Editor's Note: Today concludes John Waelti's series on the Atomic Veterans.
It's a story largely untold. Seventeen years, from 1945 to 1962 - 235 atmospheric tests exposing some 250,000 military personnel to ionizing radiation without their knowledge or consent. Many have died prematurely from cancer and incurable diseases. Others, still living, are suffering from these maladies.
It has been a long, tortuous road to this point - a dramatic trail of scientific achievement, triumph, tragedy, policy dilemmas, political intrigue, and many stories within the larger story.
Prior to WWI, German scientists conducted the first atomic experiments. Research continued in the 1920s with Italians Emilio Segre and Enrico Fermi and, in 1935, Germans Hahn and Meitner discovered that nuclei split when bombarded with neutrons.
Meitner immigrated to Sweden and in 1938 with her nephew, Otto Frisch, theorized that by splitting the atom, a few pounds of uranium could create the explosive power of many thousands of pounds of dynamite. Physicists at a January 1939 conference in Washington, D.C. discussed the possibility of an atomic bomb.
August 1939 - Three Jewish scientists fled Nazi Germany to America. Albert Einstein and two colleagues warned FDR that German scientists were working on developing nuclear weapons.
June 1941 - FDR created the Office of Scientific Research and Development that initiated an atomic program. Then Pearl Harbor and, in 1942, the S-1 Project, precursor of the Manhattan Project. Development of the atomic bomb would be the responsibility of the Army under leadership of Gen. Leslie R. Groves.
Groves was impressed with a U.C. Berkeley physicist, J. Robert Oppenheimer, with whom he had worked on the S-1 Project. Groves named Oppenheimer to lead the scientists at Los Alamos, N.M. to design the bomb. Oppenheimer had attended some meetings of Communist "fellow travelers" during the 1930s. The FBI opposed his appointment. Oppenheimer's critics asserted that this brilliant theoretician couldn't manage a hamburger stand.
Groves, himself a staunch anti-Communist, held fast, insisting that Oppenheimer lead the scientists at Los Alamos. Even as the FBI shadowed Oppenheimer during the war, another scientist, Klaus Fuchs, was leaking vital information to the Soviets.
The war in the Pacific progressed toward its inexorable conclusion. 1944 - the capture of the Marianas, brought American bombers within range of Japan. March 1945 - Iwo Jima was secured, enabling safer bombing runs from the Marianas to Japan.
July 1945 - Gen. Groves' faith in Oppenheimer was vindicated with the first successful atomic explosion at New Mexico's Trinity Site. By then, Oppenheimer was worn down to a mere 115 pounds.
August 1945 - From Tinian, the Enola Gay and Bock's Car dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ending the war. The triumph was the lives of American soldiers, sailors, and Marines who were spared the deadly invasion of the Japanese mainland. But professional jealousies, policy conflicts, political intrigue, and tragedy would continue.
Troubled by the horrendous weapons they had created, Oppenheimer and other scientists favored international arms control and opposed further nuclear weapons development. But the Cold War and successful Soviet nuclear tests augured for further development and testing.
Early military participants in atomic tests were ordered to sign a contract promising 20 years of silence regarding their experiences - this under penalty of a $10,000 fine and 10 years imprisonment.
The Buster-Jangle series of Nevada tests in 1951 included "Dog" in November. Soldiers had to be seated on the desert floor lest the blast knock them down.
The 11-megaton blast in 1954 near Bikini completely evaporated an island. During this time, AEC Chair Strauss, FBI Director Hoover, and key politicians collaborated to declare Oppenheimer a security risk, discrediting him as a public policy spokesman (Times columns May 6 and 13).
1957 - The Plumbob series in Nevada included Priscilla and Hood, in which Lt. Saffer and Pfc. Beers participated (Times columns May 20 and 27). Participants in the Nevada tests were closer to ground zero, but the Pacific tests were of the far more powerful megaton variety.
The 1958 Pacific series of tests was code named Operation Hardtack. Army Sgt. Orville Kelly was placed in charge of 14 communications specialists to observe atomic blasts from the island, Japtan, in the Eniwetok atoll of the Marshall Islands. Ordered to stand on the beach and face the blasts, Sgt. Kelly's men witnessed 22 nuclear blasts, experiencing searing heat, trembling earth, and shock waves that almost knocked the men down. The men found the experiences to be horrifying.
Upon return to the U.S., Sgt. Kelly was spent, physically and emotionally. Unable to perform, he was drummed out of the Army with an Undesirable Discharge.
Sgt. Kelly, like other atomic participants upon discharge, was given a clean bill of health. However, serious health problems started in the 1970s - chronic exhaustion, a lump under his arm, followed by more of the same.
He believed that his problems were caused by exposure to radiation. Predictably, the VA and the Defense Department asserted that all possible precautions had been taken. It was up to the vets to prove that these illnesses were service-related.
Sgt. Kelly discovered that many other veterans of atomic exercises were experiencing similar health problems. Following a nightmare of bureaucratic struggles, Sgt. Kelly got his discharge upgraded from Undesirable, to General. He made it his short remaining life's mission to help other Atomic Vets. He established the National Association of Atomic Veterans, an organization dedicated to assisting veterans who were subjected to radiation exposure.
Sgt. Kelly collaborated with Marine Lt. James Saffer on a book, "Countdown Zero," chronicling experiences of the Atomic Vets. Tragically, he died prior to its completion - Lt. Saffer completed it.
Atomic Veterans are not eligible for the Purple Heart because these injuries were not enemy-inflicted. Yet it would be appropriate for Congress to authorize a special medal to the Atomic Veterans to recognize the sacrifices they made for America during the Cold War.
It's too late for those who have already succumbed. But it's not too late for those still living, and for the families of those who are not.
