The DTRA (Defense Threat Reduction Agency) has prepared a document in response to our requests for detailed information about our 1977 – 1980 Enewetak Atoll Atomic Cleanup Mission.
Now we can review their assumptions and comment on their detailed information from our first hand experiences.
I’ve already found several errors in their assumptions and policies that were not followed during our mission.
But that’s okay. At least we are all looking at the information Congress has been basing their decisions upon.
Here is some of what the DTRA documented for our reviews and comments:
“The assembled studies provided the input needed for planning cleanup efforts and assessments of the expected conditions after cleanup was complete. These plans led to the implementation of ECUP (Enewetak Cleanup Project) within the period of 1977 to 1980. Significant milestones during the first year included mobilization efforts starting March 15, 1977 and ECUP’s D-Day on June 15 (DNA, 1981). Appendix A includes a list of ECUP milestones. Summary discussions of the history of ECUP are presented in Section 2. The radiological conditions prior to cleanup, the radiological safety program and other related aspects are detailed in Section 3.
1.2 Veterans’ Concerns
Many veterans who participated in ECUP have expressed concerns about whether their radiation exposures have contributed to various medical conditions they are experiencing. Many of them have joined organized groups to share information and concerns about their health and perceived problems with the radiation controls used during the project. Some groups have been very active and have raised interest in the media, for example in a recent New York Times article (Philipps, 2017) and in Congress. Bills in both the 114th and 115th Congresses were introduced to “provide for treatment of veterans who participated in the cleanup of Enewetak Atoll as radiation exposed veterans for the purposes of the presumption of service-connection of certain disabilities by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs” (Congress, 2015, 2016, 2017a, 2017b) and for consideration under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) by the Department of Justice (Congress 2017c, Congress 2017d). Specific veterans’ concerns about inadequate radiological controls included reduced levels of personal protective equipment such as anticontamination suits and lack of respirators, allegations of falsified radiation monitoring and dosimetry records, and defective air sampling and radiation dosimetry equipment. Concerns about radiological controls, challenges and significance are discussed in Section 3.3.
1.3 Purpose and Scope
The purpose of this report is to serve as the technical basis document for performing RDAs for ECUP participants and to discuss the approach, methods, and examples of dose results of a study to estimate upper-bound radiation doses that may be assigned to individuals in the Population of Interest (POI) consisting of about 6,000 military service members who participated in ECUP within the period 1977 to 1980.3 The POI is described in Section 2 and includes members of the three military service components of the JTG (Army Element, Navy Element and Air Force Element) as well as those in the DNA/JTG itself.”
I encourage all surviving military Enewetak Atoll Atomic Cleanup Mission Veterans to read the document and fill out the questionnaire so the DTRA can calculate how much radiation each of us were exposed to during our mission.
I also encourage you to review and comment on any known and/or suspected inaccuracies you find in the document and submit your comments to AtomicCleanupVets-com in the form below.
- Thank you for adding your comments in the form above!
- Have you filled out DTRA’s questionnaire yet? If not, you can download and print the questionnaire HERE.
- Are you interested in participating in a focus group to discuss your first hand experiences during our Atomic Cleanup Mission? If so, please CLICK HERE to OPT-IN so you can help us increase our facts.
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I was at Enewetak 1977 I became very sick the first 3 Weeks I was on Lowjiwa I had severe headaches, vomiting and was told I could not leave because the taxpayers would not appreciate flying me to the main land. When I prepaired to leave Fort Benning Ga Iwent to the Dentist I was told I could not deploy unless all my nerve endings in my teeth were sealed. I spent the whole day in a dentist chair and deployed the next day. It was determined that filament that was used on my fillings was incorrect I spent 3 months getting my filling removed and replaced at the Scofieled Barricks. The deployed to the Iland in the middle of Typhoon Mary the base camp was evacuated to Guam for the first week we were there we were the only 14 people on lowjiwa which we we in 14 Foot seas in 20 Foot Boston whalers with full luggage. I was sent to the Iland of Janet for wind rolled project moving soil with D-8 cat dozers. I did that with Mr Bokins we were told by the DOE that they Radiaton level was extremely high. I was given a letter in regards to this project however it was lost in a house fire. Many days the gamma beta and alpha radiation was read to be extremely high I was instructed to get in the ocean water to decontaminate sometimes I was made to stay 45 minutes in the water.
As sad as I am I have to send a comment. I knew Mike Horton for just under a yr. We were in a homeless program in Durham NC. Mike had just found his forever home. Not long after settling in he was found dead in his apt. He was one of the military (Army) members cleaning up this mess. The short time that I knew him, he lost so much weight. This government should be ashamed of themselves. He was truly a good man and completely crazy for following that order. My friend is dead.
