Eniwetok Clean-up
U.S. Atomic Veterans
Darrell W. January
Darrell W. January sent email about his duty at Eniwetok.
Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2000
Subject: Bikini Photographer 1969
From: "darrell january" djanuary@austin.rr.com
To: pdxavets@aracnet.com
To whom it may concern:
I was a Navy Photographer selected to document the
cleanup of the Bikini Atoll.
I was on the Atoll some 4 months traveling
from one end of the island chain to the other.
Like other service men, I
was not offered a radition badge unlike the DOD and AEC personnel.
After
being seperated in june of 1970 I started loosing my vision, I had a hyper
active digestive system which would make me pass out from the pain. Also I
had two large nodules appear on my head which I had cut out, one was on my
face by the jawbone and the second was on the top rear of my head. I can't
say for sure that the stomach or nodules came from the exposure I recieved
at the Atoll but it makes me wonder. My vision problems are called RP.
Nobody in my family, my moms family or my fathers family have ever had
anything like RP. I believe the radiation turned on the resessive gene which
creates RP. I have read where 2 servicemen had went blind and I am sure
there are others. I would like to know if there is anything I can do to get
some kind of compensation. I am at the end of the tunnel on my vision. Any
help or thoughts would be greatly appreicated.
I have my original papers/orders and slides showing what actually happened
in 1969. If it was slightly radio-active they buried it on the island, if
highly radio-active it was dumped in the lagoon.
Respectfully,
Darrell W. January
"PH2"
djanuary@austin.rr.com
Keith Whittle
September 30, 2000
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