Eniwetok Clean-up
1978
U.S. Atomic Veterans
Jeff Logan
Jeff Logan sent email about his duty at Enewetak.
Subject: Enewetak
From: "Logan, Jeffrey F"
To:
Greetings to all;
My time at Eniwetok was November 1977 to April 1978 and I was in the first work party group as the advance party guys from the 84th eng were finishing up the Lojwa base camp. I certainly remember Capt’s Wood and Collins as I worked for Capt. Wood and Lt. Grimes as the Ops NCOIC for Alpha Co. under 1st SGT. Iachomachi (sp is unclear but I served with him in S. Korea). We were the first group to call ourselves the “Lojwa Animals” which grew out of our relative isolation and admittedly wild behavior when traveling to the “Big Island” of Eniwetok. I traveled to every one of the Northern Islands, was the NCO in charge of the munitions bunker on Lojwa, got to travel to Medren to supervise the loading of large dump trucks with as many explosives as we could pack on (this was always fun for the Navy Bosun’s Mates running the boats), and consumed a supremely large quantity of beer and Wild Turkey at the Sand Castle.
I was also pals with the Navy guys from the harbor clearance units and watched one of the Air Force guys take a bath in one of the water buffaloes as he had had it with the solar powered showers. I was in the last party off Lojwa during the first typhoon and in the first party back and also watched Chief Black (you are correct Capt. Collins, I will never forget him either) crawl out onto the craft and maneuver it to the beach during the second storm. I was one of the two Army Divers on Lojwa, the other being one of the Electricians from Ft. Belvoir there to set up the power plant. We made several rescues of equipment that had been driven into the water (a small crane, a front end loader) and capping off our rescue events, we had to go the barge at the deep water drop site to retrieve the clam-shell from the crane off-loading debris. The Operator had lost the drum brake and the cable unspooled until the last three feet got jammed in the remaining pulley. We took the cable from another drum on the crane and swam it down about 60 feet (the deepest allowed as there was no recompression chamber anywhere near the place), clamped it to the bucket cable, swam back up to the barge and waited as the Operator reeled in each 60 ft. section. I think there was about 300 feet of cable we had to retrieve.
We NCO'S also had a Saturday night steak cookout at our AO, complete with our own version of beans and whatever else we could scrounge from the H&N mess hall. We had Saturday afternoons and Sundays off and as the H&N Fireman, Don Cooper, had SCUBA gear we would often go diving in and around the lagoon. There was however, a lot of work that had to be accomplished for this mission and everyone did their share. It was hot, dusty and tiring work. Meals were ferried to the islands by the Navy guys driving the Boston Whalers, and the work parties were brought back and forth by the landing craft. I have not had any health issues from that time but one never really knows what is attributable to what after all these years. I enjoyed reading the various e-mails posted here and hope to hear from any who might remember me.
Jeff Logan
2573 River Knoll Drive
Lilburn, GA 30047
770.428.1218, ext. 101 (W)
678.581.5446 (F)
678.230.9090 (C)
770.736.2840 (H)
home e-mail, Jeff_logan@comcast.net
Jeffrey.Logan@veoliatransportation.comKeith Whittle
June 20, 2006
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