Pacific Ocean
1955
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In 1955, the U.S. Navy fired an underwater atomic weapon to study the effects on submarine hulls. This time instead of Bikini or Eniwetok, they sailed southwest of San Diego for Operation Wigwam.
United States Atomic Veterans
Billy L. Rose was a Signalman on the USS Granville S. Hall YAGR-40
Bill Bonham was a Petty Officer on the USS Mt. McKinley.
Walt Banning was with the Rad Lab on the YAG 39.
Eugene Wahl was a RD3 on the USS Cunningham DD 752.
James E. McInturff was a photographer on the USS Wright
Steve Gann was aboard the USS Harry E. Hubbard DD-748.
Kenneth Hills was an MM-3 aboard the USS Frank E. Evans DD-754.
Bill Anson was an Engineman Second Class in the 7.3 Boat Pool.
Jim Gregory was on the Navasota and Lansing DER 388.
Ed Ries served with the CTG 7.3 Boat Pool.
Tom "Mac" Mc Carthy was aboard the O'Brien DD 725.
Andy Adams was aboard the USS Curtiss.
Len Glaser served aboard the USS Granville S. Hall YAG-40.
J R Ritter was aboard the USS Tawasa ATF92.
Joseph Stallings was a Marine aboard the USS Curtiss.
Pres N. Ilog served aboard the USS Curtiss.
Gerald Feutz served aboard the USS Comstock.
Ralph Guy Castillo was assigned to the USS McKean DDR-784 during Operation Wigwam.
Elmer Cole served as Quartermaster of the watch on the Cree ATF 84 during Operation Wigwam.
John Facella was with VS-21 on board the USS Wright at Operation Wigwam
Bill Holt, FP2, served aboard the U.S. Curtiss AV 4, from May 1953 through Jan. 1956 at Operations Castle and Wigwam.
Gene Pratt part of the Marine Detachment on the USS Curtiss was on Operation Castle and Wigwam.
Bruce Anderson assigned to the CTG 7.3 Boat Pool was on Operation Wigwam, and Redwing.
Leroy Peffer served as an Electricians Mate on the weapons carrier USS Curtiss during Operation Castle, Wigwam, Redwing and Hardtack.
Rick Edwards from Iowa, served aboard the Cree, ATF-84.
Joseph Waggoner, was Chief Machinist aboard the Molala (ATF 106)and sent several pictures and the DNA Fact Sheet for Operation Wigwam.
Bill Mozingo, USN Ret., whose father served in Operations Wigwam and Sandstone and died at age 59, sent a list of the Ships on station at Wigwam.
Atomic Veterans Photo Album: Operation Wigwam
The following is excerpted from public testimony given to the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments at their 10th meeting on January 20, 1995 in Washington, D.C.
Mrs. McCarthy: Tom participated in Operation Wigwam in 1955. He died an untimely death from radiogenic cancers at age 44. He was ill with undiagnosable symptoms from the age of 36. He had many of the cancers that are on Public Law 100-321, however, the primary on his death certificate is lung cancer.
During the week before he died, Tom told me about his participation in Operation Wigwam, and he expressed concern as to what happened to the other men. The answer to Tom's question and concern about his fellow military men came after his death from the death bed of Commander Purdy of the ship Marion County, also in Operation Wigwam, also dying from lung cancer. On his death bed, Commander Purdy called in a young neighbor, Ron Josephson, and spoke haltingly into a tape recorder detailing and setting down the record on Wigwam, saying, "It's too late for me, son, but I feel that we're all left holding the bag, all those crews, not just on my ship, but all those crews."
Operation Wigwam detonated a 30 kiloton bomb, more than twice the power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, about 450 miles off the coast of California. I believe that Operation Wigwam was a human experiment, a human radiation experiment.
From an article titled, "Operation Wigwam: The Story of California's Secret Nuclear War, the Enemy, 6,500 Americans," prepared at the Center for Investigative Reporting in Oakland, allow me to cite from this eye witness account of the scientists and the military men involved.
The task force of Scripps scientists knew that what they were readying was an experiment and an experiment involving human life. The chief objective of Operation Wigwam was to determine with accuracy at what ranges, under various conditions, a submarine or surface vessel will be destroyed by a deep underwater atomic explosion, and second, to determine the hazards to the ship and supporting forces.
Quoting from the article, "In other words, the naval personnel being assembled for the blast were unwittingly participating in a nuclear war games experiment." A copy of this article has been given to your staff.
The area in the Pacific Ocean where the bomb was detonated was determined by the Scripps scientists to be a biological desert. My husband said that after the detonation for as far as the eye could see the ocean was covered with dead marine life. No one could predict to any satisfactory degree the extent and type of surface and subsurface phenomena. No one knew, for instance, whether the ocean would be able to contain the shock or whether the radioactive blast would explode out into the air and contaminate the surface. What kind of shock wave and what it would do to the ships was also unknown.
AEC reports reveal that the detonation did break the surface of the water, sending a tidal wave of water over 600 feet high towards the ships. Air monitors stationed at San Diego measured a higher level of radioactivity over that city within four days of the blast. The radioactivity skyrocketed from ten to 20 times normal background levels over the next nine days over the state of California.
As a navigator stationed on the bridge of the Mount McKinley, my husband, I feel, was gravely exposed to the hazard of this experiment. He was at that site for four days after the detonation.
The official report on Wigwam described the spray from the detonation as an insidious hazard which turned into an invisible radioactive aerosol.
And, the Defense Nuclear Agency's fact sheet on Wigwam carefully reports that radioactivity in water from the 30 kiloton underwater device was found some 80 miles distant.
There is no history of any cancer in my husband's extended family. Not one relative has passed on from this disease to this day. His physician told me that it took 25 years for his cancer to develop, and he died 25 years to the year of this test.
When the details of Operation Wigwam became publicly known in 1980, Governor Brown issued an immediate call for the federal government to publicly release the names of all servicemen involved in Wigwam, so that they could receive suitable medical treatment.
To me, by not being better informed and warned of the possible health effects, I believe my husband and the other participants were denied the ability to protect themselves. Tom's life may have been extended had he been made aware and had the proper medical tests to obtain an accurate diagnosis earlier than four months before he died.
What will this committee be proposing to the Administration and to Congress that will prevent the military from conducting experiments in the future? Because to me, when any part of our species is devalued by being used in human experiments, it happens to us all. And to me any people that would even consider doing such a thing must have a limited identity with humanity. And, as we are becoming more and more aware: This is dangerous.
CHAIR FADEN: Thank you very much, Ms. McCarthy. Please remain with us. There will be some questions, I'm sure.
Atomic Veterans Photo Album: Operation Wigwam
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