Operation Dominic 1962
US Atomic Veterans
Walter Deptula
Walter Deptula sent email about his duty at Operation Dominic
From: "Walter Deptula" silverw@mindspring.com
To: pdxavets@aracnet.com
Subject: Atomic Tests - Johnston Island
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003
Copy of e-mail text sent to Jerry Greelis ( jgreelis@hotmail.com ) sent October 13, 2003, for posting on Atomic Vets site)
Hello, Jerry,
I don't know if you remember me. I sent you an e-mail quite a while ago, after seeing your name on the U.S. Atomic Veterans website. You might remember that I was attached to the Pacific Missile Range-Hawaii as a Naval Aviator helicopter pilot flying missile recovery missions and a wide variety of "other "support" missions to islands like Johnston, Tern Island, and others; as well as tracking Russian "spy trawlers."
At the time I wrote, I told you that I had come down with a lymphoma which was the non-aggressive type that can take 25, 30, 40 or more years before it pops out visibly as a tumor and really goes into gear doing its killing. It is also caused by some exposure to a very high degree of radiation. The only very high degree of radiation I can recall is one of the H-bomb blasts I witnessed in proximity to Johnston Island aboard one of the two missile recovery ships we used out of Honolulu harbor, both of which had helicopter pads on their fantails and were equipped with a whole bunch of civilian electronics trackers, with antennas galore on the deck. The ships were the USNS Longview and the USNS Sunnyvale (T-AGMs-3 and 5, I believe), the same class of "Victory" ships as the Ranger, etc., that were directly attached to the atomic tests in the Pacific during the mid-1960s. The crew that ran our ship was all MSTS merchant sailors, including the "master" and all the other officers. Our helicopter contingent, when one was aboard, was the only military unit. Sometimes the ships would sail without the helicopters and one of the Navy officers from the Pacific Missile Range-Hawaii would sail with it as "Officer in Tactical Command" to direct the mission activity movements of the ship from station to station and in general tell the MSTS master when and where the next "station" movement was to be so he could execute it.
I was aboard one of our two ships sailing in the vicinity of Johnston Island when a multi-engine patrol plane buzzed our ship and tossed out a canister which we retrieved from the sea by small boat. The canister contained warnings in multiple languages that there was to be an atomic test that evening and we were in the test area, just north of the island. This test was, to the best of my knowledge the second Starfish Prime upper atmosphere H-bomb test that went some 250 mile high and blew. It sent a gamma ray shock wave so strong it knocked out the power grid in Hawaii some 800 miles slant range from Johnston Island and lights went out everywhere. Apparently the launch controllers lost communication with the Thor missile upon lift off and the missile went straight up (luckily) and finally exploded.
We had changed our course northward and were considered safe from fallout because we were upwind of the island, so the launch was not postponed because of our intrusive presence. Our ships were outfitted for outside deck washing devices in case of fallout and we had been issued dosimeters by that time, I believe.
One of our ships had already been down to Johnston Island to rescue female Air Force personnel who were possibly contaminate with Plutonium poisoning.
The night of our blast we were in communication with Johnston Island and listening to the countdown. I was among the officers in the pilot house. I know my heart was pounding and my eyes were closed for the liftoff and blast. And when the blast occurred and night suddenly turned to day, all of us in that pilot house felt a curious strong electromagnetic shock go through our bodies, almost like a household accidental electric shock. We had no idea what it was or whether it had done anything to us.
Since that early 60s era of tests, I have read articles about veterans who were involved coming down with cancers.
My first tumor showed up as a lump on my neck that was hard as a rock. That was in mid-2000. It was treated with radiation and I was told it looked like they had fully zapped it.
The radiation treatment killed my saliva glands and that stopped the protection that saliva provides against tooth decay. I have had about 10 of my teeth rot to the gum line and fall out since then and will need complete dentures.
The lymphoma is not curable. It can be put into remission. Early this year, I felt two new tumors, one on each side of my groin, again hard tumors. I went to my cancer doctor for tests and it was the lymphoma back again. I have just completed over six months of 8 three-week sessions of chemotherapy. It was no fun and I was virtually with either no immune system or close to it because of the chemicals they administer during chemo, which are really poisons given in controlled dosages. The side effects I will not get into. But there are new medicines that make it more bearable than it used to be. The fatigue is ungodly.
After the sixth chemo session, a CT scan was encouraging, showing no detectable signs of the disease. After the eighth session, chemo was stopped. That was about six weeks ago. It was time to monitor again. Last week I had a CT scan. It showed spots and specks in the area of my liver. I am now being scheduled for an ultra-sound test to check that out, as well as a "petscan," which is a new technology of nuclear proton imaging (I think).
I consider myself lucky that both occurrences of my lymphoma have been in an area of the body where the lymph nodes are close to the surface and a tumor can be seen or felt. A shipmate of mine, a fellow Naval aviator who was at Pacific Missile Range with me, and also later spent two tours in Vietnam, died two years ago from lymphoma, more probably caused by Agent Orange in Vietnam. He was also teaching at a college (his in Virginia). His wife told me that he felt some stomach pain that wouldn't go away. He went to the doctor. Seventeen days later he was gone. (His tumor was internal and not visible, so it was most likely too advanced for treatment to be effective.)
I have put in a claim with the VA for my lymphoma, its treatment and the already resulting disability it has caused me. My doctor has submitted a letter confirming that my cancer could in high probability, because of the non-aggressive type of lymphoma it is, the kind that takes a long time to become really at the killing stage. Also, my lymphoma is listed as one of the VA's "presumptive" cancers for radiation exposure.
