Draft of Operation Dominic I Report of DOD Participation

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Film badges were issued t o everyone who was stationed on Christmas and c--Johnston z lands. Persons on remote islands monitoring for radiation or conducting experiments were not badged. Of the over 28,000 participa%s i n DOMINIC, over 25,000 were badged. periods of time t o ensure that all possible exposure was recorded. Badges were issued for extended Because all but one of the shots were airbursts, there was little or no fallout problem and no residual "hot" area around the surface zero. In general, badge readings were low. badged participants had an exposure greater t h a n 0.5 roentgens (R). Of these, 110 recorded exposures over 3 R: 2 Army, 51 Navy and Navy civil %%I%,49 Air Force, and 8 other civilians. Three R was the Only 826 ( 3 percent) of the 25,530 The two Army men were serving with the unit that decontaminated the aircraft involved i n cloud sampling and as such were authorized an MPE o f (crew, maintenance, sample removal, o r decontamination) and were also authorized an MPE o f 20 R before the operation started. exposure recorded i n this group was 17.682 R;& w a s also the highest for the entire operation. There were 18 other Air Force exposures over 10 R. All the Air Force personnel were associated w i t h cloud sampling The highest total Three &&&~l personnel recording over 3 R were on the USS Sioux, -which was involved i n collecting samples of weapon debris from the radioactive pool of water created by the underwater SWORDFISH shot. group was allowed an MPE of 7.0 R. The other 48 Navy men were from several different ships: the USS Taylor (13)-, USS Princeton ( 8 ) w

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others. There is evidence that the badges worn by personnel during DOMINIC were defecttvely sealed and recorded density changes due to moisture, light, and heat rather than nuclear radiation. A recent rereading of a sample o f the badges shows, for example, that perhaps one-third ofthe Princeton exposures over 3 R should actually be zero. The lack o f any *activity during DOMINIC that would result i n these exposures over 3Rfor these ships suggests that a t least some fraction of the exposures are due to the defective badges. An incident occurred when one of the fhor rockets being launched a t Johnston Island witha nuclear payload burned on the launch pad. The high explosives i n the nuclear warhead detonated spreading alpha contamination around the launch complex. rebuild the launch complex. Stringent personnel safety measures were enforced during the cleanup. No one received significant contamination from this accident. I t took several weeks t o decontaminate and

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Explanation r the number 235 is not locked in. Much discussion has gone on between.JAY COR and DNA about this for the draft I Bet en 1945 and 1962, the U.S. Atomic Energy Comnission (AEC) con4n-e4+ ducted,,235 atmospheric nuclear weapon tests at sites in the United States and in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. In all, about 220,000 Department of Defense (DOD) participants; both military and civilian, were present at -1 Jthe tests. Of these, approximately 142,000 participated in the Pacific test series and approximately another 4,000 in the single Atlantic test In 1977, 15 years after the last aboveground nuclear weapon test, the . I Center for Disease Control (CDC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services noted more leukemia cases than would normally be expected among about 3,200 soldiers who had been present at shot SMOKY, a test of the 1957 PLUMBBOB Series. Since that initial report by the CDC, the Veterans Admin- I istration (YA) has received a number of claims for medical benefits from former military personnel who believe their health may have been affected by their participation in the weapon testing program. In late 1977, the DOD began a study that provided data to both the CDC I . Iand the VA on potential exposures to ionizing radiation among the military and civilian personnel who participated in the atmospheric testing 15 to 30 years earlier. In early 1978, the DOD also organized a Nuclear Test Personnel Review (NTPR) to: I

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o Weather Flight -- Contained two U-2 aircraft from SAC that flew high - altitude weather photography missions for the FISHBOWL shots. o Comnunications Flight -- Operated two KC-135 aircraft and two 6-47 aircraft from SAC for cormnunication experiments and UHF voice relay links in the FISHBOWL o Technical Flight -- Flew two KC-135 aircraft, one supporting Hq USAF projects and the other supporting o AFSC Flight -- Flew three KC-135 aircraft in support o f DOD effects experiments inthe FISHBOWL shots. -7 Medical Test Element. This m provided five C-118 and five C-54 aircraft to support @@r etin al burn studies conducted bythe Aerospace Medical Division for DASA. The C-54s were from various Air Force comnands, while the C-118s were from the Naval Air Transport Wing, Ten men from Naval Air Transport Squadron Six flew the c-118s. Calibration Element. This @@t operated two KC-97 aircraft to --3 calibrate the missile - tracking equipment installed at Johnston Island by aircraft and two aircrews; the second KC-97 was from the Georgia Air National Guard with two aircrews. California and Oklahoma National Guard units provided 16 additional personnel. The Tennessee Air National Guard furnished a KC-97

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o Removal o f gaseous and particulate samples from sampler aircraft and packaging and placing them aboard o Decontaminating aircraft using vehicles with high-pressure hoses atthe decontamination pad o Monitoring aircraft to ensure their safety for flight 0 Operating the personnel decontamination facility and associated laundry for contaminated clothing o Operating the JTF 8 Radsafe Center, including radiological surveys o f Christmas Island, rad safe instrument maintenance, and the maintenance o f a On Johnston Island, JTG 8.4 had fewer rad safe responsibilities. 6-57 sampler aircraft routinely landed a t Johnston Island after sampling the clouds from airdrop shots in that vicinity. through the personnel decontamination facility on Johnston Island. Although no aircraft decontamination was done on Johnston Island, the samples were removed, packaged, and returned to the mainland laboratories via special sample-return flights. @&aminated aircraft were left standing overnight to reduce radiation by natural decay and were then flown t o Barbers Point Naval Air Station @ by the same crew for decontamination and maintenance (DPO 8#15). Other than t h e 6-57 samplers, there is no record of any aircraft contamination during DOMINIC. The aircrews were processed

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Wearer Consol idated 5x8 Douglas Aircraft Company Douglas Aircraft Company %OWS with numbers missing Indicate that the data was not in the microfilm.