Members’NAAV Publication of the National AssociationNEWS of Atomic Veterans Volume 1 March, 2015 Issue 2 Veterans you might need us-we might need you. We are especially looking for veterans during and after the first Gulf War. U. S. Navy photo by Mass Communication DoD photo by U.S. Navy. (Released) U. S. Navy photo by Robert Ruyle, RM2 Specialist Seaman Aboard the USS Navasota (AO-106) Refueling Patrick Dionne/Released Operation Red Wing Ships All crew members on All Nuclear ships, a veteran that might fit the above criteria. If they submarines and any on ships using CWS (Sea have any questions on how we can support, lead, Whiz System) and any military in contact with or provide assistance have them give Gillie a call depleted uranium. We are looking for those who at 804-334-8585 and he will get them in contact may have been x-ray technicians, those assigned with a state commander. Also, make sure that they to Enewetak Atoll radiation clean up, as these “check out” www.naav.com/html/documents.htm. fit the VA’s official description as Occupational radiation exposed veterans. Any military (Army, Let’s get the word out that NAAV has been Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard and Navy who serving Atomic Veterans since 1979. Cold War were in any way involved in the assembly, storage Vets that may have been involved in radiation and deployment of nuclear weapon devices or the exposure events. We can help with information, surviving (spouse, or child) of a deceased Atomic support and guidance with government Veteran. agencies. For those of you that might not fit this new second ANNUAL MEETING... scheduled for late group of veterans that we are looking for please Sept. or Oct. in Washington D.C. Final give the NAAV a helping hand. This is what you information will be in the next news letter. can do. Make sure that you get this information to Change of Address, Membership or Renewal....Write or E-Mail Published quarterly by the NAAV Deadlines are the 1st of every 4th month and any National Commander NAAV material submitted after that time may be delayed until next quarter. All submissions are to be e-mailed Fred Schafer •130 Cleveland Street to [email protected] or mail to Darryl Hirst Lebanon, OR 97355-4505 - Managing Editor. All photos must be sent in JPEG Phone: 541-258-7453 format preferably at 300dpi or mail us an original and we E-Mail: [email protected] will copy it and get it back to you. Members’ Publication of the National Association of Atomic Veterans NAAV can help! SHIPMATES ARE FOREVER Help from NAAV here is an example, for all Sometime back during the holidays my head was veterans. hanging low and here came Alfred Weinberg. I had not known Al. I will not forget Al. That day I was hit by a Random Act of Kindness. With his permission, I would like for you to read his words. Always enjoy NAAV Newsletters. Write-up re: LST-611 extremely well done and informative. Difficult to enlist new NAAV members. I participated in Operation Wigwam, 1955. For many years, 8 close Wigwam shipmates and I met several times annually. I am the last man alive from this group. Having been topside on the carrier, USS Wright CVL-49, during the aforementioned operation, I experienced a substantial blast of ‘hot water.” Therefore, my body sustained radiation poisoning for which the VA has treated me these many years. Start at the National Archives and Records Administration http://www.archives.gov/ K e e p u p t h e g o o d w o r k . veterans/Home>VeteransServiceRecords> Happy holiday season. Military Service Records Al Weinberg Military personnel records can include Shipmates Are Forever… DD214s Separation Documents, service personnel records found within the Official Military Personnel File (OMPF), and medical r e c o r d s . P e r m i s s i o n b y N A AV D i r e c t o r W a t t s Military personnel records can be used for proving military service or as a valuable tool in genealogical Man behind it all... research. NAAV news Robert “Bob” Ruyle. Bob puts your Home>VeteransServiceRecords>MilitaryService newsletter together. He is responsible for the new Records>VeteransMedical and Health Records look. He is an Atomic Veteran and former Navy RM1c, He is does the work of 3 men making sure The Official Military Personnel Files (OMPF), held that 3 different newsletters get out. Send Bob a at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC), note of appreciation. Send to Bob at bobruyle34@ are administrative records containing information gmail.com . Do it, it will only take a you moment. about the subject’s military service history. Many OMPFs contain both personnel and former active duty health records, but the service branches discontinued retiring the health record portion to the NPRC in the 1990s. In 1992, the Army began retiring most of its former members’ health records to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Over the next six years, the other services followed suit: Find out specific information by visiting the above links. 