We are but a few of the Survivors of the 1977-1980 Enewetak Atoll Atomic Debris Cleanup Mission in the Marshall Islands.

Our main focus is to help each other with information and moral support during challenging times.

Our secondary focus is to urge Congress to change the current laws and recognize soldiers of the atomic cleanup mission as “veterans who participated in radiation-risk activities during active service.”

We always appreciate hearing first hand accounts of our 1977-1980 Enewetak Atoll Atomic Cleanup Mission!

Here is an article William “Bill” Sullivan wrote to Girard Frank Bolton, III. for posting on our website:

Frank,

As I mentioned on Facebook, take this email and use it or not. It’s my story, just one of thousands of others who served. If it’s never seen by anyone but you, good by me. I’ve included a bit about my life and career after Enewetak. I do this because I’m proud of my accomplishments and the Army in general, and Enewetak in particular, really affected my entire life. I never forgot the lessons I learned and always tried to live up to expectations. My time influenced my life more than anything other than my parents guidance. If you want to use just part of my story, that’s ok by me too. Thanks for all you do.

• Bill

“I enlisted in the Army in February 1975. Dropped out of high school with a pregnant girlfriend and needed direction. The Army said they’d teach me a skill and pay me; what a deal! Never did go to AIT. Did Basic at Ft Leonard Wood, Missouri (fort lost in the woods, misery) and went straight to my duty station 8 weeks later at Schofield Barracks to OJT (on the job training) as a 62B10 heavy equipment mechanic. Now I enlisted from Hawaii having moved here with my family at 15, and the Army sent me back because as we all know, in 1974-75 they were desperate for people after Vietnam ended.

Got to the 84th and was assigned to Battalion Maintenance Platoon in A Company. Got married, got my GED (handed to me by General Brooks) and spent a few months learning to fix, and drive, heavy equipment. Found out the job sucked! No power tools and I was not meant to be a mechanic. Drove the LT’s Jeep for a few months, worked in tech supply and the shop office each for a few months (they found out I was actually pretty bright, could read and write, and run the shop).

I also spent some time doing PRC and recondo, seems I also liked running around the woods and when they changed the 84th’s designation from “construction” to “combat heavy” in 1976 we started doing more field training. Rappelling out of choppers sure was fun!

Also in 1976 a great man named SSG Howard Lenori, Platoon welder, asked me if I wanted to come work for him and learn to weld. Seems by then I was known by platoon leadership as a smart, but smartass, hard working but mouthy soldier. Just what he was looking for SSG Lenori said. He already had a couple of guys working for him but wanted me also. One, Rob Elder, and I are dear friends to this day. He also is an Enewetak Vet.

So Howard took me under his wing and taught me way more than welding, although he did teach me to weld. I can thank him for being a true mentor and father figure to me, keeping me on the straight and narrow and teaching me life skills that have lasted a lifetime. I wish I could find him and thank him for everything.

In spring of 1977 I was happy in the welding shop and starting to get short (ETS Feb 5, 1978). Our leadership asked for volunteers to go to Enewetak. Nope, we weren’t told shit, just that it was an atoll bombed by the US testing Nuclear bombs. But growing up in Hawaii, being somewhat an island boy, I figured I knew what it would be like. And my father had stopped on Enewetak as a Marine on his way to Okinawa in WWII. Said it was a shithole (I later confirmed this and told him it still was a shithole 32 years later).

But I had no reason to leave Hawaii, why would I volunteer? Oh yea, because my platoon sgt (Ransom was his name) said either I volunteer with the advance party or he would send me with the 2nd wave in November and I would come home after Christmas just in time to ETS. Well, is this a surprise to anyone? Maybe now but not in the Army of the 70’s where we were paid shit and treated worse! So I volunteered with the agreement I would go as a welder and not mechanic (still had the 62B10 MOS).

So off I went. Can’t remember the exact date but it was after my daughter’s 2nd birthday on June 13th. So end of June 77. And no, I didn’t want to leave my wife and young daughter for 5 months! It sucked. Rob Elder went with me and we set up the battalion maintenance welding shop on Enewetak, literally. We turned a shed in back of the shop into our welding shop caging it in and setting up our welding and oxy/acetylene burning gear.

