Eniwetok Clean-up
U.S. Atomic Veterans
Scott McKenzie
Scott McKenzie sent email about his duty.
Subject: Lojwa Animal
To: pdxavets@aracnet.com
From: Scott McKenzie scott_mckenzie@dot.ca.gov
Date: April 17, 2007
I was TDY to Enewetok Atoll for the first five months of 1979 from Fort
Riley KS. I remember stopping off at Wake Island for fuel on the trip
over. Not too many people can say they have walked on Wake Island. I
don't remember much of the island any longer. I think I remember a marlin
mounted on the wall at the air terminal. And some ruins from WWII.
I do remember that the runway at Enewetok ended at the water's edge. It
actually may have extended beyond the island a bit. There were newly
constructed homes and planted coconut trees for the natives but not yet
used. Soon after reporting I was assigned to Lojwa in Company B. My
assignment began a week or two after a typhoon had threatened the atoll.
Since the islands were quite flat, there really was no safe haven; storm
waters could wash over entire islands. But still I heard people had
huddled together to ride out the storm. Everyone came out of that in
good shape. I saw the Chief of the Enewetok people while on Enewetok. He
was loading up his small boat with canned and bottled goods and beverages
supplied to him by Uncle Sam. Looked like he had a pretty good life going
on to me. Uncle Sam providing for all the needs of the natives.
On the boat ride to Lojwa I got the dry heaves and hung over the stern in
case anything came up. My first boat ride ever on the ocean and I found I
was prone to sea sickness. Fortunately, this was actually the only time I
ever felt sick on a boat. I rode LCMs (Maggie boats), LCU's, or LARCs
everyday without losing my breakfast. I worked on Sally, Enjebi, and the
bird island (Bokin?).
The uniform of the day was a boonie hat, gray tee shirt, khaki shorts,
socks and boots. There were a lot of variations to the uniform that was
acceptable, however. A pair of shorts and boots was often enough. I have
a wide foot so they only issued me one set of boots when I arrived as they
didn't have many my size. Everyone else got two pair. With all the walking
in the water I did, my foot after a few months eventually poked out the
side of the boot. We had a general inspect the island and he was talking
to me and staring at my boots. He didn't comment on the big hole in the
side but he probably thought that we weren't as well supplied as he thought
we should have been. I remember when we were first issued the tee shirts.
It seemed like the shirts were coated in grease or wax and were dark grey.
It took a washing or two to get a decent clean tee shirt. I remember
laundry day. We put our clothes in a net bag and hoped we got everything
back. I lost my boonie hat on laundry day. Too bad. I really wanted to
keep that as a memento.
On Lojwa, the only building air conditioned was the PX trailer. So I spent
a great deal of time inside cooling down when not working, looking at the
cameras and watches and reading magazines. The Primo (Hawaiian) beer was
on sale so cheap I never had the nerve to try one. Beer that cheap must be
bad for you. Primo went out of business about that time as I recollect.
We had a fine fire department on Lojwa. Never needed them while I was
there.
The first thing that happened when I got to Lojwa was a in-briefing by the
FRST team. This was the Air Force's part of the operation. Their field
radiological survey team would provide training, and then monitor the
operations. I remember at the in-briefing being told you could eat the
dirt and it probably wouldn't hurt you. It was such an odd statement that
I have remembered it all these years. I had a degree in nuclear
engineering and knew this was not a true statement. The FRST team gave us
our film badges and dosimeters and would monitor us and our equipment with
their Geiger counters. I needed a nose swipe one time for being downwind
of a dirt hauling operation.
Soon after arriving on Lojwa I saw a USO show. Unlike Enewetok, there were
no women living on Lojwa. Some men on the island had not seen a woman in
over four months. And the USO show had women, dancing and singing women.
Many in the loud audience had binoculars to get a better look at the girls,
even though they were just ten feet away. This show was very much
appreciated by all. The USO is tops. I remember I wanted to get a
photograph from behind the USO performers with the rowdy Lojwa Animals in
the background. I slipped to the back of the stage while a number was
being performed taking aim with my new camera when the animals started
yelling "Newbee". My pale white Irish legs betrayed me. Weeks later and
with the liberal use of sperm oil I too would have a tropical tan, except
for the Lojwa socks. I returned to Kansas with those white socks and they
were with me many months after.
One of the men had nude slides of his wife. He would put one over each eye
and look into the sun. He also showed them around to whomever was
interested. He explained his wife's mother had taken the pictures for him.
That was nice of her.
I was not there for the hottest part of the year. I heard tales of 120
degree temperatures but that didn't happen while I was there. While it was
hot (we were very close to the equator) that is not what I strongly
remember about Lojwa. Probably because of the sea breeze it didn't seem so
hot. Actually, now I remember as I walked inland, the temperature would
shoot up at least ten degrees. Also, I didn't have to wear a gas mask that
often, otherwise I would probably remember the heat more. Even with the
fan in the mask, it was not comfortable for long in that heat. I remember
the green and blue colors of the lagoon water. I remember a cloudburst
drenching me and five minutes after it was gone, I was completely dry. I
remember there not being many trees, only these low growing shrubs that
provided no shade.
