Operation Dominic 1962
US Atomic Veterans
Dan Mathis
Dan Mathis sent email about his duty at Operation Dominic
From: "Dan Mathis" danmathis@danmathis.com
To: pdxavets@aracnet.com
Subject: Dominic I
Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2002
From: "L. & J. ASHBY" ashby@canby.com
To: pdxavets@aracnet.com
Subject: RE: Dan Mathis e-mail January 2002
Date: Sun, 12 Oct 2003
Keith,
I am the youngest daughter of Dan Mathis who wrote to you in January of 2002. I just wanted to let you know that five months after he wrote you about his experiences on the USS Loyalty during the 1962 Dominic 1 tests, we learned that he had an abnormal non-small cell inoperable, form of cancer in his chest, behind his left lung pushing on his heart. It took the doctors over a month to try to figure out what it was. They determined that it was caused from high exposure to nuclear radiation. He died eight weeks later,at the age of 60. I just thought I'd add another death to the military cover up list. Please let me know if there is anything else you would like to know. I will do my best to answer any questions. Thank you for your website. I have been shocked to hear of all the problems people are going through. So far no one else in my family has obvious signs of related problems that my dad may have passed on to us from his exposure.
thank you,
JoEllen Ashby
I was a radarman on the USS Loyalty, MSO 457. There were five civilian engineers on board during the tests. Our job was to determine what effects the blast had on radar and communications equipment.
Our division of five minesweepers were dispatched on a WestPac tour. When we arrived in Hawaii, the Loyalty and one other minesweeper were assigned duty participating in the tests. The other three minesweepers continued on to Vietnam.
When the blast occurred, although we weren't supposed to, just about everybody on board watched the light in the sky. We were each given a small canister that we wore on our dogtag chain during the test. Afterwards, the canisters were collected by a civilian engineer and that was the last we ever heard of them.
I had a small photo lab where I processed film for myself and others. A roll of Ektachrome that was in my camera when the blast occurred was totally exposed. I showed it to one of the engineers and he took it as part of the data he collected.
Dan Mathis
Email: danmathis@danmathis.com
Keith Whittle
January 30, 2002
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