We had no work table but did have a big piece of 1/2” steel, just no legs. So we cut off the top of a D9 bulldozer sitting broke in back of the shop, moved it into the shop and welded the plate on it. We painted it real quick so no one would know where we got it. I know they fixed the D9 and sent it to Lojwa or another island so I always kind of felt bad the operator had no sun cover. But seemed like the right thing to do at the time.

I also needed an anvil and found out the UH civilians were using a small anvil as an anchor for their small boat so I made them a real (well, hand made) anchor and they gave me their anvil. Rob and I did all the welding needed for the shop and island. Seems much of it was fixing stuff broken by others, including lots of body work fixing vehicles people crashed or just broke. In fact, the sign in front of the shop read “Sullivan and Elder – Welding and Auto Body Repair”. Also included WDYFO on the sign.

Never did get questioned in the 5 months we were there but it meant Why Don’t You Fuck Off. We thought it was funny at the time. Not sure what happened to the sign but I figure the guys that followed us got rid of it. We also made grills for folks to BBQ and I welded the doors shut on a bunker at the end of the runway where they stored explosives. Got in trouble later when I refused to cut it back open. Told the LT to do it himself. No way was I putting a burning torch to that door.

I think he used a grinder to get it open eventually. Got a counseling statement for that but they wouldn’t take disciplinary action because I would have to be sent back to Hawaii. And I didn’t care anyway! I spent a few days here and there going to Lojwa and Runit to do small jobs but not too often, maybe 4 or 5 times. Hated those rides on the Mike boats! I did fly in on choppers a few times because we were close to the pilots and used to fix stuff for them.

When we arrived on Enewetak our platoon lived in a small barracks at the end of the airstrip with C Company, the guys who built the town on Lojwa. We actually named them “animals”, a group of us. It was a term of respect because each day they got on Mike boats early in the morning and worked all day on Lojwa, then back to Enewetak on the Mike boats. Dinner then back to the barracks.

Remember, this was at the beginning where the bars were only open weekends and we worked all the time. Pretty basic. So we’d party with them in the barracks until late then up early the next day. This went on a few weeks until they moved to Lojwa and my platoon moved to the airport building. That became our permanent barracks. Not sure why, probably not enough room in the 3 story concrete barracks in “town”. I always thought those C Company guys had it rough, which is why we called them the animals. Good dudes.

Our barracks wasn’t air conditioned and rooms were open with no doors and just bunks and wall lockers when we moved in. Called it The Swamp. Planes would blow sand through the open windows when they turned around on the airstrip after landing! But we made do; “borrowed” chairs, a desk and yes, a refrigerator from the Navy warehouse down the road. We used wire to cage in our room built a door so we could lock it up.

Of course we had a single fan for each bunk bed and we woke up at 0700 Sunday’s (when we got the day off) because they turned off the electricity to save gas! Hot as hell even at 0700. So we’d head across the road to the shack we built on the beach. Hung out a lot there. I heard it burned down after we left. Bummer. And the rats! They lived with us in that barracks so we had bricks next to our beds to throw at them. I never hit one but I swear one actually flipped me off after I tried!

For fun at night we hit the bar, Tradewinds not the Pau Hana. We young soldiers pretty much stuck to our bar and the lifers to theirs. We played music, best band in 5000 miles! I played guitar and sang. The more we drank the better we sounded! Movies once a week at the open sided chapel. Bring your own chair and beer. Also played Sunday volleyball games at that chapel. Called it the EVA, Enewetak Volleyball Association. Fished, swam and dove on the lagoon.

Had a bad experience with Rob on a small sailboat that we won’t talk about. All in all, my buddies kept my mind off missing my wife and daughter. That was rough. But Rob, Kevin, Ted, Ron and Mark, among others, kept me sane. Can’t thank them enough and they know who they are. I also welded off duty for $5 an hour building a crane for Holmes and Narver with Navy HT Victor Priest. We became pretty good friends.

