Eniwetok Clean-up
1977-1978
U.S. Atomic Veterans
Ben Rush
Ben Rush sent email about his duty at Eniwetok.
From: "Ben & Shannon Rush" bsrush@cox.net
To: pdxavets@aracnet.com
Subject: Eniwetok
Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003
Dear Keith,
My name is Ben Rush and I currently live in Mesa Arizona. I enjoyed finding
your website and reading letters from many of my fellow Eniwetok survivors.
I was in Eniwetok Atoll for six months over the Winter of 1977 - 1978. I was
attached to the 84th Engineer Battalion at Scolfield Barracks while TDY
there from the 19th Engineer battalion at Fort Knox, KY.
I spend my first few months on Lojwa and then later relocated to the Island
of Eniwetok. I cut out, painted and attached the Red letters to our door in
Lojwa that said "Lojwa Animals, Heavy Junk".
I operated 20 ton dump trucks and a vibratory roller, to pack roads and the
baseball field while on Lojwa and also worked part time for Guy Bruce at the
Sand Castle Club. Guy Bruce worked for Holmes and Narver Corporation and
also ran our radio station on Lojwa. I installed a couple of antennas on
our roof in Lojwa and would track storms using my short wave radio. Near my
bunk I had a glass attached to a wire with a sign that read "Lojwa Bell".
Lojwa was rough when I first arrived. We had showers under the big sun
heated water tank and would use the old wooden latrine. Army personnel,
including myself would occasionally have the duty of mixing the cut down
55gal drums with diesel fuel and burning all the waste. Later we had
trailers with warm showers and cleaner latrines. The mess halls though were
great and they were not greedy at all with the food. I remember we all got
evacuated to Guam because of Typhoon Mary and then later returned to ride
out tropical storm Naideen. It was some great duty in Guam, sleeping in some
hotel room, going to town and having parties.
After moving to Eniwetok Island I operated Bull Dozers and was also called
regularly by the Navy to push boats off when they would get stuck after
making a beach hit. We would also had a duty roster to drive personnel to
the outdoor movie theater and back. One particular time I was called to the
dock to push a ship off the beach. I started the process of removing and
flipping my dozer rippers so not to damage the ship. Some Navy officer was
in a giant hurry and ordered me to leave the rippers the way they were and
push the ship anyway. I tried to explain to him that I may damage the ship
but he would not listen. I did what he told me and sure enough poked a hole
in the ship. It took them several hours to weld and repair the hole and that
gave me plenty of time to flip the rippers around and do it right the next
time.
I operated Trucks and Bull Dozers on many Islands including Lojwa, Eniwetok,
Janet, Runit, Pearl and probably a couple more that I can't remember the
names of. I have a picture of me holding an extremely rusted old 50cal
machine gun that I dug up with my Dozer on Eniwetok. I also found a 105mm
spent tank round that was dated 1943 on the bottom. A friend of mine cut it
down for an ash tray and I have it on my night stand even today. I remember
once being told to get 2 cans of diesel fuel and bring them to the dock. The
Navy took me by small boat to a small Island that only had one building on
it. They gave me a radio and told me to call when I had finished the job of
totally burning down that building. I spent at least a couple of hours
hanging around the beach, watching the building burn before I called them to
come get me.
Thanks and please stay healthy,
Ben Rush
Anyone who spent time on the clean-up mission at Eniwetok can email me at:
bsrush@cox.net
Keith Whittle
July 24, 2003
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