- Monroe resident John Waelti can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net.
It's a story largely untold. Seventeen years, from 1945 to 1962 - 235 atmospheric tests exposing some 250,000 military personnel to ionizing radiation without their knowledge or consent. Many have died prematurely from cancer and incurable diseases. Others, still living, are suffering from these maladies.
It has been a long, tortuous road to this point - a dramatic trail of scientific achievement, triumph, tragedy, policy dilemmas, political intrigue, and many stories within the larger story.
Prior to WWI, German scientists conducted the first atomic experiments. Research continued in the 1920s with Italians Emilio Segre and Enrico Fermi and, in 1935, Germans Hahn and Meitner discovered that nuclei split when bombarded with neutrons.
Meitner immigrated to Sweden and in 1938 with her nephew, Otto Frisch, theorized that by splitting the atom, a few pounds of uranium could create the explosive power of many thousands of pounds of dynamite. Physicists at a January 1939 conference in Washington, D.C. discussed the possibility of an atomic bomb.
August 1939 - Three Jewish scientists fled Nazi Germany to America. Albert Einstein and two colleagues warned FDR that German scientists were working on developing nuclear weapons.
June 1941 - FDR created the Office of Scientific Research and Development that initiated an atomic program. Then Pearl Harbor and, in 1942, the S-1 Project, precursor of the Manhattan Project. Development of the atomic bomb would be the responsibility of the Army under leadership of Gen. Leslie R. Groves.
Groves was impressed with a U.C. Berkeley physicist, J. Robert Oppenheimer, with whom he had worked on the S-1 Project. Groves named Oppenheimer to lead the scientists at Los Alamos, N.M. to design the bomb. Oppenheimer had attended some meetings of Communist "fellow travelers" during the 1930s. The FBI opposed his appointment. Oppenheimer's critics asserted that this brilliant theoretician couldn't manage a hamburger stand.
Groves, himself a staunch anti-Communist, held fast, insisting that Oppenheimer lead the scientists at Los Alamos. Even as the FBI shadowed Oppenheimer during the war, another scientist, Klaus Fuchs, was leaking vital information to the Soviets.
The war in the Pacific progressed toward its inexorable conclusion. 1944 - the capture of the Marianas, brought American bombers within range of Japan. March 1945 - Iwo Jima was secured, enabling safer bombing runs from the Marianas to Japan.
July 1945 - Gen. Groves' faith in Oppenheimer was vindicated with the first successful atomic explosion at New Mexico's Trinity Site. By then, Oppenheimer was worn down to a mere 115 pounds.
August 1945 - From Tinian, the Enola Gay and Bock's Car dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ending the war. The triumph was the lives of American soldiers, sailors, and Marines who were spared the deadly invasion of the Japanese mainland. But professional jealousies, policy conflicts, political intrigue, and tragedy would continue.
Troubled by the horrendous weapons they had created, Oppenheimer and other scientists favored international arms control and opposed further nuclear weapons development. But the Cold War and successful Soviet nuclear tests augured for further development and testing.
Early military participants in atomic tests were ordered to sign a contract promising 20 years of silence regarding their experiences - this under penalty of a $10,000 fine and 10 years imprisonment.
The Buster-Jangle series of Nevada tests in 1951 included "Dog" in November. Soldiers had to be seated on the desert floor lest the blast knock them down.
The 11-megaton blast in 1954 near Bikini completely evaporated an island. During this time, AEC Chair Strauss, FBI Director Hoover, and key politicians collaborated to declare Oppenheimer a security risk, discrediting him as a public policy spokesman (Times columns May 6 and 13).
1957 - The Plumbob series in Nevada included Priscilla and Hood, in which Lt. Saffer and Pfc. Beers participated (Times columns May 20 and 27). Participants in the Nevada tests were closer to ground zero, but the Pacific tests were of the far more powerful megaton variety.
The 1958 Pacific series of tests was code named Operation Hardtack. Army Sgt. Orville Kelly was placed in charge of 14 communications specialists to observe atomic blasts from the island, Japtan, in the Eniwetok atoll of the Marshall Islands. Ordered to stand on the beach and face the blasts, Sgt. Kelly's men witnessed 22 nuclear blasts, experiencing searing heat, trembling earth, and shock waves that almost knocked the men down. The men found the experiences to be horrifying.
Upon return to the U.S., Sgt. Kelly was spent, physically and emotionally. Unable to perform, he was drummed out of the Army with an Undesirable Discharge.
Sgt. Kelly, like other atomic participants upon discharge, was given a clean bill of health. However, serious health problems started in the 1970s - chronic exhaustion, a lump under his arm, followed by more of the same.
He believed that his problems were caused by exposure to radiation. Predictably, the VA and the Defense Department asserted that all possible precautions had been taken. It was up to the vets to prove that these illnesses were service-related.
Sgt. Kelly discovered that many other veterans of atomic exercises were experiencing similar health problems. Following a nightmare of bureaucratic struggles, Sgt. Kelly got his discharge upgraded from Undesirable, to General. He made it his short remaining life's mission to help other Atomic Vets. He established the National Association of Atomic Veterans, an organization dedicated to assisting veterans who were subjected to radiation exposure.
Sgt. Kelly collaborated with Marine Lt. James Saffer on a book, "Countdown Zero," chronicling experiences of the Atomic Vets. Tragically, he died prior to its completion - Lt. Saffer completed it.
Atomic Veterans are not eligible for the Purple Heart because these injuries were not enemy-inflicted. Yet it would be appropriate for Congress to authorize a special medal to the Atomic Veterans to recognize the sacrifices they made for America during the Cold War.
It's too late for those who have already succumbed. But it's not too late for those still living, and for the families of those who are not.
- Monroe resident John Waelti can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net.
