Operation Hardtack 1
1958
US Atomic Veterans
Ronald P. Doran
Ronald P. Doran sends this email.
From: "Ronald P. Doran" ron379@email.msn.com
To: pdxavets@aracnet.com
Subject: Operation Hardtack 1958
Date: Sun, 20 Sep 1998
I was in VP28 and In charge of afternoon maintenance of returned aircraft.
On two seperate occasions aircraft that had taken cloud samples
were not parked and roped off in the HOT area as was supposed to
be done. I was always early to work and took the pilots write up of
electrical problems and went out to inspect the aircraft, but only
if they were not in the HOT area and roped off.
Twice I was contaminated, the first time, I took 6 showers naked on the ramp with brown Navy soap and salt water, still buried the needle at 5 feet, in my eyes, my ears, groin area, anus, it took two weeks to decay.
The second time was about the same only about 3 weeks to decay to background reading which was high.
They gave us exposure badges, after two weeks our level was raised and then again in another two weeks raised again.
They took most all the afternoon maintenance personnell's badges away after about
the first month of A-bomb tests.
The DOD papers say many things - lies mainly, they talk about the badged people not being on the average, over a safe exposure level. Bullshit.
I am 61 now, suffered with skin cancers, cancer of the throat. Many of
my fellow Navy friends who were also there, suffer also, I am in touch with
many.
Ronald Doran
Email: ron379@msn.com
Second email:
I used to go to the VA hospital in Allen Park but they shut it down and now have a VA hospital in Detroit but I do not go there because of personnel safety, they have no security and dozens of weirdos roaming around who were never VETS and are there to prey on the weak and they get free medical care until the VA finds out they do not belong there, I might add
they have the FOX watching the chickens. I started going to the VA hospital in ANN ARBOR,
very nice place and they take good care, I stopped going because they cannot furnish me with the modern medicines I need to stay alive, the VA still uses out dated meds. and the doctors from U of M live with it, we are still there quinea pigs.
Lived in CA, San Francisco for a long time and used to go to PALA ALTO - VA hospital Doctor Dennis was a research heart specialist and took care of me because he had never seen a heart as enlarged as mine, they told me it happens because of over exposure to certain radiations, have had 6 heart attacks, 7 angiograms thru my right groin along with angioplasty 4 times also had a quad. bypass done. Along with skin cancers being removed I keep rather busy, got other things wrong but I do not want to bore you.
Ronald P. Doran
19820 Jerome St. Apt.#221,
Roseville, Michigan 48066
Email: ron379@msn.com
Third email:
We plan on a big get together down in FL maybe, before every one dies off. Bill has brain tumors and cancer, lives outside of Baltimore, He is so bad that he will not let me visit, I told him that he cannot be any worse looking then I, the chemo treatments are messing him up. He flew in one of the AIR SAMPLE planes as 3rd tech.
I have never seen anything about the PAN AM flight forced to land on
KWAJ. because it was off course and flew through a hot cloud right after
a test, The passengers were scared to death, they were coming down the
rollaround stairs with 6 RAD TEAM guys with counters and their white
radiation suits on scanning each passenger, we were back about 400 feet,
most were crying and wanting to know where they were, they were put on
a bus and taken to the officers mess. They washed the aircraft down several
times, always had trouble with the engines being hot, They were lucky from
what we were told, the plane was pressurized and did not suck in much in the
short time in the cloud. Our aircraft were not pressurized and they put good
old duct tape over all the air intakes so to stop the bad stuff from getting
inside ! HA !
I tried to get my medical records but they say something about a fire and my records were in it, St. Louis ??? I had top secret clearance, FBI did a scary for my relatives check on me before I went to Hardtack, Now they never heard of me, no records either, convenient EH! We carried a 3 MEG and a 5 MEG ton atomic depth charge, VP-28 was an anti-sub squadron.
Email: ron379@msn.com
Keith Whittle
Septenber 21, 1998
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