I remember these concrete blockhouses left over from
the a-bomb testing days and the wires and cables running all over Enjebi,
as well as the airfield. I remember we were told not to dig a hole on that
island as there were 800 Japanese soldiers buried there. There was one
hill on the island and it was a mass grave. Even with the warning we did
kick up a leg bone with a dozer and had to send it to Hawaii. I remember
the Japanese beach mines we found and blew up. I carried one out of the
way after a dozer had unearthed it. I remember the M1 rifles that lay on
the beach so long they became a part of the rock. I remember the Imps.
These were little white tracked vehicles with air
conditioning that measured radiation on the islands. They looked like Snow
Cats. The air conditioning wasn't for the benefit of the Holmes & Narver
guy operating it but to keep its electronics cool and working. The islands
were laid out in 50 foot grids and the Imp would take meaurements of
radiation in each grid. If the measurements were too high, then the Army
came in and excavated six inches of the top soil in that grid. The soil
eventually ended up on Runit.
On one day off a dozen of us took a LARC out so we could snorkel or scuba
dive on the wreck of a Japanese war plane. I snorkeled. It was about 30
feet down to the wreck and I remember there was no engine on the plane.
There was an eel living in the open cockpit however. My impression was
that the plane was dumped rather than crashed here. I came back from this
trip with a good sized sea shell.
There were "urban myths" floating around, eventhough we weren't very urban.
One was alerting us to keep our eyes open for Amelia Earhardt's plane. She
possibly could have crashed on the atoll. The second story was that there
was a tank off one of the islands that sank during the invasion. This
story was true but I never met anyone who saw the tank. I also remember
the stories of two military people from the atoll who took a sail and never
returned. The end of the story was that the sail boat was found a thousand
miles away and it was concluded in the newspaper article that the two
people on the boat had been eaten by sharks. I could believe that. Black
tipped sharks were all over. They came so close to shore, it appeared they
enjoyed playing in the surf.
There were pristine sea shells and conches on the beaches. If a shell was
left in the sun the colors would become washed out. It was fun to be on an
island that no one had been on for some time and walk around looking for
newly deposited shells and glass balls. I still have my collection of
shells and I did find one glass ball, only about 5 inches in diameter. The
glass balls were from the fishing nets of Japanese fishermen. One thing I
do regret doing while over there and I hope the statute of limitations has
expired but I found and brought home a giant clam shell. It had to be over
100 years old when I recovered him. The shell was a magazine rack for
years in my home.
One day we had the fun job to go out on a LARC and dive down with
snorkeling gear to the bottom of the lagoon and pickup corrugated sheet
metal. This was a lot of fun until some sharks came nosing around. The
water suddenly became a little too choppy so we called it a day. We tell
people it was the choppy water and not the sharks that made us quit.
I saw a lot of sea life I never would have seen if not for this assignment.
I saw flying fish whenever I caught a ride on the lunch boat going out to
one of the islands. I saw a sea turtle, barracuda, black and white sting
rays, very colorful fish that I don't know the names of, eels, many eels
living in holes in the reef, and black tipped sharks,
We had rats on Lojwa. They were Lojwa rats. It was a specific breed of
our island. I had one that would come down from above the ceiling by way
of a corner brace right near my bunk (and head). It didn't bother me. It
was just the way it was. He left me alone and I left him alone. Not
everyone left the rats alone though. I remember one morning, very early a
group of people went to the trash dump near the causeway and surprised the
mass of rats feasting in the trash. It was literally a blanket of rats.
The group apparently did not like rats and so started a fire and burned
quite a few of them.
There was a bird island. Maggie boats couldn't land there, only LARCs. I
can't remember the island's name, it may have been too long a name, but
the island was the one closest to where the Hyrdrogen device detonation
took out a couple of islands. The water in this part of the lagoon was
deep blue meaning the water was deep. On this bird island, it was a
nesting island. You couldn't walk without some bird squawking at you
protecting its egg. If you drove a 20 ton dump truck on this island, you
were told to go slow until the birds walked out of the way. One driver
lost his patience and sped through the island killing about a hundred
birds. He was made to come back a few days later and pick up the dead
birds. By that time, they smelled terribly.
I didn't work on Runit. Those guys who worked on Runit had it harder than
the rest of us. We sent them the contaminated soil and debris from all the
other islands and they handled it and made concrete out of it. It was
known that Runit was hot. I visited Runit once and flew by on my last day
and got some photos of the pair of craters, one of them pretty much filled
in and capped with concrete.
There was this wooden causeway between Sally and Lojwa. If you looked
closely underneath you would see that many of the piles had rotted through
and the piles were only connected to air. You wondered how anyone could
safely drive over that causeway or how it even held up its own weight. It
made a good diving platform.
We had 4 Army LARC (Light Amphibious Resupply Craft) 60s on the island.
