Eniwetok Clean-up
1977-1980
U.S. Atomic Veterans
Don Norton
March, 1978 to October 1978
Don Norton sends us email about his service at Eniwetok. His job: clean up the mess from atomic and thermonuclear detonations.
Just finished reading Steve's story of his adventures at Eniwetok. Must say,
ever watched McHales Navy? I had fun out there..................
I was assigned to Assault Craft Unit 1 out of San Diego. I was told I was
going. I was on the island from March 78 to Oct 78. I lived at the Lojwa base
hauling all the dirt to Runit and debris to dump site Charle or where ever we
where directed to. The event that I'll never forget is the indoctrination
when we got at Eniwetok. We were told not to eat the local fruit or veggies,
women were off limits, and to drink at least a 6 pack of beer a day to keep
our bodys flushed of radiation, duh. Off to lojwa we go.....
At first I was assigned to MESH 3, an old 1500 class LCU. We where set up to
haul dump trucks, fuel tankers and what ever else that would fit in the well
deck. But mostly we hauled dump trucks full of dirt from the surrounding
islands. We hauled this stuff to Runit so the army could back fill the craters
and cap it. The wildest load was the concrete for capping the craters. Once
that last pallet was on the boat you better be underway or you sank right then
and there! Our uniforms where shorts, hats and suntan oil, no protective gear
like the guys on Runit, kinda stupid! Made ya kind of wonder. We complained
once about the dust from the dump trucks and wound up hauling an air sampler
and a fly boy around for a while, the fly boy lasted one day and got sick on
us. Never did hear anything about the air sampler while I was there. The guys
who went out after our crew where told to wear paper masks.
As far as finding your records, go to the VA or get a hold of DNA in
Albuquerque N.M. I've got all the phone numbers for these folks, I'll e-mail
you these numbers so you can start the long process. Also have a book that was
written by DNA about the project. I classified it as a "fictional novel."
There is some things in that book that are, lets say not so accurate. They
found all of my records in a basement in Nevada. And of course they were gun
decked. Most of my records I hi-jacked from my service record when I got out.
The one that interests me the most was the results from the liter of pee that
we had to "donate" 24 hours before ya got to leave that wonderful island. It
was showing high levels of contamination but yet the badges showed nothing,
maybe it was that plastic bag we where told to put the badges in so the
humidity wouldn't effect them. That was about dumb. We had to make a tour
throught the Rad trailer every day after we washed down the boats and tied
them up for the night.
If you guys need some more info let me know. I'll send you what phone numbers
and contacts I have to help you out in getting your records.
See ya,
Don Norton
Albuquerque,New Mexico
email Don Norton
As far as health problems so far...... just colon and digestive system, some
problems of wounds healing ( they take a long time some times)
----------
Keith Whittle
--April 28, 1998
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