US Navy "Atomic veteran" speaks out about "ship of death"

[TheMightyFavog]

Saw this LTTE in the fishwrap from the city where I went to college, and figured that this needs to get out through the blogosphere and the mainstream media. I was hoping to get some help from the bloggers here at DU.

http://www.stevenspointjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071212/SPJ06/712120348

From the onset, I had doubts about filing a claim for radiation exposure. Then, I heard from shipmates who were having serious problems that they figured were from when we served on the U.S.S. Brush DD-745, a naval destroyer, during the 1946 and 1947 atomic bomb tests conducted on the Marshall Islands. The Veteran's Services Officer put me on a list of those exposed to radiation. I heard nothing for many years. In July of 2004, the present Officer suggested I file a claim, so I had a physical at the V.A. Hospital in Tomah. I was told the claim wouldn't take over six months. All talk, no action.

I continued to fight, and question their motives from time to time. Many Veterans gave up the fight. Most are dead and the few still alive don't really care anymore.

(snip)

Here's an example of how the V.A. keeps faulty records. I had a health problem when we returned to the states and the ship's pharmacist sent me to the Balboa Naval Hospital for psychoanalysis. Another time our motorboat sank and we almost drown. When I asked for my medical records, there was no mention of these incidents. Why? I can only guess! I believe the V.A. manufactured scientific data without medical oversight.

The U.S.S. Brush has been deemed the ship of death by some crew members because most have left the planet far too young. I know the guy upstairs will make the right decision about what happened so many years ago. I personally believe, to be alive after all this, is more than I could ask for.

Come on, let's do it for all the "atomic Vetereans" who got screwed over!

[TheMightyFavog]

1. kick for the evening crowd!

:kick:

[Karenina]

3. Support the troops?

:cry:

[Forkboy]

2. Kick for yet another forgotten story, and victim, of the A-Bomb tests.

[seemslikeadream]

4. "The most famous test, the Bravo shot,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmr98MtyZfU

On this day, Erika Strong's and Lindsey Horton's Marshall Islands High School classes went on a field trip to participate in the Nuclear Victims Day 2006 activities at Assumption High, where students put together displays. Learn a little about this little-known slice of U.S. history in the Pacific involving nuclear testing and the Marshallese people who continue to remember to this day.

Its a bit rough, evident in the space "___" where a number is supposed to be to indicate the number of nuclear tests conducted by the U.S. in the Marshall Islands between 1946 - 1958 (not 1954 - 1963, as indicated in the clip). That "___" is supposed to be 67.

A bit more info...

"The most famous test, the Bravo shot, detonated at Bikini Atoll on March 1, 1954, was a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb more than 1,000 times as powerful as the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. From its $20 billion investment in the NTP, the U.S. gained a much more sophisticated understanding of nuclear weapons and the health effects of exposure to excessive doses of radioactive fallout. Consequently, the U.S. bolstered its military and political position in the early years of the Cold War." - excerpt from www.rmiembassyus.org

[seemslikeadream]

5. produced the worst radiological accident ever caused by the United States.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPuaa_d7M8Q


Castle Bravo was the code name given to the first U.S. test of a so-called dry fuel thermonuclear device, detonated on March 1, 1954 at Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, by the United States, as the first test of Operation Castle (a longer series of tests of various devices). Unexpected fallout from the detonation—intended to be a secret test—poisoned the crew of Daigo Fukuryū Maru ("Lucky Dragon No. 5"), a Japanese fishing boat, and created international concern about atmospheric thermonuclear testing.

[Swamp Rat]

6. The V.A. will help them,

AFTER they're all dead.

:grr: