Eniwetok Clean-up
Aug-78 Jan 79
U.S. Atomic Veterans
Ian Jackson
Ian Jackson sent email about his duty at Eniwetok.
Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2005
From: Ian Jackson ianjackson@sbcglobal.net
Subject: Enewetak
To: pdxavets@aracnet.com
The attached letter is part of my experience on the island. I would like to hear from others that were on the atoll when I was.
Dear Atomic Vets,
My name is Ian Jackson and was TDY to Enewetok from the 65th Cbt Engr. Bn
25th Inf Div. Hawaii. I was assigned to C Co Heavy Equipment Platoon on Enewetok Island. My MOS
was 62E Heavy Equipment Operator. My platoon lived in a shack at the airstrip which also served as the MAC Terminal. We shared our hut with some Air Force personnel that ran the airstrip. The hut was nothing more than corrugated metal and a concrete slab. I remember that on the days that the C 140 came in if you did not close the hatches to the building the draft from the jet engines would blow everything all over inside.
The platoon’s job was mainly to remove debris from the tests and WWII. We hauled everything, from old ships, landing craft, and even a few planes that were in the shallow reef waters. We also pulled up miles of cable that were used for the tests. We also demo'd and removed countless concrete slabs and hauled that to the reef and actually created more land on one island which was called Medren, code named Elmer. Some times we would work with the Navy EOD guys we would pack explosives on old boats or landing craft then blow them up so we could move the pieces to shore. Much of our work took place in the water out on the reef or in the lagoon side.
My platoon was on almost every island in the atoll during my stay doing clean up work. On one island we worked on, I think it was called Kidrenen, we had to remove an old landing strip from WWII made out of PSP metal panels. We found many Japanese items here, canteens and some sake bottles. I do not think many people had been on this island since the war. I found it fascinating to be standing on that speck of land so far out in the ocean and so full of history. We would take all the metal debris ether back to Medren and put it in a huge pile that Japanese ships would come and pick up or we would dump it into the lagoon at its deepest part, which we thought was counter productive, but what did we know, we just did what we were told. One job we had which was one of the most tedious and infuriating was to pick up metal chips from the beaches of one small island. We would go out all day and fill sand bags with these quarter to half dollar size chips of metal then load these bags on the LARC 60 which was this big amphibious army vehicle, then drop them over the side on our way back to the main island. After the waves would wash over the beach during the night and expose more chips you just wanted to scream because you would do it all over again. This must have gone on for 2 weeks when our LT finally had enough and we never went back. I sometimes wonder if that beach ever got cleaned.
One perk we had was that we were always going out to different islands to work, in stead of being stuck on Enewetok all the time. This afforded us the opportunity to fish or gather coconut crabs to eat. We had an agreement with the civilian cooks that if we brought them enough to eat they would prepare them for us. We went to great lengths to keep this operation secret from the rest of the island because if the CO found out that would be the end of that. One other pastime we had was the killing of rats. In retrospect this was probably pretty sick to some folks. We would put some cash into a can on the way to whatever island we were working on and who ever came back with the most rat tails would win the pot. I think we must have wasted a lot of man hours in pursuit of rats. Our LT thought that some of us required mental help. For the most part the work was very physical and in the heat of that place you would get very tired. It was a great bunch of guys in that platoon and I think back with fond memories of them and all the gallons of beer we must have consumed.
I think that the island ruined my stomach. Since coming back from there I have had a lot of problems with my stomach. I asked the Army doctors about it for the rest of my time in active duty and throughout 20 years in the reserves but they said nothing was wrong. I did have a test done at a civilian hospital before I had children and the doctors said that I did not have an unusually high count of bad sperm. My kids are ok but I can not help but think that some day I will regret going to Newton. I have tried to contact some of the guys that I knew when I was there to see how they are doing but have had no success. I also did not get to fill my gallon jug before I left because tropical storm Alice wrecked the place and all short timers were evacuated to Kwaj then back to Hawaii. They told me that there was nothing to worry about. I told them that I had worked on boats that had not been decontaminated and was around that hot soil with no protection. I suppose that time will tell. I would like to hear from anyone who was on the rock during my stay from Aug-78 Jan 79. I also have pictures that I can copy if there is an address to send them to.
Regards,
Ian Jackson (Metal Picker)
ianjackson@sbcglobal.net
Keith Whittle
January 12, 2005
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