They were huge vehicles that could drive on land or sea and could carry a
20 ton dump truck in its bed from island to island. Trouble was the LARCs
didn't work much while I was there. You can imagine how difficult it was
to replace parts. I think they may have cannibalized one to try and keep
the other three going. Often only one worked. Occasionally two worked. I
only remember one day where three worked. The burnt diesel smell from the
engines was unforgettable. The engines coughed out black smoke. It would
take half an hour to go from one island to the neighboring island. Aft
would be a pew with a canvas shelter, later plywood cover. I enjoyed
hopping up on top of the roof of the canvas and catching some rays on the
trip. I ordered plywood for a small project and ordered extra for the
LARCs. A captain from Enewetok questioned the big request for plywood and
I had to fess up what the extra plywood was for. We got only some of the
plywood for the LARCs.
The food on the island was great. There was a rumor that at night when the
kitchen was closed and dark, that the rats would come out and feast on the
food left out. I remember peering through the window looking to see if
there were rats running around there late at night. Fortunately I saw
none.
One day the island commander told me there was a problem with too much
litter on Lojwa. He had me go out several times over several weeks and
markdown where litter was being left. He would then notify the appropriate
buildings to pick up their trash. The litter turned out to be mostly empty
beer cans. Over those several weeks I noted that no one ever picked up any
of these empties. I reported the same cans every week. I stopped counting
after a few weeks and I don't think the island commander ever was able to
get those empty cans picked up.
The big recreational event was Bingo Night. When I first arrived the cash
prize was up to $800. One of the guys in my hut won my first time
attending. The cash prize started low again and after that, I don't
remember going to play bingo anymore.
There were limited hours that television was on the air, only a few hours
on some days. I think they showed the same "Hee Haw" show over and over on
the one channel. I never watched television while on Lojwa. When I first
arrived I read quite a bit. After getting to know people, my reading went
way down. I found other things to do at night.
We worked long hours six days a week. Softball was a fine diversion on our
day off. There was a league and several teams and the champion for Lojwa
would go to Enewetok to play their champion. My team was the Lojwa
champions that year. We lost to the Enewetok team on a stupid error on the
last play of the game. A simple fly ball to the infield was dropped that
would have sent the game to extra innings. The Colonel gave us losers our
little trophies. When I left the island, I left my trophy behind. I wish
I had kept it.
We had an outdoor theater with the screen made of plywood and painted
white. The movies were usually dated. Whenever a guy came on the screen
that looked or acted the least bit gay, beer cans would be thrown at the
screen. It was very funny. I remember they showed a movie called "FM" and
Linda Rondstadt sang some songs in it. I hadn't seen too many women in a
while at that point but I thought I was looking at a great movie and
Linda's performance was stirring. I saw that movie recently on HBO, the
first time since the island viewing. It sucked.
There was a crypt on Sally. Holmes & Narver worked on that cleanup. The
crypt was necessary as a tower shot's conventional explosive had detonated
but didn't cause a nuclear explosion. The tower metal was embedded with
uranium and at the time the decision was to coat over the uranium with a
tar and bury everything in a hole. Since we were giving the island back to
the natives it was necessary to remove everything from the hole. We worked
on digging this out of the crypt and hauling to Runit. This was the
hottest material I had to deal with. Entrance/Exit to Sally was
controlled. Sally was hot. Lowja was not. It was difficult keeping a
channel open at Sally. A barge with pumps worked to keep it open by
sucking up the sand but we ended up bringing out a 300-foot long barge that
our dump trucks would back up on to get to the LSTs. We never lost a truck
off this long ramp. Just backed up very slowly.
Keeping equipment working was a problem. There was a 12 1/2 ton crane on a
barge in the deepest part of the lagoon that was down for repairs for my
entire five months. We separated reinforcing steel from the concrete.
While the concrete went to Runit, the reinforcing steel was dropped to the
deepest part of the lagoon using this 12 1/2 ton crane and barge. We
needed to find an alternative solution to using the broken crane. One day
we tried loading a Maggie boat with reinforcing steel and then put a 20 ton
crane on a LST and went to deep water and off loaded the steel with a clam
shell. With both boats rocking it made off loading the steel adventurous.
A little too adventurous. We only tried it once. No casulties but for a
moment I thought we would lose the crane and operator.
We would have a medic with us on most islands we worked. Other than
treating sunburns and hangovers, the medics didn't have much to do. Once
we had to call in a medivac when someone allergic to bee stings was stung.
It happened on the bird island. We evacuated him to Enjebi by LARC and
then airlifted him to Enewetok by Huey. The medic on Enjebi gave him a
shot of epinefrin. He ended up on Enewetok overnight.
I had mixed feelings when it came my turn to leave. There was much
deprivation but I was in the best shape of my life after five months there.
Also, I thought I was doing something significant and so a part of me
wanted to stay. We did get a humanitarian service award for our part.
Scott McKenzie
Lojwa Animal (still at heart)
scott_mckenzie@dot.ca.gov
Keith Whittle
April 17, 2007
[ Eniwetok Clean-up ]
Wetokian