The hard part for me is that I must also prove that I was present for the explosion. Which is why I originally wrote to you because I saw your name and that you were a Pacific Missile Range person on Johnston Island. Anyway, you did tell me that there were two sets of log books for all those ships and other logs as well for the patrol aircraft and the island controllers. I have not been able to get a hold of those, but I did search for and found two shipmates who have written letters in my behalf. One was a fellow pilot who retired as a Navy captain attached to the Pentagon, and who should, I think, be credible. The other, who took me perhaps two years to find (and thankfully he is still alive) was the then commanding officer of the entire Pacific Missile Range-Hawaii, Captain Stanley "Porky" Lane, who was my boss and under whom I served.
He has just written a letter for me attesting to my presence. The VA, though, is going through DTRA records to see if they can find evidence of my presence. As our ship was just sail through the area, and not officially attached to Operation Dominic, as far as I know, I am hoping they will look in the reconnaisance records and not just the records of who was officially attached to the island and the operation.
The stats say that someone with my lymphoma has a 70% chance of living 5 years. Since the first tumor showed up in 2000 and it is now 2003, I guess that means I have a 70% chance of living 2 years. In five months I will be 70 years old, which is when the VA, as I understand from articles I have read, is more amenable to expediting claims such as mine.
The cancer has destroyed my source of income as a part-time community college instructor in computer science, so that income is gone. My wife, who is 74, is in shaky health. The loss of my saliva glands has made my mouth continually dry unless I chew gum. (There is a medication to stimulate saliva, but it does not work.) This dry mouth condition has also affected my ability to do long classroom lectures. I do not qualify for unemployment because I am "unavailable" for work. The community college does not provide disability insurance to part-time instructors (about 70% of us are part-timers, which saves the state a lot of money in lower salaries and benefits; so most of us try to work more than one college). The employer medical plans I was on were Kaiser medical and Delta Dental of northern California. Instructors are only eligible to participate in these at no cost if they are full-time. Part-timers must be teaching the equivalent of at least a 30% of a full-timer course load per semester to participate, but must pay a goodly part of the monthly premium.
Since I am not actively teaching, I am covered by the federal COBRA law which allows a terminated employee to remain with the employer's medical plan, but he must pay the entire premium. For me, that amounts to $597 per month. And no income to offset it, except our social security, which, for me, is just under $1,000 per month and for my wife is around $450. The $597 must come out of that.
So, we are in a real pickle unless the VA approves my claim for disability due to cancer stemming from my exposure to a "strong source of radiation" which it takes to cause the cancer. And the only "strong source of radiation" in my life was that H-bomb blast at Johnston Island.
I was in the Navy from 1957 to 1964, which means I was in during the Vietnam era at its early stage. As far as I am concerned, anyone who was in the military was in potential "harm's way" if they were in the military during that era. Two weeks after I left the Navy in 1964, my entire squadron was "frozen" and could not elect to be discharged when their service time was up.
To me, I took a "bullet" for our country as a Navy officer in the early 60s. Except that the "bullet" was not made of metal. It was made of gamma rays or radioactive energy of some sort from that H-bomb. I was "wounded" in 1962, but didn't know it until it showed up as the first lymphoma tumor on my neck in 2000. And then it recurred in early 2003, and according to the most recent CT scan I have had a week ago, it may be back again in the area of my liver.
My feeling is that my doctor's confirmation that my lymphoma is definitely of the type that would be consistent with having been caused by my exposure to a nuclear explosion, is one of two things sufficient to be show to the VA to verify and expedite my claim. The other is some way or someone credible to attest that I was present aboard one of our Pacific Missile Range-Hawaii ships during and in proximity to one of the Operation Dominic H-bomb upper atmosphere test explosions. After 40 years, one is lucky to find anyone, and I have found not only a fellow aviator who was a Lieutenant Commander and my plane commander when I flew with him, as well as the commanding officer of the entire Pacific Missile Range-Hawaii command, Captain Lane. That, in my opinion, and in view of my being a heartbeat away from my 70th birthday, should be more than enough for the VA. But so far I have not received an approval of my claim, while, for me, the clock ticks on all too quickly.
The last time I wrote to you asking if you had any information on log books, etc., at Johnston Island during that period of atomic testing, you were very kind to reply and tell me what you could. You also said that you weren't feeling too hot yourself, and I think you mentioned your neck. That concerned me because the neck, the armpits and the groin are three areas where the lymph nodes can be felt and seen on the surface of the skin when they are swollen or when there is a tumor.
So, I thought to write this letter to you to see if you are okay, which I hope you are. Cancer and its radiation and chemotherapy treatments are not fun, as I say. In fact, they require a good deal of mental toughness to go the course without a whimper, which I am glad to say I have so far managed to do.
Let me know how you are doing.
I will try to also post this e-mail on the atomic veterans web site. Perhaps there is someone out there who can help me with information that will help confirm my VA disability claim, so that, when I go I can at least leave my wife with medical care and some modest level of income to live on. And, likewise, there may be someone out there I may be able to help in some way. The best source of information I have found for atomic claims is the one at http://www.angelfire.com/tx/atomicveteran/basic.html
Thanks again and good luck to all atomic vets everywhere.
Walter Deptula
Former Lieutenant USNR
Email: silverw@mindspring.com
Keith Whittle
October 13, 2003
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