Charles Skelton told me he had been a member of the National Association for quite a while. He had the latest NAAV newsletter nearby when I called.
After I introduced myself and we got warmed up to the idea of having a veterans talk, I said my list showed him as having been on the Saratoga.
"Right" Charles said. I asked him if he saw both of the shots at Bikini.
"No, I didn't. I got out before they set off the underwater one (Baker Shot). The one that sunk the Sara. I was in the first test and we backed off on a little transport. As soon as the test popped up, then we went back aboard, and I worked in the engine room and we lit off the boilers in the engine rooms. The scientists went on board before we did and they just marked one compartment radioactive and the next one might not be. And they just went through the whole thing like that. And in the engine room it busted one sea valve, cracked it, blowed all the gages and everything out. We were right down in there in it all the time."
He said he had been a six year man and was discharged after the Able Shot. He said, "I know one thing, you had to hold your bread up to the sun to pick the wevils out of it before you could eat it."
He was a second class machinist mate. "I was in charge of (Saratoga's) number 2 engine room. I don't remember any of my shipmates on the Saratoga. I caught the Saratoga at San Francisco and went on out. We stopped in Honolulu, dropped off all our seabags except for 50 pounds and we went right on out.
Just before the shot went off, "They told you to put your hand over your eyes and face the sun."
"I don't remember exactly how long the time limit was before we went in to the Saratoga but it wasn't very long. We went in on the ship we watched (Shot Able) on, and then took Whaleboats over to the Saratoga."
Charlie has had some problems with his health. He is now 75 years old and has been going to the Vets hospital for about two and one-half years. I asked him, "What do the doctors say about all that?"
"They don't tell you anything," he said. He asked if his "being at the test could be the cause of his problems and they say, 'We don't think so.' They won't really express themselves."
"I never applied for any subsistance, just for the medical care. They accepted me after I told them I was an atomic. They didn't argue with me about it. I've had pretty good care. I can't complain about the care. I'm going in about every six months.
"I had medical insurance of my own at the time of my operation. I took care of it (medical bills) as long as I could, till I run out of money. So I said I'll see if I can get some help from them boy's. They gave me medical care.
"I'm real fortunate I feel as good as I do. I walk and drive. I stay here in a trailer, me and my dog."
Charles came out to Oregon in 1946 from Texas.
I told him some of the atomic veterans back in Texas send us an email every so often. I said you know, people out here don't know what a big thunderstorm is!
"They don't have no idea," he said. "I've stood on the upstairs front porch and watched cyclones many times, and see if they get very close, then we go hit the storm cellar."
I told him that they don't know what lightning bugs were either. "They don't," he agreed. "We used to chase those things all over the pastures," I said. "And catch'em in a fruit jar," he added
I told him about the Crossroads videotape and how several of the Crossroads vets here have one. He said he'd have one. I was telling him what was shown on the tape and he remembered he still has a beer chit from Bikini, and some old stuff in a steamer trunk.
I asked him what he did with himself after the Navy and he said he worked for five years in Linnton at the West Oregon saw mill, and then started a plumbing business about 1959 and shut it down last year. "I worked as high as sixteen men."
I said the Crossroads vets should be getting together pretty soon. He said he would like to do that.
Keith Whittle
September 24, 1997