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Director. Pacific Area Support Office Department of Energy This letter is i n response toa telephone requeet I received frso &rry Erovn late yesterday afternoon rezarding my opinions as t o tha fe aei bil it y of sum11 he li cop tor support for the :4idical Survey of the Marshall Islands. As background for the following discussions, I ' d lihe to restate an opinion which I think we have discussed previously i n your of t icc,pertaining tothe long-range logistic plans for the BXL ned ics l survey. FLrst, i t would appear that sometime inthe ndar future that the geographic area nssizned to BhZ might expand appreciably, i.e., to include th s people of Bikini and Eniwetok. This decision is pending atWE / DOI. enlarge the EaoRraphic area to be covared by then dd ical survey tes3 and would pxeaent severe logistic problem for slew shipboard support. A s we have discuused in th opa at,the possibility of establish in qm all indepzndent examining facilities on each of the is ls nds and supporting these installations by aircraft certainly should be considered carefully. The type of aircraft to be used again presents R variety of optiona. I understand thata PBY 5A will be available from the University of Hawaii. I have no further infomation as to the dates of availability or priority for its utilization by this progrem. Another option which I hnve been considering is the ultimate use of a heavy he li cop tor of the SII-3 type that would have both the range and operating characteristics necessary for outer island support. Both of theae options would greatly increase the facility with which W B could evacuate patients from the islands in the event of medical emergencies. This, of course, would tremendously Of coume, all of this is conjecture at thi a point until soqe final decision is nade QS t o t h e BihLni and Ilniuetok populations. hss been made and w e have some idea of our future patient load i a ~ ,I think we ought t o have a logistic meetings t o develop sone short- and long - tcm s plans concerning these options. Once that decinion
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To speak more directly to the question that Harry Brown presented yesterday, I am very much opposed to basing a light helicoptor aboard our chartered vesml €or the Jaiiuary-8ebrsary medical survey. reasons for taking this position, but first I think it would be wise forme to outline my qualifications for making these observations and recomnendstions. I have a number of For 30 pears Iwa8a %lava1aviator as well as a HaVal physician and aviator and had rather extensive experience with helicoptors. of shipboard duty aboard ssveral Forreatalklasa carrfers, first as a Junior Medical Gfr'icer and then asa Senior Biedical Officer, it was my responsibility t o assure safety of flight, particularly i n helicoptor areas, both land iw on the flight deck of large carriera and in support of surface ships of the size ox' destroyer$,:-I am thoroughly familiar with the pro b lens associated with light he li cop tor support o f small shipa. I have a long list of references of accident reports involving attempts to support light he li copa ots on snall For the first 11 years of that periods1 was solely a Nzval During my period This is an extremely hazardous operation even under ideal conditions. The period of the medical S U ~ E Yincludes the roughest weather of the &3Y%he_euwayl eader and medical officer i n charga of this pear and w e can alroost guaraotee 3 0 - h o t winds and rough seas throughout the survey, Iwill not accept the responsibility for the hazards presented by 8he li cop tor operating off the ehip. A compounding problem which I suggested to Rarry and which apparently has not been considered i n the past, is the fact that Kwa j ale in, as a highly restricted rnilitay area, has some vary stringent rules concerning overflights by privete aircraft. fi cations of their present security measures to allow any private overflights. Again, I have no ndvanca warning as to when t h e r e might be incoming missiles into the Kwajalein test range, and there would have t o be constant communication between the ship at sea and the Xwajalein operations center so that a private he li cop tor didn't stray into an area of incaming missiles. There would have to be some very significant modiAll of these problems I'm afraid would interfere with the basic mission of this ship which is the support of the DOE Medical Pro gra a durlng this ttm frame.I would suggest that if Mr. Otterman has potentially pressing business obligations in some other area that he has two o p t i o n s : appoint a suitable surrogate to solve those problem for him while he is aboard the ship ; o r (2) h e can make arrangemente for a privata charter, fixed wing aircraft to pick him up landing i n the lagoon of either Utf ril c or As each dey unfoldd and we come face to face w i t h n e w and more unusual requests (demands) from Mr. Otterman regarding the details of this charter arrangement, Ifind myeelf more and mose skeptical about the future renewal of t h i s contract. I assume that the previoue administrative arrangements concerning the control of the vessel, schedule, and tha diopoattion of the veeeal in port wlll be as it has been in the p a s t w i t h our previoue vasael
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and that the aurvey leader will have administrative control over those things that do not involve tho safety of tho, s h i p . Ottarnan considers the Anerican Survey to U t i r i k and Bongelxp sone sort of a romantic, South Pacific interlude, and my past expe2lence has shown ma that he can be: quite demanding m d unreasonable rit times. hope that the exact details of the authority and resp on sib l lites for the operations of the Hedical Program and the ship be claarly spelled out f o r Mr. Otterman prior to the time the ship sails for Kwajalein. 1 don't want to be hardnosed about thts bur I thirJ., in this case that Tu dealing with Mr. Otterman i t ' s imperative that w e lay all our cards on the table so everybody understands exactly where OUT mutual resp on sibi lites and authorities are. If 1 can be of any further assistanca,in this matter, please don't hesitate to call or write. Please give my best to Harry and Wapns. I think they have dona a superb job. Each of them is nov eligible for the Purple Heart.