September 2, 2003-- Duane "Whitey" Coker served on the USS Lamson and Clamp during Operation Crossroads has passed away. |
Whitey Coker was 20 years old when he steamed into sight of the Pacific island called Bikini. He was the picture of health, 5'8" and 148 pounds a sailor aboard the destroyer USS Lamson. This ship had seen action against the Japanese Kamakizi one of which slammed into the decks. It survived the attack but in the repair, the Navy had changed her from a four stacker to two.
Whitey saw the article about the atomic veterans having got together for breakfast last July. He called Cecil Herald whose picture appeared with the article. The two veterans talked for a long while about their experiences at Operation Crossroads. They both agreed that most of the pictures the public saw were taken from ships where the press, government officials and the brass were stationed, about 30 miles from the explosions. Whitey and Cecil were both at the ten mile circle when the bombs went off.
While the sailors outfitted the target fleet with military materials, to be tested against the bomb, one of the jobs Coker was assigned, was to go aboard the anchored ships and tie live goats to prepared stations on the decks and set up scientific equipment on ships of the target fleet .
He had been tranfered to the ARS 33, a sea-going tug, Whitey would spend the rest of his time in the Navy on this Tug the USS Clamp. Soon after the first detonation, Whitey would go aboard the blasted ships checking on the damage and reading the instruments for the scientists. He was amazed to see that one of the goats on a ship close to ground zero was reduced to powder.
When the underwater detonation of shot Baker went off Whitey and the crew of the Clamp started for ground zero. They had been told there may be a tidal wave, so just keep the bow pointed into it. Their job was to get aboard the blasted ships as quick as possible and get the readings from the instruments which had been welded to the decks. They would hurry onto the remaining ships, walk to the instruments, make the reading on waterproofed clipboards and get back to the tug.
When they got back to the ship, they were checked with the geiger counter. The counter would start clicking and the needle would swing way over. The monitor would say get out of your clothes. Then they would take the water hose which took water from the lagoon and wash him down, (Salted down, the sailors called it). He would dry off, get into a clean radiation suit board the tug again and go back out to the target ships, and do the same thing again. Come back, get checked again, again the counter would go to clicking, off came the clothes, salted down, clean clothes, go back out there. All day long that was the routine. It was a long day too. It didn't get dark at Bikini, during the summer till near 10:00 pm.
After the two atomic tests the Clamp steamed to Kawajelien and hooked up a submarine to tow back to Pearl Harbor. Then from Pearl to Oakland, California.
Just back from Crossroads, Whitey was starting to lose weight. While in port he checked with the Navy doctor and they sent him to the Naval Hospital at Long Beach. There the doctors diagnosed a sinus problem with a few small polips. Radium treatment was prescribed.
At the hospital, the radium treatment went something like this. Whitey would be sent to the basement where in the center of a room like a bank vault, would be the radium pot, a lead cylinder with a 3 ft handle. He would carry this upstairs to a room where the doctor opened the container and took out a thin glass vial of radium and inserted this up Whiteys nose. The doc would get the other vial and insert this one up the other nostral.
The treatment would last 10 to 15 minutes. Whitey would be given leave for six weeks, during which time he would come home to Oregon. Then he would return to the hospital for another radium treatment and be off for six more weeks, this went on for six months.
Whitey is 69 years old today, and likes to play golf with some of his friends. He weighs from 108 to 115 pounds. The doctor tells him to get on a diet to gain weight and get some muscle mass built up.
Keith Whittle
August 19, 1997
P.S. For more information about Radium treatment experimentation on veterans and citizens click here: Stewart Farber, MS Public Health Director -Radium Experiment Assessment Project