'Jimmy' Clem, Enewetak Atoll (1978) 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 James "Jimmy" Clem
Branch: Army MOS: 100B (Huey Pilot) Location: Enewetak Year: 78-79
Quote: “I have buddies I served with that are sick and dying.”
“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.
““I was a Huey pilot. They had me flying admin runs (transporting command, various visitors who came to the islands, USO Shows, etc.) and providing Medevac coverage. (Incidentally, I only flew one Medevac mission while I was there.)”
“Protective gear? Zero. No such thing. We didn’t even wear masks. Allegedly, there were ‘safe’ zones, but these areas were the same exact places that the engineers were working in with the same access using the same boats were used for hauling the contaminated debris. There were no decontamination procedures ever done.”
“I didn’t have the same exposure as a lot of these guys did who were boots on the ground but I breathed the same contaminated dust. Some of the islands we had to occasionally land on weren’t even part of the cleanup mission so I have no idea how much radiation we were exposed to out there.”
“I suspected the mission wasn’t what we were all led to believe when I started hearing stories about things we’d never been told about. I was a 19-year old kid: never had any ‘light-bulb- moments. We wore RAD badges but the readings from those weren’t any different than had we been in garrison somewhere. ‘Don’t go over that line. It’s hot.’ Well, what the hell was that supposed to mean? They didn’t tell us anything. We never got reports about the monitoring that was supposedly being done.”
“I have buddies I served with who today are sick and dying. This prompted me to do some research of my own and in the process, I found the group on Facebook. I connected with them and started learning about all the guys who are sick. Why isn’t the government taking care of any of these guys?”
“We are the Agent Orange of our generation. We voluntarily went in harm’s way for a humanitarian mission. The human toll is more significant than our government wants anybody to know and nobody is addressing the complete number of people who were affected. The government used us as crash test dummies. When we try to get proof that we served over there, we get this great big run around. Records are redacted, or we’re told they were destroyed, you name it. We went out there and did a job, now it’s time to take care of us.”
“I think somebody needs to go back over there and do some serious testing: give us an honest appraisal of what exactly remains and provide us access to a report about it. But that’s not going to happen. Look how long it took for the Agent Orange guys to get compensated.”
“If I had the opportunity to share a sound-bite, I would say ‘Give us our benefits, include us in the Atomic Veterans group and treat us like a group of veterans who did one hell of a job.”
"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.”
Follow our cause: Atomic Veterans of Enewetak Atoll
