Operation Redwing
US Atomic Veterans
Bill Searle
Bill Searle sent email about his duty at Operation Redwing.
From: WRSearle@aol.com
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000
Subject: Redwing
To: pdxavets@aracnet.com
Hi Keith,
I was stationed on Eniwetok from April, 1956 through August, 1957,
during Operation Redwing. I was a Signal Corps stock records clerk in Depot
Supply.
I stayed a while longer, on the island, than was usual, to qualify
for early separation, to attend college at the Massachusetts College of Art
in Boston (my current website- ) Vineyardscapes.com.
There are many memories of
Eniwetok, and your website helps refresh my memory, it brings me new stories,
and there were both serious and funny tales to be told. We all have them.
I am one of the guys who came down with cancer. Myself, and two others that I
am in touch with, who were there at the same time, came down with prostate
cancer thirty years to the date we left the island. Its been five years, and
all signs are that I am "cured". I took the radical approach to ridding
myself of it. So, I end up being one of the "lucky" ones. Redwing
participants have a 20% higher incidence of getting prostate cancer than the
general population.
On a lighter note, who can forget the guys who tried to "swim home," or
the dogs, genetically engineered by fate and circumstance to take on absurd
proportions, or the one USO show we had, with the fire truck down in front
ready to spray us with water if we got out of control and rushed the stage.
Remember Senor Wencelas (sp.), Jerry Colonna, and THE GIRLS, whoever they
were.
I remember we were given plane rides around the atoll over Christmas and
seeing what used to be an island, under water, after they had set a bomb off.
It was Elugelab, or what (wasn't) left of it after it was vaporized, leaving
a crater under the water 200 feet deep and more than one mile across.
I remember the giant lizards on (Parry Island)? How the AEC guys always beat us
in softball, stonefish, the sharks playing in the water in the evening, the
colorful seashells, and on and on.
There is a book out titled "Nuclear
Landscape" by Peter Goin, that shows a couple photos of Eniwetok, as it looks
now. In it, there is the swimming pool, and a haunting photograph of the old
movie theater, bare, no seats, weeds growing all around, a little unsettling.
I remember the seat my friends and I always sat in, and the countless times
we saw the same old movies over and over, and enjoyed them. I remember
hearing Johnny Mathis for the first time, ever, in that theater, singing
"Chances Are" over the loudspeakers. Wondered who the singer with the "funny
voice" was.
There is another book, by Richard Rhodes, titled "Dark Sun," which
recounts those days in the Marshalls with a lot of particulars included, and
some photos.
Thanks for the great job you are doing with your website.
All the best,
Bill Searle
Email: WRSearle@aol.com
Keith Whittle
July 27, 2000
[ Operation Redwing ]