Veterans battle VA for atomic designation

BELFAST, Maine — One of Jeffery Dean’s close Army buddies died two days ago of a cancer that the Belfast man has no problem connecting to their stint cleaning up nuclear waste together on a tiny South Pacific atoll.

The problem is, that’s not how they see it over at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs — and that makes Dean see red. The VA recently responded to a Bangor Daily News query asking why the men stationed on hot, dusty Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands in the late 1970s are not designated as “Atomic Veterans.” Dean and his buddy Tod Lentini were among a few thousand American troops tasked with rehabilitating the atoll before it was returned to the people of the Marshall Islands. It was the scene of more than 40 nuclear tests.

“The data accumulated over the three years of the project do not indicate any area or instance of concern over radiological safety. All doses, internal and external were minimal,” VA spokeswoman Ndidi Mojay said in an email.

She said that according to a 1981 report about the Enewetak Atoll cleanup, if a veteran had entered a radiological area during his time on the Marshall Islands, he would have worn a dosimeter — a gadget that measures radiation. Of 12,000 individual records, none showed exposures that exceeded occupational radiation exposure dose limits.

“Overall, the radiation protection program at Enewetak achieved its goal of maintaining personnel radiation exposures as low as reasonably achievable,” Mojay said.

She said that the majority of veterans who served on the atoll use the VA for either primary or supplementary health care and that the agency continues to care for the nation’s veterans.

The designation of Atomic Veteran, narrowly defined by legislation, allows veterans who have developed one of several specific cancers or nonmalignant conditions to be eligible for compensation or free medical care through the VA. They do not have to prove their cancers were caused by radiation.

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