This post has been a long time coming. I’ve lurked the past several years on the Atomic Veteran’s site and have wanted to document my remembrances of my time in Enewetak. I thought I had better do this now before my memory goes south. I’m writing things as I think of them, so things will not necessarily be in chronological order.

I was a 52D assigned to A Co, 84th Engr. Bn. in June 1977. I had just gotten out of AIT and was looking forward to coming to Hawaii. Pretty girls, lush vegetation, warm weather year-round. The things the recruiter sold me on before I placed my John Hancock on the enlistment papers.

The recruiter was correct on all three accounts. More beautiful women per-capita than any place I had ever been before. Plumeria and Hibiscus galore outside the barracks. Sunshine (liquid and the naturally occurring type) and the temperatures never seemed to drop below the upper 50’s in the mountains at Schofield.

Only one thing wrong with this picture. The barracks for the 84th Engineers were an absolute dump. Overrun with German and flying cockroaches and who knows what other vermin.

I remember one night shortly after I arrived, I was asleep and felt this painful sting/bite. I grabbed the offender and smashed it in my hands, Woke up in the morning with a bloody scab and dead flying cockroach in my bed. It sure gave me the shivers.

I found out in Sept ‘77 I was going to be sent TDY to a place in the Marshall Islands called Enewetak. I had never heard of the place before and I considered myself a pretty good student of geography. I don’t remember if I went to the post library to look up the location. It just sounded mysterious and remote.

The night prior to leaving for Enewetak, I went to Waikiki Beach with my buddy Cozz (Chuck Cozzolino) to pray over my deployment and to ask God’s protection while I was in Enewetak. We had caught the bus down from Schofield and were going to catch the last bus back around 2400. I guess we lost track of time, and we missed the bus. I began to panic a little since movement was at 0400. We thought it over and remembered there was a QC on duty back at the barracks. We got the number and called. The QC was not very sympathetic, so we asked if there was someone available in the barracks that could pick us up. He checked around and found someone. This gentleman was a little under the weather, if you get my drift, but he was persuaded to come pick us up. When he arrived, he said that one of us would need to drive the vehicle back. I gladly volunteered!

To this day, I will always be grateful to the man that picked us up and prevented me from getting disciplinary action for missing movement. He drove a Subaru, and that fueled the beginnings of a passion for the brand. We’ve had at least one Subaru in our family for the past 20 years.

On the plane ride to Enewetak, I remember catching a little shuteye and praying. We stopped off at Wake, which seemed like nothing more than a barren rock. After refueling, we flew that the last leg to Enewetak.

On arrival, I felt we had landed in a blast furnace. Hawaii was often hot and humid, but it was nothing compared to Enewetak. You could actually feel the heat and humidity penetrate to your inner core.

We were initially housed in the barracks next to the airfield. The barracks kind of reminded me of what I came from at Schofield. They were pretty run down, but I guess that was to be expected with the number of guys that were processing through.

We had our informational briefing soon after arrival at the open-air bar on the island. The information was the same thing as others have mentioned; no more radiation than you would be exposed to in downtown Denver, Colorado. I believed it at the time, but now I know they were feeding us a load of rubbish.

I didn’t spend a whole lot of time on the island of Enewetak. What time I was there, I was detailed with another troop to spray equipment with a tarry rust inhibitor. I think that was an exercise in futility.

I remember once seeing Chief Johannes and his retinue leaving the PX on the island. The man apparently loved his candy because he was carrying out an armful of it.

Not much more stands out about my time on the island. I do remember seeing guys fishing for shark off the pier.

We left for Lojwa after about a week or so. We passed the island the Marshallese were living on. If memory serves, it looked like it had a fair amount of greenery on it. The water in the lagoon as we made our way to Lojwa was the clearest I had ever seen. You could see all the way to the bottom and observe the fauna swimming below. It really was an amazing sight.

We arrived at Lojwa and were assigned to our hooch’s. Open concept before the term became popular. I think there were about 20-25 guys to a hooch. We were supplied just the basics, a bed and wall locker, maybe a footlocker.

I went out later that evening to check out the island. I remember the smell and sounds of the ocean and the gentle breeze. And how clearly you could see the stars and constellations.

Who can ever forget the trailer that had the latrine? Three, maybe four holes to a side. Your pride had to be checked at the door because there were zero partitions between the thrones.

