Operation Dominic 1962 Congressional Testimony Johnston Island The Aftermath By Robert L. Campbell On November 13, 1991, I testified before a subcommittee of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, in the matter of HR 3236, one of the many ill-fated pieces of legislation that were offered to address the problems of Atomic Veterans. Needless to say, this bill went nowhere fast. My written testimony dealt not only with Operations CROSSROADS, UPSHOT-KNOTHOLE, GREENHOUSE and DOMINIC I. In preparing this report, I was aided by Mike Thomas, a former member of the famed Navy patrol squadron VP-6. Mike had obtained, with the help of his Congressman. The report was titled: Radiological Survey, Johnston Atoll, April-August 1980, was produced by Edgerton, Germhausen and Grier Energy Measurements Group (DNA-8114), Remote Sensing Laboratory, DOE. I urged then Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif), to include as Atomic Veterans, personnel assigned to Johnston Island for the period June 30, 1946 to August 31, 1980. My reasons were as follows: The report, which was not released for public consumption until almost ten years after it had been written, reported that transuranic contamination of Johnston Atoll occurred as a result of three THOR missile aborts during DOMINIC I. For openers the report stated that measurements revealed the presence of Cesium-137 as the result of world-wide fallout. The three aborts were: TEST DATE ABORT ALTITUDE Starfish 06/19/62 30,000 ft. Bluegill Prime 06/25/62 On Pad Bluegill Double Prime 10/15/62 109,000 ft. I would interject at this point, after talking with many Dominic I veterans, that they believe the atmospheric abort altitudes, as reported in the study, were a work of fiction. The missiles, they claimed, were aborted at much lower altitudes. Paraphrasing the report, when the STARFISH missile with its nuclear warhead was destroyed, several pieces of the metal skin and miscellaneous debris fell back on Johnston Island and in the surrounding waters. A search for debris was initiated and a substantial amount of alpha contaminated scrap was located and placed in an unused portion of the launch pad (LE-1) enclosure. Contamination from BLUEGILL PRIME was spread over the entire LE-1 pad area. Sea disposal of radioactive waste was performed. In the years since [1962], contamination problems surfaced on a number of occasions. In 1964, the U. S. Public Health Service conducted an alpha survey, at which time about four hundred 55-gallon drums of contaminated debris were disposed of at sea. A survey in 1965 yielded another 50 drums of contaminated material. In 1973, the Nevada Operations Office of the AEC conducted a survey using new instrumentation and found radioactive contamination throughout Launch Area One extending to Launch Area Two. Eight hotspots were detected on Johnston Island outside the launch complexes and nine hotspots were found on nearby Sand Island. A more extensive survey was conducted in 1974, by the U.S. Air Force Hospital, Aeromedical Services, Radiological Health Service. Search of Launch Area One generally confirmed the 1973 findings that the area north of the shelter tracks yielded consistently high readings. Further, 65 new hotspots were found in the vicinity of Launch Area Two, and yet another 30 hotspots were found on other pre-1964 portions of Johnston Island. The reader should know that prior to 1964, landing on that island could be likened to landing on top of a table. When I landed there in 1950, the plane’s crew chief informed passengers that the trick was for the pilot to put the wheels down on one edge of the island and hope they stopped before reaching the other end. After 1964, the landing areas were extended by building up the island to accommodate jet transports. The plane I flew in at that time was a four-engine DC-8. Searches for new hotspots continued after 1974, and between the period June 1975 and March 1980, over 500 were found and removed. Radioactive elements involved in the survey included: ELEMENT HALF-LIFE* Americium 458 years Bismuth-214 9.17 months Cesium-137 30 years** Radium-236 1,620 years Thorium-234 24.10days*** Plutonium- 23889 years Plutonium-239 24,360 years Plutonium-249 6,760 years Uranium-235 7,130,000,000 years Uranium-238 4,510,000,000 years *Source: Chart of the Nuclides, Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory (GE). **Gamma emitter. ***Beta emitter. All others: Alpha. The report continued, in relevant part: "The equivalent AM-241 surface concentrations assume that AM-241 us distributed over the ground surface with no soil [coral] barrier; i.e., AM-241 is only at 0 cm depth in ground. This would be a conservative assumption for predicting dose via inhalation if resuspension were possible only from the 0 cm. depth." (emphasis added). In so many words, AM-241 contamination was laying atop the surface, not buried! The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (then DNA) has never reported where the ocean dumping occurred or where other radioactive debris were disposed. Internal exposure of radioactive materials is covered quite thoroughly in the then DNA’s three-volume report on the cleanup of Eniwetok Atoll: "It has been well documented that radioactivity in soils can resuspend in the atmosphere and be available for inhalation. For most radionuclides this pathway contributes an insignifi- cant dosage compared with dosages derived from other pathways. . . . but not for plutonium and other actinide elements. These latter radionuclides contribute negligibly to external exposures to the whole body and move in- efficiently through food chains, resulting in increased relative importance of the inhalation pathway." It would be reasonable to assume that personnel either assigned to Johnston Island from 1946 to 1980, or those transiting through this location, were in a position to either inhale and/or ingest radioactive debris without knowing and therefore, the government bears a responsibility, which, to this writer, cannot be ignored. Note: Werner Von Braun, the former Nazi rocket scientist and one of the Top Guns in the American rocket build-up, was at Johnston Island for the three rocket tests. The Thor rocket was his creation. An eye-witness, former Air Force security officer Henry Brunnel, said he saw Von Braun climbing all over the rockets at the launch pad. Von Braun later died of cancer. Atomic Veterans Photo Album: Operation Dominic [ Home Page || What's New || Email || Family Mail Call || Notes and Hints ] [ Atomic Veterans, Atomic Test Series and Dates ] [Videos ] WW II -- Battle Of Eniwetok Information about the National Association of Atomic Veterans [ The NAAV Story || NAAV Medical Data Base Information ] Atomic Veterans History Project ©1997-2005 For use of the material found on this web site, please send us an email with your request.