I see most of it is bullshit . I work on most of the northern island we Never wore protective clothing wile working . Work on ruinit driving cement truck from batch plant to the pump . Heavy dust from Batch plant . no protective clothing for the drivers or the batch plant operator . End of my tour they came out with protective clothing we wore it a couple of days . Remember leave in the hot zone end of the day and have to go swimming because of the radiation count was high and have to wash it off . Like everyone else my dosimeter badges were all destroyed . 4/78 to 9/78
Hello, I’m a daughter of an original Atomic Veteran . And a bit long winded ,but well read,I apologize. When you read through this companies’ assessment’ of your radiation dosages and whether or not they believe it could affect your lives ,please go into the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory archives ,Marshall Islands pages and poke around . Read the various Hamilton (2013) and other reports . They give you ‘real time’ from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s information and numbers. You can cross reference what they say now as opposed to then. This is one paragraph making a statement regarding eating the ‘terrestrial food’ ie coconuts or other fruit grown there ,if you ate it you ingested much more than a fresh banana.Cesium-137 sits in your bones and teeth if ( for an odd reason ) you have had teeth removed and still have them or are having teeth removed save them, they can be checked for cesium-137. There is a NON government funded group I contacted who was responsible for the 1960’s children’s dental testing in St,Louis that caused the end of US testing . They are still very active in research and would do a cohort if we/you could get funds to run the test. Well ,and the teeth. Cesium-137 only comes from 1 place if it’s in your teeth in high amounts it came from one place it has a fingerprint . This is a paragraph from LLL Marshall Islands main page: The Nevada Operations Office of the Department of Energy was responsible for certification of radiological conditions of each island upon completion of the project. The Operations Office also developed several large databases to document radiological conditions before and after the cleanup operations, and to provide data to update available dose assessments. The Enewetak cleanup program was largely focued on the removal and containment of plutonium along with other heavy radioactive elements. However, even during this early period of cleanup and rehabilitation, the adequacy of cleanup of the northern islands on Enewetak was brought into question because predictive dose assessments showed that ingestion of cesium-137 and other fission products from consumption of locally grown terrestrial foods was the most significant route for human exposure to residual fallout contamination on atolls affected by the nuclear test program. I have also read many relevant facts that seems to be ignored by congress if they were even ever presented with these reports ,even when the US funded these studies: UNSCEAR report 1994(u7) annexes(f) ,2000, 2001, ICRP and BEIR VII report, UNSCEAR “white paper” low dose radiation, heritable mutations page 3 sec 11, 2012 “delayed effects in gene proteins” particularly Section C sub 17 and CH 3 page 9 subsection23 Resolution 63/89 . Yes ,I’ve read all of this. and more. It’s quite upsetting to continue to read all of this science and have so called experts tell me, my father and my friends we’re not affected when clearly all of these other US experts see it very clearly.
correction strontium-90 is what the researchers checked in the 1960’s children’s study.
this has nothing to do with the personal that were stationed there in the 50s an 60 s
I am aware, I have been advocating for Clean Up legislation for 3 almost 4yrs . Not very long. The documentation collected from the 50’s and 60s, along with the Same/Similar pathology of disease’s regarding radiation exposure as the Original test Veterans and their descendants connects all of us.Its a scientific cause and effect, you were on the islands they were on the islands. They have certain illnesses you have the same. Their adult children have genetic anomalies and passed down genetic deficiencies, so do your group. The information that can be shared between the OG and Clean Up is to the same end, full coverage ( RECA), full acknowledgment ( people actually being approved for a RECA claim , and my personal goal, an expanded disease list) No disrespect meant. Just passing on information that I’ve found relevant to getting legislation passed and where I found discrepancies with the recently released DTRA study . I thought having specific reports to back up the information your group puts into the feedback may be helpful to get the point across. Again no disrespect meant.
Never received my copy.
I am going to fill out their form, but I do not see how they can evaluate anyone. Dose assessment is not a valid assessment at this point in time. They could and should have all survivors given a complete physical with specific tests for any type of radiation poisoning and /or radiation caused illnesses. Our dosimeters and badges did not function. Bad readings, inaccurate readings, incomplete readings.
I agree with Mr. Stearos, I cannot see how any questionaire can result in any type of valid assessment without a complete physical to back it up.
I was a Coxswain on one of the LCM-8’s and we ran hot soil and debre out to the lagoon dropoff without protective gear.
But, with all said and done will do what I feel necessary to help out.
Charles O. Schley
USN Retired
Operation dates: Oct. 77 to Apr. 78
I don’t see my name on the survivor list
Tex: You are on our Survivors Roster at https://www.atomiccleanupvets.com/roster-of-known-survivors/