Canada's Atomic Veterans press for more

On Tuesday morning, Canada’s Atomic Veterans will announce that they are suing the federal government.

Canada’s Atomic Veterans is a group of Second World War veterans that “played war games less than 1,000 yards away from detonated test [atomic] bombs.”

Below is the press release from this veteran group but, before that, here’s an eyewitness account from Lt. Col. Strome Galloway, a Canadian observer who was in Nevada on July 5, 1957 when a test bomb was exploded. This account forms part of a Department of National Defence briefing note that was prepared for then Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor in June,  2006. I received that briefing note through an Access to Information Request. The recommendations to O’Connor about proposed compensation were blacked out in my note but The Ottawa Citizen’s David Pugliese reported Friday that these veterans have been offered and are rejecting compensation of $24,000 per person.

Here’s Galloway, writing in 1957:

“I was with the observer group at 11,000 yards from Ground Zero. A US Marine Combat Group were in trenches 5,500 yards from Ground Zero. I understand that the Director General Military Training and the Commander of 4 Cdn Inf Bde were in the trenches with the Marines. The observer group to which I was attached took up their positions on the reverse slope of a small hill …. This group was precluded from looking at the fireball due to the fact that goggles were not available. We were cautioned to close our eyes, cover them with our hands, and to remain in that attitude until instructed over the wireless to view the mushroom … The well known mushroom shape of the cloud was observed about 30 seconds after the detonation …. It was estimated that this bomb was about 60 to 70 kiloton. An impressive adjunct to the explosion was the turbulence caused on the ground; huge dust clouds extending from [ground zero] to a radius of about five miles …. It was reported that the bomb was relatively clean and that the fallout equalled an estimated lgetime dose of 45/1000 of one roentgen … Following the detonation, the US Marines carried out a vertical envelopment exercise using helicopters. In effect this was merely the lifting of the Marines from their trenches by helicopters and the placing of them on their objectives. It had very little tactical connection with [ground zero] but did show that troops could be entrenched 5,500 yards from a 60 or 70 kiloton [explosion] and could in about two hours time be lifted out of their positions by helicopter.”

Fifty years and a few months after Galloway wrote those words, Canadian veterans from that era issued this release:

Ottawa – November 5th, 2007 – The Atomic Veterans Association is holding a press conference on Parliament Hill (Charles Lynch Room) on November 6, 2007, at 10:30 am.

«In the spring of 1957, we were the young Canadian soldiers sent to Nevada to serve as guinea pigs for the military in a nuclear test field. Trusting the Canadian Forces and our Government, we played war games less than 1,000 yards away from detonated test bombs four times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima. We were told «not to worry about radiation».

But most veterans fell victim to radiation, and children were born with birth defects. The men who died of cancers and other radiation related diseases left their wives without support.

In 1995, a few survivors founded the Atomic Veterans Association. We’ve been trying ever since to get recognition and compensation from the Canadian Government. We’ve been made several promises along the years. The last one was made by Minister Of National Defense Gordon O’Connor, who promised a resolution for us by May 2007. We’re still waiting.

Today, 50 years after being exposed to dangerous nuclear radiation, we are still fighting for justice and we want all Canadians to know what happened to us. …

Now, we also have no choice but to sue the Government. …