'Redeye 309', 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 'Redeye 309'

Branch: US Army MOS: 61B10 LARC Location: Lojwa Year: 1978

Quote: “We’re always going to need nuclear weapons as a deterrent but it’s just not worth it…”

“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 of the Enewetak Cleanup Mission as “veterans 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.

“The only thing I knew about this mission was that we were going to some islands located someplace between Hawaii and Australia, that it was a former nuclear test site and if we went, it would be perfectly safe and that protective gear would be supplied. We were standing in formation back in Virginia on a cold and nasty day so when they asked for volunteers, my hand shot straight up. Our First Sergeant went too, so we really didn’t think anything about it.”

“The first day we were on Enewetak, we did some in-processing and a little orientation. The next day we went to Lojwa. They gave us three days to acclimate to the heat, made us run around in the banana suits once and that was the last we seen of those things. I remember starting to think this duty wasn’t exactly going to be as had been told to us when we saw guys running around with Geiger counters. I knew we were screwed right then. It was nothing like we were expecting. I mean, even the air out there smelled like burned transistors. The only vegetation was just small shrubs and clumps of brush but there were other islands (narrow as they were) that looked more like jungles. There were coconut crabs all over the places and were just about the only thing you’d have to worry about when you were sleeping out on the beach. At the water’s edge, there were eels crawling everywhere you looked.”

“As it turned out, there was no protective gear to be had at all. We had a water cooler to keep cold beverages in, you know, to prevent dehydration. We were issued a pair of work gloves, jungle boots, and a boony hat. That was the uniform of the day. We’d take the LARC out to wherever we were assigned each day and transported the guys and whatever equipment we needed out across the lagoon to the islands. We’d work our way west, island to island doing cleanup work breathing in dust the whole time we were out there. When all was said and done, we’d clean out the last few feet of debris from the LARCs, hose out the bottom and call it a day. Lots of times, we’d stay overnight on whatever island we happened to be on, particularly on the longer trips. There weren’t any mosquitos and no snakes, so we slept right out on the beach. We really enjoyed that.”

“When we’d turn in our film badges, mine would always came back reading ‘0’. When we left the islands, we had to give a urine sample. That test revealed plutonium present, so go figure, right? The badges were reading safe and good to go, meaning they weren’t even measuring sunlight exposure yet the urine samples proved we had plutonium exposure. I saved all of my paperwork from out there. (I would tell anybody who joined the military these days to keep copies of everything.) The government lost years of my documents. And as far as today? The VA definitely needs to be cleaned out and revamped…absolutely.”

“I was a LARC guy and us LARC guys always hung together. We were the ones who always had to run out and pull guys off sand bars or pick up people here and there. There were 48 people in our detachment, and we stayed in touch for all these years. I was asked one time why we did that, kept in touch for so long where many others in the military kind of just served and left and that was it. I responded, ‘You get sent to Ground Zero’ you’re going to stay in touch.’ We’d come home, all guys from the east coast and we’d bring guys home with us from the west coast, we’d go off base over the holidays to friends’ houses who had regular housing…we had each other’s backs.”

“There are a number of reasons I decided to share my experience from Enewetak with the rest of the world and it all started out like this; I was injured while I was down there; had a piece of coral crush my one hand and feet. I developed a rash from it, went to sickbay where they just gave me some cream to rub on it. That was it. So I went back to Lojwa, went back to work and continued doing my thing.”

“I eventually went back stateside to Ft. Story. My hand had never healed up and still wasn’t quite right. By the time I ETS’d, in ’79, the problem had actually worsened. Somewhere around ‘84, a grape-sized lump started growing in my thumb. In 1993, I tried to go get some help for my hand and get that lump taken care of. The process was difficult, trying to get help through the paperwork process. So I did all of that only to be told I had been denied. My hand by that time looked like it was 80-years old. Then in 2000, I went to the VA and they finally performed surgery. I had numerous lumps cut from my hands and forearms (32 in all). The doctor told me that the pathology on those lumps proved them to be pre-cancerous. So ever since, I’ve felt like I’ve been only one step ahead of developing cancer.”

“I currently have a laundry list of health issues/multiple disease processes: numerous issues with my cervical spine, various joint disease, a history of aortic stenosis, valve replacement, hypertension, connective tissue disease, keratosis, and anemia….I’ve also been diagnosed with lupus on top of all that. They put me on some medication for that and by the time I had some heart surgery to add to all of my other issues, doctors told me that the lupus was actually mixed connective tissue disease. It’s similar to lupus in that my own blood cells are attacking my body.”

“If I hadn’t been able to get medical care through the VA, I don’t know where I’d be today. It all goes back to the dust and coral and whatnot back in Enewetak. I feel like I was a test subject because of all that I have gone through over the years. I’ve been denied, told there was no documented history of my service over there, been told my medical records said one thing when they really said another and have even had times where my records couldn’t be found at all. I’m not the only one who has had this kind of issue with my records, either so you can very well see how easily it leads to considering a conspiracy theory.”

"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