2 Members’ Publication of the National Association of Atomic Veterans My Thermonuclear Summer -- Continued – 1956 My Thermonuclear Summer -- I had no knowledge of the previous series of tests We arrived at Bikini not knowing what the future known as CASTLE. There were complications might bring. There may have been a tropical associated with Shot Bravo which lead to additional paradise at one time, but not in 1956. Although safety precautions taken during OPERATION Bikini’s reefs enclosed the blue and jade green REDWING. Dosimeters (film badges) were lagoon, which was twenty-four miles long and issued to all participants. In February of 1956 fifteen wide, there had been a change. Bikini Atoll some 96 attendees from the three ships, including had already been formed into a concrete, one level LST611, were given radiological safety training. canvas huts that had been established, by the AEC I was not included in that preparation. No other (Atomic Energy Commission), for those with formal safety training was given to crew members temporary lodging needs. The island consisted of of LST611. While at Bikini we were preoccupied a few thousand military and civilians. My housing with test preparations and had little time for on board the 611 when taking part in the testing training. and other times on a cot ashore in one of the canvas The mass of an atomic/hydrogen detonation will structures. When not involved directly in testing never leave your head. The time signals, minus duties it was pretty much an easy stretch. 20 minutes, minus 15 minutes counting down My closest encounter with radiation to that time the minutes increased the tension. One minute was when I was around 8 or 9 years old and had as you stiffen, a quietness around you is noticed my feet examined by a fluoroscope (a shoe fitting by all, waiting for the moment that you will never x-ray machine) at a Buster Brown Shoe Store. forget. Then 3, 2, 1 seconds and then a blinding flash lighting up the whole area brighter than the Of course, many individuals of my age can recall brightest day. Higher temperatures produce a a similar experience I am sure. Seeing the bones mixture of radiation and gas that moves outward, in one’s feet is very much the same as seeing the like a piston. Then came the resulting pressure bones in one’s hand while covering your eyes to wave, followed by what looked like a heavy puff shield against the effects of radiation. We did not of air which could be seen as a rippling across the have masks to block the unwanted light from a water and then the hydraulic shock. thermonuclear detonation. Operation Redwing, DAKOTA - The DAKOTA Event, part of Operation Redwing, was detonated from a barge at Enewetak Atoll on 25 June 1956 Possession of Darryl Hirst RM2 & Haskell “Hack” Watts QM2 The impact upon the ship’s hull is unspeakable. Thomas Edison, while speaking of X-rays There is an intense radiation in the first few stated, “X-rays… I am afraid of them. I stopped seconds, which creates an aura of fluorescence that experimenting with them two years ago when I is done by the ionizing of oxygen and nitrogen. To came near to losing my eyesight and Dally, my follow a nuclear occurrence is to pick up a great assistant, practically lost the use of both of his ball of black, cherry, yellow and orange boiling arms.” upwards. -- Continued on Page 4 -- 3 Members’ Publication of the National Association of Atomic Veterans My Thermonuclear Summer- Continued -- Continued from Page 3 -- The brightness decreases rapidly. The cloud boils 1. Our goals were to collect, while sailing into to an altitude over thousands of feet. The cap of the path of fallout, data such as time of arrival, total this mushroom shaped detonation soon reached the exposure, distribution, particle size and cession shifting sub stratosphere where the winds break up after the radio chemicals reached the surface. the gray colored mass. Ionizing radiation emitted as a result of a nuclear 2. In addition, the 611 was to be used, with the explosion includes photons, neutrons, as well as previously mentioned shielded room, to evaluate both beta and alpha particles. Photons consist of the shielding effectiveness of the thickness of both x-rays and gamma rays and bring forth high varied compositions of steel and find the quantity energy electromagnetic radiation.