Spring 1999 Issue's Mailbox
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| The Wetokian Web Issue | Mailbox | Spring 2000 |
From: Boley H. Caldwell III 1atomvet@airmail.net
To: HAROLD WAINSCOTT hrw@dcr.net
Subject: Closing of the NAAV Medical Data Base
Date: Tuesday, March 07, 2000 9:38 PMHi Harold,
This message is just to inform you that I must turn in my work on the NAAV Medical Data Base. We are shutting down on March 31, 2000. My final report to the board will be submitted by 15 April 2000. My health has failed very badly these last several months. I need to spend time with my wife, children, grand children, and my Great Grand children. 20 days in hospital since the 9th of Janurary tells the tale. Please put a notice on your web page anouncing the closure. All records, questionnairs, and computer data are to be forwarded to NAAV Headquarters in NJ.
Best Regards - Boley
From: Robert Ball books@home.com To: hrw@dcr.net Subject: Dr. Clark's story Date: Saturday, November 20, 1999
Hi Harold and Keith:
Just read the doctor's article from the Sat. Eve. Post, and that was the island that I was responsible for, Enyu, or Site Nan... I can remember watching that bunker go up, and I would go in to see how construction was coming along, and I used to have a drink or two with M/Sgt. Alton Greene (his nephew contacted me several years ago trying to find out more about his duty at Bikini, and told me that he had died a number of years earlier from failure of the liver due to alcohol, as well as to cancer which was felt to be a result of his being stuck in that bunker!) It was shortly after the group was lifted out of there that we went back ashore to check things out, as in my previous emails.
It's really something to dredge all of this up out of memory after all of these years, and I'm trying to work on a list of men's names from the MP Detachment, just to get something down somewhere so that these guys won't be forgotten! By the way, whatever happened about the Atomic Veteran's medal we were supposed to get; are they just waiting for us all to die off so that they won't have to bother ?
Best regards to all,
Bob Ball
From: GA31BJ38@aol.com
To: hrw@dcr.net
Cc: bfwynn@sprynet.com
Subject: 57th Weather Recon. Squadron Member
Date: Monday, November 15, 1999I was a member of the 57th Weather Recon. Squadron as a Flight Engineer on the B-29 commanded by Capt. Diepenbrock in the Spring of 1954 during Operation Castle. Our plane and crew were assigned to Eniwetok after one of our crews was returned to Hickham due to too much radiation ( from Bravo?). I witnessed one shot ( don't know the code name-wish someone could ). I remember being taken to the apron on the airfield wearing field jackets with the collar up, field cap with the flap down, and cobalt glasses. After the detonation the area was as bright as if it were 12 noon on a bright sunny day. I'm not sure of the detonation time but it must have been A.M. because it was pitch black. Shortly after the blast I could feel heat on my back and neck. After a period of time we were told to turn around with our glasses to view the mushroom cloud. I can't remember the time period but I do remember that there were three shock waves.
Please enter my information on the 57th WRS Roster
George Leubecker
27 Corbin Ct.
Taylors, S.C. 29687
(864) 268-2133
E-Mail GA31BJ38@AOL.COMThanks for the memories--If I can help in any way please let me know.
From: Robert Johnson robertwj@ma.ultranet.com
To:hrw@dcr.net
Subject: Eniwetok Memory for Wetokian....
Date: Thursday, October 28, 1999 2:39 PMHarold,
An Eniwetok Memory
Bob JohnsonPerhaps my most vivid memory of Eniwetok isn't, in fact, about Eniwetok itself. Rather, I think it has to do with a moment at the port of debarkation in San Francisco.
I was sitting in a very large gymnasium along with thousands of other GI's from the Army, Air Force, Navy & Marines. I was 18 years old. I had been in the Air Force for six months, and, like everybody else, was sitting with my official written orders for "overseas" duty, waiting for further direction, for some word on what to do next. The speaker, an Army non-comm standing center stage at the end of the long room, was projecting an appropriate aura of authority and was calling for people with orders, say, to Korea, then to Japan, then to Okinawa, and on. As he called each country, large numbers of GI s raised their hands and were then told to assemble outside in such-and-such an area.
At some point, when the room was beginning to feel a little empty, the non-comm spoke the words -- and I'll never forget them -- "I understand we have somebody" -- SOMEBODY -- "going to Eniwetok." There was silence. I raised my hand. It was the only raised hand in the room, in a room of now maybe a few hundred men.
His next words were -- and I'll never forget these either -- "They," --- the great THEY -- "want to see you upstairs." And he gave a room number that I can't now remember.
That moment was perhaps the loneliest of my life.