I also vaguely remember the shower complex on Lojwa. There were maybe 4+ shower heads and if memory serves, water was fed from a circular tub-like storage device via gravity to the shower heads.

The PX on Lojwa was a small trailer but had most of the basics. I didn’t go there too often but remember seeing some 8-tracks for sale.

As others have mentioned, the food was good and plentiful. The highlight was prime rib night. I had never had it before in my life, and it was so juicy and melted in your mouth.

The first time my group arrived on Runit, we got a briefing by the FRST team on using the banana suits and rad badges. I remember being told about the hot side/cold side. We also got to see the bunker on the island.

I hung out a lot with the FRST guys. One of them, Dave Young, was stationed at Newark AFB close to my hometown of Columbus, Ohio, and we immediately struck up a friendship that lasted for many years. Unfortunately, he lost his life in a pedestrian traffic accident a few years ago. He was a great guy and I really miss him. The other Air Force guys were named Leslie, Mike, and Chris.

Much of my time on the island was spent in the chapel. As a Christian, I drew a lot of solace from being in the Lord’s house where I could pray and meditate without distraction. I would also wake up early in the morning on some days to have prayer time on the area next to the reef.

I remember watching part of the 1978 Super Bowl game between Dallas and Denver on the TV in the hooch, courtesy of the AFRTS service. It was a delayed broadcast, but it was nice to be able to view the game and feel a little more connected to home.

I think I went once to the Sandcastle just to check it out. I wasn’t a drinker, so there wasn’t any appeal to it for me.

One time couple guys and I went to the island across the causeway, Bijire, to check it out. While there, we saw this rat with what looked like a tumor on its neck meandering its way across the sand. We chucked some rocks at it because we could (and because we really hated the rats on Lojwa). Someone mentioned the rat could possibly have had some sort of device implanted for an experimental study and that’s what looked like the tumor we saw.

Like everyone else, I got detailed a couple of times with burning the contents of the latrine crap barrels. After the contents were lit, you got as far as you could go to get away from the smell. Imagine acrid black diesel smoke and burning human waste together and the results were an unholy mixture that left an overwhelming impression on your olfactory senses for hours.

Our first mission on Runit was to build a warehouse for storing items for creating the dome cap. I had never done any carpentry before this, and it was a great experience to learn how to pour concrete and build something from the ground up, Sgt. Custer was in control of that operation.

After we were pretty much done with that project, I started working with the rock crusher system that was parked next to the reef on the ocean side. I got to fire up and do some maintenance on the generators that supplied power to the operation. We never did a whole lot with the system while I was there since blasting operations and the rock crusher were not operating on a consistent basis at that time. Pretty much the rest of the time I remember driving trucks and doing whatever needed to be done.

One day, it was after lunch and I’m not sure what I was thinking, I went to the generator enclosure and was fiddling with the power terminals while hooking up a cable. I accidentally grounded myself on two of the lugs and as the power was turned on to the generator, I got a big dose of 440V that knocked my 155 lb. body into the air. I had the shock shakes for about 30 minutes after that.

Another time, at lunch, I decided I was going to snag a Moray eel. I took a sharpened stick with me to the reef to locate a likely quarry. Not being particularly adventurous, I spied a 2 ½ foot specimen in a crag in the reef. I was able to prod him out with the sick and dispatched him with a large rock. I then carefully picked him up by his tail and mounted him on the stick. I took a picture of the dead eel that I still have in my possession.

Like most other guys, I spent a lot of time gathering shells. I had a really nice collection that I had buried next to my hooch to let the heat and whatever was in the sand clean the junk from the inside of the shells. The day before I left to back to Hawaii, I went to retrieve the shells and they were gone. I was pretty upset about it at the time, but in hindsight, it was not a big deal. They probably would have been sitting inside a box at my house to this day gathering dust.

I also remember going out close to where the wrecked ship was on the reef side of Runit. When the tide was low, you could get fairly close to it.

The night before leaving to return to civilization, we were given a gallon jug to urinate into to collect a sample, purportedly to use for testing our rad exposure. The whole time on the island I hadn’t had any alcoholic beverages, but that evening, I bought a 6-pack of Oly so I could make enough pee and went to the movies. I would drink one of the beers, get the urge, then start filling the jug. After three beers, I pretty much had the jug filled.

