GeorgeWright sent email about his duty at Operation Castle.
Hi-
My name is George T Wright. I was a crewman aboard the USS Belle Grove LSD 2 during it's deployment to Eniwetok Atomic Test Area in Mar. 1954. Our mission was in support of the AEC during the 7 nuclear test shots scheduled.
We were on station for test shot Bravo. We initially turned away from the fireball, and when told we were allowed to turn around and view the balance of the test. It was an awsome sight. I pray that we will never see one tested on us by an enemy. Bravo was supposed to be about a 7 megaton yield, but owing to someone's oversight it actually yeilded about 15 megatons. In addition to that oversightwas another one, which involved the high altitude wind direction. Sombody got that wrong also. As a result over 7000sq. miles of the Marshall Islands area was heavily contaminated with Cesium 137 fallout. Within this area was a number of US Navy ships. The fallout fiirst heavily contaminated the USS Bairoko, a CVE. Four other ships also received varying levels of fallout. Among them was the USS Belle Grove LSD 2. The fallout appeared as a powdery snow like substance. We had no idea that it was radioactive, and harmful I was out on deck a number of times when it was falling. I believe that I inhaled a quantity of the radioactive Cesium. Shortly thereafter we were all advised to get off of the weatherdecks, and shower.I was later assigned with several others to proceed to a LCM which needed to be scrubbed down to reduce it's radiation level. We done this for a period of about 3 hours. I believe that the finer particles of Cesium was still falling, and that we were still ingesting it into our respiratory tract. Atmospheric radiation was also still elevated. When we returned to the Belle Grove I contacted a Corpsman for advice. He told me to be at sick call the following AM. He and an officer asked me some questions, then told me that it was doubtful that I had gotten a dangerous dose. That was the last communication regarding the issue.
Much later in 1961, 5 years after my discharge I began to have intermittent ill feelings. I went to a doctor, and after a battery of tests was told that I had a stomach ulcer. I was treated for the ulcer over a period of a year. During that time I began to intermittently experience urinary blockages, some which required catheterization. After a series of exams it was found that I needed to have my prostate gland surgically removed because of a malignancy inside of it. In the period after that surgery, and up through to the present I have contracted moderate to severe psoriasis, and compounded by moderate to severe psoriatic arthritis.
I believe that my overall condition is secondary to, and possibly resultant of the ingestation of unknown quantities of microscopic particles of radioactive Cesium 137, or Cesium Iodide as it was known in the 50s. This material continued to fallout for a very long time after the test shot. This was in evidence by the elevated atmospheric radiation.
I tried for several years to get the attention of the Veterans Administration regarding my case. But it was obvious from the beginning that there is little sympathy towards us. In subsequent efforts I have also learned that unless a person can prove with written fact beyond question that his or her condition is the DIRECT result of the radiation exposure there will be little chance for a monetary compensation. The Government also uses the argument that because you are 75 or over you have lived to the average life expectancy of the US male, and had you been ill from any form of cancer you would have already passed away. They allege that this is because all forms of cancer appreciably shorten human life. But in case that doesn't work then they will point out that the Federal Government is not liable for injuries to military personell while on active duty. Therefore they are exempt from court judgements.
George T Wright
New York, NY
Email: djsgarden@comcast.net
Keith Whittle
November 5, 2006
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