I reported to the room upstairs where another Army non-comm, in a very business-like orderly-room setting, briefed me on what Eniwetok was all about and gave me my marching orders on how to get there.
I landed on THE landing strip at three something in the morning. There were a dozen or so passengers, but so far as I remember I was the only one who was there for the first time. I got another briefing from a warrant officer in a Quonset hut, then, after signing some documents that I wasn't to talk about any of this for the next umpteen years, a jeep with a driver brought me to a four-man tent on the beach in which there were three men fast asleep and an empty bunk in one corner. I crawled into the bunk and just laid there thinking and listening to the ocean until dawn.
When the sun was up, the guy across from me opened his eyes, leaned up on one elbow, looked at me, and said, "Hey man! Welcome to The Rock."
The day had just begun. I had a year left to go.
From: Robert Ball books@home.com
To: hrw@dcr.net
Subject: Operation Castle
Date: Thursday, October 21, 1999Dear Harold:
Thanks for your email and the fill in on the web site; as time allows, I'll be happy to give you some tales of my time there. As a matter of fact, Site Nan, where I spent about 4-5 months, was the site of the underground bunker manned during the Bravo test (I think they did a one hour show about this back in the 60's on one of the shows like "Armstrong Circle Theatre," or "Goodyear Presents") where there were about 15-20 scientists, and at least one M/Sgt and a couple of officers fron the Signal units. During the test, the toilets backed up and overflowed, giving the impression that the whole bunker was going to flood, but that was a little extreme!
On Nan, I had a headquarters building, about 20 x 15, on a headland facing the lagoon; this was where I slept and where I had my office, etc. When we evacuated for Bravo, we walked out and left everything as it was, with the idea we would come get things later, so all we had was what we stood in..the morning of the second day after the blast, we were back ashore, and the damndest thing had happened. All around my little building, everything was completely destroyed; in front, behind and to both sides, but all that happened to my place was that it had been picked up and moved about 6"! My clothes were still on hangers, my radio worked, and bottles of coke were still sitting on the desk! I walked outside, climbed into our jeep that was parked there, turned it on, and it started right up and one of the officers and I drove around the island checking on everything. That was when we talked with the men in the bunker, who were happy to be out of there!
While at Nan, we were eating on the civilian mess run by Holmes and Narver, the civilian contractors doing all of the construction work on the islands, and I have never seen such food as they had, to this day there was steak night three times a week, with lines for rare, medium, and well done,,,,as many steaks as you wanted; six or seven different styles of potatoes, the same for fresh vegetables, and a dessert line that would knock your eyes out! We had one fellow gain over 100 pounds while he was there! At the bars, any beer from around the world was .10 a bottle, while ANY of the rarer whiskeys (Scotch, Irish, etc.) were .25 a shot!
In any case, the above are just a few recollections of the islands. I had put in my time in Korea, but still had about 14 months to go (I was a recalled reservist) when I was tapped for the Hawaiian Armed Service Police (HASP). When I got my group of 35 men to Ft. Stoneman, our orders were changed to Eniwetok, and off we went on the USNTS Gen'l MORTON, taking about 28 days to make the mail run to Hawaii, Kwaj and finally Eniwetok. After all of my exposure, I was finally returned to the US in late June, early July of 54 and was discharged 2 1/2 months early.
Will look forward to hearing from you folks in the future; Best regards, and take care,
Bob Ball
From: Arthur R. Thomas athomas@bedford.net
To: HAROLD WAINSCOTT hrw@dcr.net
Subject: Re: http://www.aracnet.com/~pdxavets/wetokian/
Date: Monday, September 27, 1999
Harold:
I want to thank you for responding to my AWA message. I checked your rosters and did find a couple of names that rang a faint and distant bell. None had an e-mail address so I may fire off a letter to them and see if our paths may have once crossed. It could have been at Chanute in 1951 because I, too, was a student in the Observers School there at that time. I already had four years service (it's a long story) and was a sergeant/barracks chief but, for the life of me, I can't remember any of the troops' names. I was never in Recon so I wouldn't know any of them from there.
The sad part about it is that I can't remember the names so I can't tell you who anybody is as you suggested. That's why I put out that shotgun message on the AWA net in the hopes that someone would recognize me and/or a place and time that coincided with their assignments. So far yours is the only response I've had.
I compliment you on your efforts to make known the folks you've shown on your listings. Such initiatives really aid and abet comraderie. Now that the AWS is rapidly becoming a non-entity, or so I understand, efforts such as yours become more valuable to a lot of people I'm sure. Thanks again for contacting me and for your offer to do more. Sorry I can't be of more help. Maybe as time goes on there'll be some more pop-ups. A.R.T.
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