LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — While Mercury, Nevada was home to atomic bomb testing that left a ripple effect of health complications for thousands of Americans, the testing done overseas along with post-testing cleanup efforts left over 6,000 American soldiers fighting to be seen by our own government.
James "Jim" Androl lives in Las Vegas. He is an atomic veteran, a solider, during the 70s he served with his battalion on the first ever cleanup and rehabilitation of a former nuclear test site.
"I was out there for 6 months 179 days," he said. "It was a battle we were fighting and we didn’t even know it and we didn’t even have anything to fight back with even if we would have. It was in the Marshall Islands. I was sent to Enowetak to do an atomic cleanup."
It's been 45 years and Androl lives in a loop reliving his past and hoping for a better future.
"I would not have worried about having children," he said. "I would have not put my wife through everything. I mean — the PTSD — that’s what did it."
Androl served with the U.S. Army's 84th engineer battalion.
"I was almost done with the military. I had a short timers calendar," he said. "I was stationed at Fort Bragg North Carolina in 1978. I only had 6 months and I believe 8 days left in the service."
Androl said he was sent over to provide communications for the cleanup of 67 nuclear weapons. 43 nuclear weapons were detonated on Enowetak because he was told fresh soil would be placed on the land.
"A year before the project was started the U.S. government dropped all this, spilled it all out on the island, and never bothered to bury it," he said. "They don’t allow anyone on those islands anymore because of the radioactivity."
From 1977 to 1980, over 6,000 American troops with the Army, Air Force and Navy served as part of the Marshall Island cleanup. It was a project first of its kind that aimed to clean up and rehabilitate the islands.
"We didn’t have any protective gear out there we couldn’t even get a face mask or ear plugs or anything," he said. "We didn’t even wear shirts, we had to wear them over our face because the dust was so bad and radioactive on top of it."
The effort coming on the heels of a lawsuit filed by the residents of Enowetak Atoll and Bikini Atoll. Both islands evacuated by the United States in 1946 to perform nuclear testing.
"I had 43 different illnesses I now have 42," he said. "When I met my wife, I told her you may not want to get involved with me and she said why? I said well I was on a nuclear project out in the pacific and I’m pretty sure I’d been exposed, which means no kids."
Jim and Beverly Androl got married December 5, 1981. He called it the best day of his life.
"Our firstborn was a real shock," said Jim's wife, Beverly. "He had a stroke in utero, and the chief pediatric neurologist said, 'Have any of you been exposed to radiation?'"
Their 42-year marriage blessed them with three kids.
"We both just looked at each other and said why? He said the only way this happens is if one of the parents is exposed to something," she said.
The PACT Act, short for Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022, is the largest health care and benefit expansion bill in VA history.
"An atomic veteran originally was only someone who participated in the actual blasts where they took the ships out, and they worked on the bombs and got them ready for Hiroshima and Nagasaki," Jim said.
The bill is designed to help veterans who have been exposed to toxic chemicals like radiation, specifically naming and expanding eligibility to atomic veterans who helped clean up in Enewetak.
"After that was the PACT Act, and they granted us the title of atomic veterans," he said.
Jim is only receiving a portion of his benefits, 70 percent to be exact. A week after Paulina's interview with Jim, he said his health continues to decline as doctors told him they found cysts on his kidney and liver.
