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.

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