Eniwetok Clean-up
U.S. Atomic Veterans
Gene Ingram
Gene Ingram sent email about his duty at Eniwetok.
From: Cannbal3@cs.com
Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2002
Subject: Eniwetok 1965
To: pdxavets@aracnet.com
Hello,
My name is David E. (Gene) Ingram and I was with the 29th Engineer Battalion,
and we were TDY to Eniwetok and the other island groups in the Southwest
Pacific, our home base was Japan. We were part of a Sodono team, I was
electronic repair attached to a group of surveyors.
I spent 6 months on Wetok
from Jan.1965 to June 1965. I had the pleasure of swimming in one of the
large bomb craters, I think it was the one that was filled in, the size
sounds the same, 30 feet deep and 350 feet wide, there was a smaller crater
near by but we saw a very hungry shark in it. The crater we swam in had
mutated sea creatures, by this I mean much larger than the ones in the
lagoon, spiny sea urchins in the lagoon would be about the size of a baseball
with spines about 6 inches long, but in the crater these same urchins were
the size of a volley ball and had spines over a foot long, the same with sea
anemone, there were much larger in the crater.
I remember digging down in
the sand about a foot and hit glass sides to the crater. We swam in this
crater for about an hour, then we got out and walked toward the town, and as
we passed an odd shaped sign, we read what it said on the other side, "Keep
out high radiation area," we didn't see any signs coming up as we cut cross
country from were the LCVP landed at the beach.
We drank the green coconuts
as there was no water on the island. We made the grand tour and climbed
aboard many of the small landing craft up on chocks in the middle of the
island, they all had log books and the last entry in each was some time in
1954. We went through the church and houses, and the shops and warehouses,
that still were fully furnished with stock and equipment.
I got a couple of
cans of crab (pubic lice) powder from one of the warehouses, it was atomic
and really worked, these critters were everywhere and you didn't have to be
with a woman to get them. When I moved on down the chain of islands my 2
cans of "Atomic Powder" was a life saver for at least 10 other people. We were never warned about swimming in the craters, we were in the lagoon almost
everyday after work till dark.
I have 2 daughters, so I guess it didn't hurt me there, but I have had one
large carcinoma removed from my leg, and have some small skin cancers on my
face, don't know what else I have except arthritis of the spine, hands,
knees, and legs, also diabetes, and high blood pressure. My eldest daughter
has had some female problems, and my youngest daughter is being tested for
thyroid problems in Jan. 2002.
I haven't had any contact with any of the
guys I was down there with, would be great to hear from them.
Good luck to you all,
Gene Ingram
wok@ou.edu
Keith Whittle
January, 2002
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