Michael Legge, 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 Michael Legge

Branch: Army MOS: 12B10 Location: Lowja Year: 1978

Quote: “You can’t send me to live on an island for nine months that people were forcibly relocated off from and is still uninhabited to this very day, and tell me there was nothing to worry about.”

“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.

“Basically, it was 1978 and I was up at Ft. Richardson, Alaska. My roommate was supposed to go to Enewetak but he had some bad kidneys or some other health issue going on. Well, somebody had to go and my name was new on the rotation so when somebody had to go, guess who was on the list? I was brand new to Alaska and didn’t really want to go down to Enewetak.”

“They told me I’d go to Schofield Barracks in Hawaii first then out to these islands located out in the middle of nowhere to cleanup some stuff from when Japan had a hold of them. I was just 18-years old at the time and I surely wasn’t thinking anything about Pearl Harbor or tropical isles. I read the signs as we got off the plane, ‘Contaminated Area: Do Not Enter’. We were told it was no big deal, that they’d measure and monitor the radiation levels and if we were ever too hot, we’d literally get told to go jump in the lagoon to rinse off. Once I got down there and stepped off the plane, I couldn’t very well tell them I wanted to go back so that was basically how I ended up in the islands.”

“When asked about safety equipment, Michael Legge laughed. “I was given a film badge and a mask with an elastic band around it. I went to those islands with a couple of other guys and we were told that the jobs we were supposed to be working on wouldn’t contaminate us enough that we’d have to worry about wearing a banana suit. Well, my job had me working on Janet/Enjebe. We floated metal debris on an LSD/MASS boats over to the crane that took our contaminated material and dropped it into the lagoon. All the other contaminants that they didn’t want to drop in the lagoon, they used it over on Runit.”

“I knew something wasn’t quite right with the place as soon as I heard people talking about what was really going on. I figured it all out by talking to the people who were carrying around these big jugs of urine who were getting ready to go home. “What are you doing?” They had finished their tour (six months) were getting their final tests. I was one of the guys who got extended stay and was there for nine months instead of six.”

“There’ve been a lot of guys over the years, people I’ve met that I’ve asked where all they’ve traveled and wondered if they were having health conditions crop up like I was. My wife and I tried having kids, and those pregnancies ended up in miscarriages. I never thought to ask if radiation exposure had anything to do with it until we had our oldest daughter. She came down with Lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, and now HER daughter (at age of 16) has a failing liver. Every one of my kids has a major health issues. My thoughts started going to wondering about ‘What if I was exposed to something in the Marshall Islands that I could have passed down to my kids?’ When I started asking questions and researching about passing issues on to my children, I ended up finding the Enewetak Cleanup Veterans sites and have been all over this ever since.

“If I could share a message with the entire nation, I would tell people that we were there and why we went. We served our country, we did what we were told and the government was supposed to take care of us. As far as being exposed to all the stuff that we know we were, they’re letting us down. This isn’t something they need to keep denying. It’s something they need to uncover and do for us.”

“Time…the people know what we were there for. You can’t send me to live on an island for nine months that people were forcibly relocated off from and is still uninhabited to this very day, and tell me there was nothing to worry about. If that dome on Cactus Crater breaks, then that’s going to open up a whole new can of worms. Is it coincidence that so many of us have the same signs and symptoms and illnesses? We were all based on the same islands. It’s fact. Something is wrong.”

"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