Worst day was when I got told Victor died welding on a Mike boat. Devastating and scared me pretty bad. Shouldn’t have happened but safety protocols weren’t followed and I blame our leadership. I’ve never forgotten how he died and I spent my entire career in the Shipyard making sure something like that never happened. Both following safety protocols and as a leader, where I always thought of my people first.

In November we started rotating home. Every week newby’s would show up and a group from the advance party would head home. I was due to go home after Thanksgiving but my buddy Rob let me go in his place. I got home on November 23, 1977. He always took credit for my son being born exactly 9 months later on August 23, 1978. But I did all the work! So that’s a brother for you, stayed an extra week so I could get home to my family.

I was a Spec 4 when I left Enewetak. During my time there I went before the E5 board because they found out someone (accidentally, yea right) left me off the list early in 1977. I had enough points almost for E6. Lucky Howard Lenori notified someone. Anyway I did the board and they offered me E5 but I would have to extend in the Army 3 months. Of course I laughed and left the Army, early in fact. Saved almost 2 months leave and got out before Christmas 77 so I could start college in January 78.

The rest is history; entered the Naval Shipyard at Pearl in July 78 as an apprentice welder. Worked my way up and retired in January 2016 with almost 41 years of government service as a GS-14 Shipyard Superintendent and Surface Operations Manager. When I retired I was responsible for all production repairs to surface ships in the pacific AOR. Those home ported at Pearl (cruisers and destroyers) and all deployed and those coming home (including carriers).

Over the years I deployed all over the world to fix damaged ships and submarines. Quite a career and much of it spent as a qualified naval nuclear worker, when I learned how to properly perform and supervise nuclear work. Unlike what we saw on Enewetak, work on nuclear ships is safe and takes personal protection of personnel seriously.

The Army and Air Force had no business in the nuclear clean up business. Neither knew what they were doing nor did they care about our safety. I still hold a grudge against any senior military member involved in that effort. I truly believe they were either complicit or stupid. Mostly I believe they let us suffer so that their careers could succeed. Anyone who disagrees with me can do so to my face.

In the Shipyard I always thought back to how poorly we were treated by our leaders and spent my career working for my people. This did get in the way of my career a few times and some might say I could have retired as a GS-15 had I let things go sometimes but I couldn’t do it and I don’t regret a thing. I found that many 0-5’s and 0-6’s, especially 0-6’s, tended to care way more about perception than reality and definitely cared more about their career than their sailors.

And don’t get me started on Admirals! Somehow folks think everything they say is important and right when they make flag rank. Not so and I never hesitated to correct them. Let’s just say I wasn’t always the favorite. But I met many good ones in my time including past CNOs Admirals Vern Clark and Gary Roughhead. Great men and great leaders.

I’ve spent time with our congressional leadership and feel they have, and continue, to let us down. I sure do miss the late Senator Daniel Inouye, another great man Medal of Honor Recipient. I feel for my brothers who are sick and just can’t get help. I’m healthy and believe it’s only because I spent most of my time on Enewetak and not the northern islands where the guys were most contaminated. And being part of the advance party, I believe the work that followed digging up the contaminated sand and capping the dome on Runit led to much worse health issues.

For me I remember my time on Enewetak in particular, and the Army, as a good experience. I grew up, learned a skill, met great friends and did a tough job in Enewetak. But I’m healthy, at least for now, and I don’t forget that it’s all just the luck of the draw. Hundreds, or more, of my brothers are sick or died because they happened to be assigned to another island at another point in the cleanup. Anything we do to gain recognition for our efforts is all for those guys who suffered and need help now.”

We urge our supporters to encourage their politicians to support legislation which will include all Marshall Island Atomic Cleanup Veterans in the U.S. Government Veterans Administration’s definition of a veteran “who participated in radiation-risk activities during active service.”

Article written by Girard Frank Bolton, III. 1977-1979 participant with C Company and HHC S-3 (Operations) 84th Engineer Battalion (Combat Heavy) (Fwd) Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Islands.

Testimony of William “Bill” Sullivan’s personal experiences and opinions provided by Bill Sullivan, an Enewetak Atomic Cleanup Veteran and Facebook Group Member.