Eniwetok Clean-up
U.S. Atomic Veterans
Dan Collins
Dan Collins sent email about his duty at Eniwetok.
From: dan.collins@jfcom.mil
To: pdxavets@aracnet.com
Subject: Enewetok clean up
Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2000
I find it interesting to see Enewetok listed as a Website. I was assigned
to C company 84th Engineer Battalion as the company commander when the
planning and clean up began. I have walked on 90% of all the islands, stood
at ground zero on Runit, without protective mask or clothing, with no ill
effects to date. Vegetation grew on Runit just like on other islands, but
near the twin craters, some of the vines were orange. l have not talked to
an expert to confirm my observations.
I agree with what I have read about the monitoring of the level of
radiation while on site being very difficult to measure. As an example there
were paper dust collectors designed to draw in air, with the help of a small
gas engine. The dust was collected about once every two days or so. The
airborne particles captured were analyzed on the "big Island". One small
problem with the process is when the paper got wet, it disintegrated. While
I was there a shower would roll through about once every couple of days.
Also the "film badges" had the same problem. If they got wet they were
destroyed....so we wore them in a plastic zip lock container. The badges at
that time were the "Army Green" badges worn in hospital for x-ray
technician. I am not sure what was on the inside i.e. if they recorded only
one kind of radiation or different kinds. The only saving grace to all of
this is when everyone left the Atoll, a gallon jug had to be turned in for
analysis. I did that and it took three years for the results to catch up
with me. I am not sure what the results mean. I asked a couple of X-ray
technicians at different hospitals what the results meant....to my surprise
they could not tell me. As I said before I have not experienced any ill
effect from the clean up operation to date.
When the 84th Engineer battalion arrived at the Atoll there was a base camp
on Enewetok island. It consisted of a runway long enough to land a C141..(
barely) and a cinderblock barracks, warehousing buildings, a mess hall, and
a number of smaller buildings/trailers used for offices and headquarter
operations. The first order of business was to build a base camp for five
hundred men on Lojwa. On Lojwa, Cpt Tim Wood (now COL) was commanding Bravo
Company and I was commanding Charlie company. We each had separate missions
based on individual structures, Tim was designated as the Base Commander.
Alpha company had the mission to build the concrete mixing plant on Runit,
and encrypt the contaminated material.
The plan was to haul the soil and debris that must be encrypted to Runit.
The dirt would be mixed with concrete and pumped into an existing crater
(s). As the concrete was being pumped into the crater the debris would be
dropped into the crater. Then all of the soil and xxxxxx was encrypted a
four foot cap of "clean" concrete would be poured over the top. At this
point it would be good to define missions. The Army had the mission to:
build it's own base camp, clean the contaminated soil and debris, and
encrypt it in the crater. The Navy had the job of transporting troops,
equipment, soil and debris. the Air Force had the job of identifying the
debris that would: stay in place (identified by green paint), be dumped in
the lagoon ( orange paint), and debris to be encrypted (red paint), there
was also a contingent of Department of Energy personnel that would identify
the soil to be removed.
A lot of missions began at once, building the base camp, working on Runit,
and classifying soil and debris. Classifying the soil was another matter.
Each island was photographed from the air, a grid was drawn on the photo,
and then surveyed and then cut on the island with a bulldozer. The next
step was to have a small machine on tracks go down each grid line to measure
the amount of radiation, thus determining if the soil should be removed or
could stay. There was a very small problem there too, the DOE personnel
wanted us to scrape off a three inch lift of top soil so they could do the
next measurement......real tough with a D7 CAT. The very best one could
hope for was a six inch lift.
As with any project of this size there were innovations developed from
necessity, and there were things that did not go as well as expected. Before
our equipment arrived, we had everything on Lojwa to start pouring concrete
except for a concrete mixer. The contractors had a large "yellow" concrete
truck already on the island. We got permission to use the truck and things
were going fairly well until the truck lost it's ability to move forward.
Obviously in the Marshall Island one cannot go down to the local store an
buy what you need to get the truck moving again. Some of our equipment had
arrived at this point, so the obvious solution was to pull the mixer around
with a Bulldozer or what ever was available.
A couple of interesting events come to mind. Tim and I were talking one
morning the day before Christmas 1977, I said to him "it sure is quiet
around here" meaning everything was running fairly smooth. No accidents,
no major equipment failures, etc. Well, just before dusk we were notified
that a maverick hurricane was headed sort of our way. that is the problem
with a Maverick Hurricane, they are very predictable. We were given the
order to evacuate the island and the Atoll. Part of the evacuation was
completed by boat and part by helicopter. At midnight everyone was off the
island at the airfield waiting for C141s to airlift us off the Atoll to
Guam. the C141s began to arrive at about 7AM. All the seats were strip
out of the cargo bay to allow maximum seating. There were ropes strung
across the aircraft for each row of troops, and army blankets to sit on.
The ropes kept all of us from sliding to the rear of the plane on take off
thus shifting the center of gravity of the plane. In short keeping us from
crashing. We arrived at Guam about 3Pm and were shuttled out to
hotels.....I was just getting into bed after having not slept much in the
last 24 hours when the Exec called to tell me to hope an a C141 and go
"survey the damage" on the Lojwa. A contractor, a Helicopter pilot and
myself flew back to the Atoll and then to Lojwa to survey the damage. The
only damage was one corner of a tin building was blown off. It appeared the
full brunt of the hurricane did not hit the Atoll. That night the
contractor and I ate lobster form the reef and steak.......all is well that
ends well.
