current law and recognize Cold War Era soldiers and contractors of the Enewetak Cleanup Mission as “veterans and workers who participated in radiation-risk activities during active service.”

By obtaining their second goal, individuals experiencing health complications resulting from radiation exposure at Enewetak Atoll will be eligible to apply for funds that have previously been set-aside for other Atomic Veterans who have already been recognized and acknowledged for their service.

When asked the first question regarding what he knew about the location and the mission he was about to embark upon, Army veteran Jim Patterson did not hesitate at all in answering. “Absolutely nothing. Being in the 84th engineers like I was, I knew they were sending guys down to the Marshall Islands for TDY (temporary duty) on 6-month stints. I had talked to a couple of people casually after they got back from their own TDY but they didn’t really go into great detail with anybody. They said it was extremely hot, more beautiful than Hawaii (which I thought was hard to believe…until I went myself) working six days a week on 12-13hour days….I wasn’t looking forward to that aspect at all. But nobody went into great detail about anything. I did know a guy who went and liked it so much that he volunteered to go back again and another guy who did three 6-month tours back to back.”

“I was a heavy equipment mechanic. Some guys came in with one type of MOS and ended up doing entirely different jobs when they came to Enewetak. I worked in the shop on Runit servicing and repairing heavy equipment. I kind of got a promotion the day I got there. I was a buck sergeant when I arrived to the islands and was the highest ranking guy at that point so I was made shop NCOIC.”

“Some of the pictures posted in the Enewetak Cleanup Group amaze me. The pictures of people in protective gear? Well, I never saw any. Our shop sat on the opposite side of the island. We had a hot line. If you were on one side of it, you weren’t required to wear any protective gear at all…unless you went across the designated line in which case you had to wear yellow, rubber boots and a dust mask. As far as feeling like we were ever in any kind of danger? I felt safe when I was there because we didn’t know. Nobody ever alluded to danger of any kind. I knew I was being exposed to radiation but not to what extent. I was one of those guys who on more than one occasion came back across the hotline, got scanned by the Air Force guys with their Geiger counters and be off the chart. They’d call their NCOIC over, he’d smack the device, say it needed calibration and that was that. I thought I was ok and never thought twice about it.”

“After I got out of the military, I told my story to a few people. They brought it to my attention about radiation and element half-life. In my mind, the Geiger counter incidents (three times for me) had made me realize I was exposed. I thought there was an irony about the designation of a hot and not hot line. It was bogus. You know, that’s the thing about having 120-125F degree days: there was always a breeze. The radioactive dust didn’t stop at the line.”

“I think that there are a lot of men in our group who need help. The only way that this is going to happen is for us to get seen and be heard. I think this interview idea is a good tool for us to do this with. I’m relatively healthy as a horse, but I get weird things when I do get sick. I never gave it a second thought until I became a member of this group. I mean, it’s been decades but I was exposed to massive doses of radiation. The VA is currently keeping an eye on an issue I am contending with, one I’ve had before and had to have biopsied and scanned… I have some other issues on top of that though. I have an illness that I know comes from Enewetak; they call it acute random urticarial (hives) but these aren’t like regular hives. I call them radiation hives. They are 100% debilitating for me, I mean, when they happen, I just have to lay still and do nothing. My urticaria develops to the size of a football and protrude from my body….they get so swollen, large and hard, that they push the liquid from my skin. I’ll wake up with lesions all over. I tell my doctors about my experience on Enewetak and they just sort of scratch their head. My youngest adult daughter also has a problem with these hives that aren’t hives. It’s in my genes. My oldest daughter was born in Honolulu….before I ever went to the Marshalls. She doesn’t have any health issues. My younger daughter, who was born after I served on Enewetak HAS ill-health effects…”

“I’d like the world to know that this government doesn’t care about its veterans. We’re all expendable. I volunteered to go, didn’t have to. So I’d expect to have been taken better care of then I have been. On Enewetak, I think we were guinea pigs. We were lied to and as a consequence of that, many of us are in bad health, sick, or dead. I think somebody needs to step up and admit they were wrong. We didn’t ask to be Guinea pigs. We didn’t ask to be experimented on. We thought we were serving our country.”

"The primary focus for this group is to urge Congress to change legislation and recognize soldiers of this seemingly forgotten cleanup mission as “veterans who participated in radiation-risk activities during active service.”

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