I was thankful we had a MARS station on the island. I would try to get there early Sunday mornings so I could call my folks. One of the Sundays in January I called, I was talking to my mom, and she mentioned the weather had started out reasonably warm for a mid-winter’s day, but it was beginning to snow heavily. I found out the next time I called home that was the start of the Blizzard of ’78.

One day, either Christmas or New Year’s, I went to the causeway to jump off the diving board to swim and then later to snorkel. As I was snorkeling, I saw a good size shark sizing me up. I said a prayer and remembered a lesson from Hawaii, the best thing you could do in a situation like that was to not panic and to slowly swim to safety in a parallel line to the shark’s path. I’m still here today, so it worked.

One night, when I was sleeping in my hooch, I felt something crawling around my legs under the blanket. I let out a loud yell which included a few choice words. Found out it was a rat that decided it wanted to snuggle with me. I kicked it out from under the covers and decided to get revenge. I procured a rat trap and put it by my bed that night.

Next morning, there was a rat in it. I took the cage, rat and all, to the ocean to drown the rat. Threw the cage in the water and let it sit for 5 minutes. After lifting out of the water, satisfied it was enough time to drown the rat, the rat was still alive, huffing and puffing and exhaling water. I then did a 10-minute soak and that took care of things. Those rats were tough.

I vividly remember when we were evacuated to Guam after the tropical storm hit. We got packed into the Mike boats to make our way from Lojwa to the airfield on Enewetak. The rain was really pelting down, it was pitch black, and it was hard to see what was ahead of us. We took just the basics with us. When we were about half-way or so across, I heard a yell from the Chief to hard reverse the engines. I’m sure it was said in more official Navy terms. I was told later we were on a collision course with another boat. I’m very thankful nothing happened and am still amazed at the high level of competency of the Navy guys that got us safely to the airfield.

Planes had come from Anderson AFB in Guam to pick us up. We piled in and headed to Anderson AFB. This might be a vicious rumor, but I was told the airplane I was on had lost two engines by the time we landed. We then processed through and got to eat at the chow hall on post. It felt weird being back in civilization, and the food was excellent.

We then got put up in the Guam Continental in Agana. Me and Eddie Drapela shared a room. The evening after we checked in, we went to a buffet at the hotel. They had Chomorran food, which was the local cuisine. It was delicious and very spicy.

While we were there, Eddie and I were walking along the road near our hotel. A local guy stopped to ask us if we wanted a ride. We weren’t sure about accepting since in Hawaii, that kind of thing was strongly discouraged. We decided to take a chance since there was one of him and two of us, and he turned out to be a real nice guy. Took us all over the Agana area showed us some of the cooler areas outside of town. When he dropped us off back at the hotel, we tried to give him some money for his troubles, but he would not accept any.

There was a two-story McDonald’s near the hotel, and we ate there a couple of times. I had never seen one that had a second story, and I couldn’t wait to tell the folks back home about it.

I think we were in Guam for five or six days. We did a fair amount of swimming a sightseeing. It was fun while it lasted but we knew it would eventually end.

After we returned to Enewetak, it was back to the same grind. Six-day work weeks, 10-12 hours a day.

I’ll wrap this up. Bottom line, we continue to be lied to regarding our level of exposure, and we were not appropriately monitored for exposure while we were in Enewetak. Who truly knows how much exposure we received? I certainly don’t trust the government’s findings. We followed orders and did our duty.

I’ve been blessed with good health. Pretty much the typical aches and pains that a 65-year-old experiences. I’ve had four colonoscopies since I turned 50 and the docs found polyps each time, but they haven’t been cancerous. When I became more aware of our level of atomic exposure on Enewetak, I started taking supplements that are supposed to reduce your cancer risk. My evidence is anecdotal, but the only cancer I’ve experienced is a basal cell carcinoma on my nose that was fully removed, and my dermatologist recently gave me a clean bill of health.

I have two healthy daughters and, so far, they have not shown any symptoms of damaged DNA from me.

Concerning the rad badges, mine had a thick plastic layer with an opening in the front that exposed it to water. If we were told to jump in the lagoon to decon after too much radiation exposure, I wonder what happened to the badges when they got dowsed with sea water on our trips from Lojwa to Runit?

I have some pics from the time I was in Enewetak and Guam and I’ll try to get those uploaded sometime soon.

Jerry Heskett
NOV77-MAY78