A few weeks later, We were called by HQtrs at dusk and told a hurricane was
headed toward the Atoll and to secure things as best as we could. As luck
would have it, it was dusk and the tidal surge had started. It had been
cloudy for the better part of the day, but now lighting began to flash and
the wind picked up considerably. At this point in the project we had about
seven to ten landing craft in support of the clean up. All of them were
anchored in the lagoon, with the exception of one. It was tied to a float
dock on the Ocean side of the island. The seas were so rough navy personnel
could not get to the landing craft anchored less than a 100 yards off Lojwa
in the lagoon...the landing craft had to fair as best as they could. The
landing craft tied to the float dock had to be moved or it would be lost
for sure. There was one problem, of the two engines, one did not work and
the other engine was marginally operational. This was a classic in bravery
and in image. A Navy Chief Black standing about 6'4", who I will never
forget, crawled on his hands and knees over the bucking dock to get to the
craft. As the last light faded from the sky, clouds began to churn with
lighting flashing and the wind white capping the waves as they grew larger.
Chief Black started the only engine, threw the lines off and started toward
the reefs edge to make a giant arch in his disabled craft. The arch was
necessary to avoid corral heads and to come around to beach the craft at the
only ramp on the island. To make this maneuver his arch brought him very
close the edge of the reef where breaking waves and wind could carry him out
to sea to fight the hurricane, and most likely he would lose. I stood
there with others, as the lighting flashes gave a vivid picture of his
progress. He came with in feet of the reefs edge as he turned the arch to
maneuvered through corral heads by feel and memory. As the lighting flashed
to reveal his progress we began to feel relief the closer he got to the
beach. Once he made the beach the craft was tied off to an old electrical
pole. That was truly a "John Wayne" event. We then checked the 40 acre
island to make sure everything was as secure as possible., and we turned on
for the night.....such as it was. I remember laying there in my bunk with
my hand on the wall so when It went I could roll off on to the floor and
hopefully under the steel frame of the bunk. In hind sight that was not too
smart. In any case we survived the night without losing a building or
serviceman. Unfortunately the landing crafts did not fair as well. Of the
seven to nine anchored in the lagoon none were in sight. The search
started, I found one of the craft on a neighboring island. It was high and
dry, a good 20 feet off the beach, and about six or eight feet above the
water. I have yet to figure how a 40 foot landing craft would get that far
up on an island, when we did not get blown away nor inundated with more than
water in low places on Lojwa. Especially when one considers that Lojwa and
that island appeared to be about the same height. The rest of the landing
craft were found beach in similar fashion on various islands on the leeward
side of the Atoll. It was amazing to me none were lost out to sea. So the
observation is one hurricane did not hit and we were evac'd and one did hit
and we were not evac'd...that is typical of life.
As long as I'm on "war stories" I may as well tell about one other event.
I do not recall the month, but it was in 1977, summer or fall. As part of
normal maintenance, Navy personnel were doing welding on one of the landing
craft. These landing craft were of the W.W.II era. Meaning inside of
double hull construction like the landing ramp, it was coated with tar to
prevent rust. Each ramp had an access plate so when welding was going to be
done it could be opened to release expanding petroleum gas from the heat of
the welding. For some reason the Seaman did not know either this was a
W.W.II era craft or about the safety precautions. In any case he did open
the access plate. As he was welding, the access plate was blown off by the
excess pressure. The plate struck the seaman, crushing his head. As a sign
of respect, the navy contingent had a day of xxxxxxxx. That day was Sunday.
Sunday was also the day the navy took soldiers out to fish as a recreational
pastime. One of my soldiers could not understand why the navy could not
take him fishing on that particular Sunday. I explained the situation to
him and he still could not grasp the situation. A few weeks later during
our two hour lunch break....(because of the heat of the day we took two
hours for lunch) I was walking on the beach on Lojwa. I discovered a
soldier sitting on the breach next to an old culvert. He appeared to be
crying and in some distress. I began to talk to him and he told me he just
received a dear john letter form his girl back home. I am ashamed to admit
this but it took me about five minutes to realize he was also suffering from
the early stages of heat exhaustion. I ran to call a media vac from the big
island and to get soldier to carry him to a shaded area and start lowering
his temperature. he was evac'd and recovered in about a days time. At the
1300 formation, the day I discovered the soldier, I asked the platoon and
squad leaders to watch their people closely and vaguely described the heat
exhaustion case, and told the troop that if someone had not discover him he
could have died.
About a month after the above incident, a message came saying that a
representative from the Inspector Generals office wanted to see me and would
arrive in about two weeks for an interview. At that time I did not have a
clue why anyone from the IGs office would want to talk to me. Two weeks
passed and a Major arrived on Lojwa. He asked if there was someplace quiet
and secure...the only place that fit the bill was the MARS station we had
set up. So off we went into the small eight by eight room. The major took
out a tape recorder and asked me to give my name, rank, and SSN. I did as
asked and he started asking me questions. At first the questions were
basic..how long I had been in the Army, and how long I had been in Hawaii
and how long I had been at Enewetok. Then came the first serious question,
which was 'Do you now of any deaths on Enewetok?" Well my answer was a
short "yes". The Major's eyes got about as big a silver dollars. He then
asked me to explain, I then explained about the navy Seaman and the welding
incident. I then told him that was the only death I knew of on Enewetok.
He let out a big sigh and then began to tell me that one of my soldiers had
filed an official complaint alleging I had killed one of my troops.
Apparently from the heat exhaustion incident above, a soldier walked away
with the wrong impression. Interesting how things get turned around.
There are other stories..
Dan Collins
dan.collins@jfcom.mil
Keith Whittle
June 4, 2000
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