Operation Redwing
US Atomic Veterans
Robert "Bob" Hutchins
Bob Hutchins sent email about his duty at Operation Redwing.
From: RHutch8667@aol.com
Date: Sun, 5 Mar 2000
Subject: Re: Atomic Veteran (Operation Redwing)
To: pdxavets@aracnet.com
Keith:
I was stationed on Eniwetok in 1956 for the U.S. army. I did not find it a very
good place to be stationed it was a very boring place. The island is only 2
miles long and a little over a 1/4 of mile wide. The place had a lot of
drinking places on such a small place so you can imaging what we did most of
the time.
I have tried to block that place from my
mind since I left. Trying to remember it now brings back some bad memories,
and habits.
When the airplane landed their I was a farm boy not yet 19
years old, very immature I did not smoke or drink. Eniwetok took its toll on
me like it did everybody else that had been stationed there. We slept in eight
men squad tents, on the ocean side of Eniwetok. Our tents did not have doors,
The sides of the tents went out at about 45 degree angles. When it was the
rainy season, we spent many a nights on top of the table that had been set up
in the middle of the tent. The rain was so intense that the water would flow
right through the tent making everything wet.
We had an outdoor movie
theater the movie started at 8:00 pm and during the rainy season it would
rain every night so we had bets as to the precise time it would start. We
had KP like everybody else, so I use to pull extra KP for Money. On the
island we got a lot more money than we did on the main land. We had a
company party on Japtan a few times they had giant lizards on the island like
nowhere else in the world, and they were protected by Uncle Sam. Japtan was
like a jungle, not like Eniwetok which only had a couple of trees.
I worked
for the commissary we delivered all of the food and alcohol beverages to
every place on the islands. When a reefer ship would come in our group would
get extra help, but we had to stay till we had everything stored away
sometimes we work as long as 30 hours straight.
So I don't have to many fond
memories of that place. I landed on the rock in early 1956 and left in the
spring of 1957. The day we got there they took us to the company we were
assign to, and they sent all of our personal stuff back home including our
uniforms and gave us short pants and shirts, you could not use any underwear
it was so hot it caused blisters. It took me months to get use to the sun, I
had so many burns I thought I would never survive, being from Michigan did
not help. There used to be a lot of poker games right after payday, I must
have been one of the lucky ones I did not gamble. Some of those guys would
lose their shirts and have nothing till the next payday, and then some of
them were so lucky you wondered how could they do it month after month. So
you see that there were nothing but bad habits to bring home. And learn to
overcome.
Robert "Bob" Hutchins
Email: RHutch8667@aol.com
Keith Whittle
March 6, 2000
[ Operation Redwing ]
