Hawaii
Hawaii vets stationed at top secret base join nationwide fight for treatment for radiation exposure
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Hawaii veterans have joined efforts to get records from a classified base updated so those suffering from radiation exposure can get better medical care.
Mark Hada, of Maui, and Alan Hollingsworth, of Oahu, were assigned to the Tonopah test range — often called Area 52 in Nevada.
Hundreds of Air Force veterans stationed there now report road blocks in getting treatment. That‘s because the government won’t acknowledge their assignment.
Hada said he has lipomas, including a large one on the back of his neck that he had to have removed.
He has debilitating headaches and breathing problems too.
Hollingsworth said a lot of his friends reported having tumors — including Dave Crete, a Nevada man who also served at the site.
“I have a brain cyst. I have a tumor in my lungs. I have three tumors on my thyroid,” Crete said. He also has one on his forehead.
He suffers from chronic bronchitis.
“My lung function is 67%,” he said.
Crete’s kids were also born with tumors or autoimmune disorders.
Crete, Hada and Hollingsworth were all in the Air Force in the 1980s and assigned to the nuclear testing site.
Hollingsworth has not had the chronic issues as the others, and believes that’s because he was only at Tonopah for two years. But he is worried. He does an annual physical and is closely monitored.
“Am I testing for the right things? Are they looking for the right things?,” Hollingsworth said.
Tonopah veterans cannot get the same care and compensation as others who were exposed to dangerous chemicals.
“Our documentation shows we were stationed at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, but we never worked at Nellis. We always flew from Nellis,” Hada said, adding they were flown from Nellis to Tonopah Test Range, where they worked for four, 10-hour days.
They’d be flown back to Las Vegas to spend their days off.
Nuclear testing started there in the late 1950s and continued for years.
“It was all contaminated. The soil is contaminated. The air is contaminated, the groundwater is contaminated,” said Crete, who found an environmental assessment report that was done in 1975.
The report said the areas on the range “are contaminated with plutonium from tests carried out in 1963.”
The report said more recent tests scattered “some beryllium and depleted uranium” — all highly toxic.
The document concluded with, “as long as the nation chooses to maintain an up-to-date nuclear weapon stockpile” facilities such as the “Tonopah Test Range must continue to exist.”
Crete said the water they drank, bathed in and cooked with while they all lived on the military installation, was all contaminated.
Crete started a nonprofit group called The Invisible Enemy to help others assigned to the Nevada testing sites.
Collectively, the group of several hundred veterans have been pushing for change so they can get the care they need and other benefits.
The Invisible Enemy is gaining traction as awareness of their plight spreads.
Crete said they are not asking the government to declassify everything or reveal sensitive information. He said they just want the military to acknowledge that they were there.
“Allow us to go to the VA,” he said.
Hada said he wants the Tonopah Test Range to be listed as a presumptive location with presumptive conditions that can be treated.
In September, a bill was introduced in Congress that would acknowledge those exposed to radiation at the Nevada Test and Training range.
The legislation is still in its infancy but does have strong bipartisan support.
Copyright 2024 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.
The 51st episode of lava fountaining in Halemaumau at the summit of Kilauea volcano began at 8:30 a.m. Monday.
In its 10:30 a.m. Volcano Update, HVO stated that the fountains were reaching heights of about 950 feet above ground level from the north vent. No flows or lava fountaining are erupting from the south vent. Effusion rates reached a peak of 400 cubic yards per second.
All lava flows are confined to the Halemaumau crater within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
Sensors indicated that winds are blowing at 5-10 mph from the east-northeast direction. HVO notes that this suggests that volcanic gas emissions and volcanic material may be distributed in the west-southwest direction from Halemaumau. This means that it’s possible that wind may carry tephra toward the Kau District, including the communities of Pahala and Naalehu, as well as onto Highway 11 southwest of Volcano. Tephra fall is greatest within three miles of the vents, and lighter ash and Pele’s Hair may stay suspended for large distances from the vents.
As of HVO’s 10:30 a.m. update, very light fall of Pele’s Hair was reported from the Kau Desert trailhead along Highway 11. There were no reports of tephra falling in Pahala or anywhere outside of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
The National Weather Service issued a Special Weather Statement regarding the potential impacts from Episode 51’s wind-blown tephra. NWS reported that the plume from this eruption is reaching 18,000 feet above sea level and the low-level winds from the east-northeast would move the plume southwest, towards Pahala. High-level winds from the south would move the higher plume over communities adjacent to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
This story will be udpated.
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