Operation Hardtack-HistoryDeHaven's specific participation in the operation. Between 1945 and 1962. the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) conducted 235 atmospheric nuclear weapon tests at sites in the United States and in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. In all, about 220.000 Department of Defense (DOD) participants. both military and civilian, were present at the tests. Of these. approximately 142.000 participated in the Pacific test series and approximately another 4.000 in the single Atlantic test series. In 1977. 15 years after the last above ground nuclear weapon test, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services noted more leukemia cases than would normally be expected among about 3.200 soldiers who had been present at shot SMOKY, a test of the 1957 PLUMBBOB series. Since that initial report by the CDC, the Veterans Administration (VA) has received a number of claims for medical benefits from former military personnel who believe their health may have been affected by their participation in the weapon testing program. In late 1977, the DOD began a study that provided data to both the CDC and the VA on potential exposures to ionizing radiation among the military and civilian personnel who participated in the atmospheric testing 15 to 32 years earlier. In early 1978, the DOD also Organized a Nuclear Test Personnel Review (NTPR) to:
This report on Operation HARDTACK Phase I is one of many volumes that are the product of the NTPR. The DOD Defense Nuclear Agency (DNA), whose Director is the executive agent of the NTPR program, prepared the reports, which are based on military and technical documents reporting various aspects of each of the tests. Reports of the NTPR provide a public record of the activities and associated radiation exposures of DOD personnel for interested former participants and for use in public health research and Federal policy studies. Information from which this report was compiled was primarily extracted from planning and after—action reports of Joint Task Force 7 (JTF 7) and its subordinate organizations. Documents that accurately placed personnel at the test sites were desired so that their degree of exposure to the ionizing radiation resulting from the tests could be assessed. The search for this information was undertaken in archives and libraries of the Federal Government. in Special collections supported by the Federal Government. and, where reason— able, by discussion or review with participants. For HARDTACK. the most important archival source is the Washington National Records Center (WNRC) in Suitland, Maryland. The Naval Archives at the Washington Navy Yard also were helpful, as was the collection of documents assembled by the Air Force Weapons Laboratory (AFWL) Historian, the collection now being housed in the AFWL Technical Library at Kirtland Air Force Base, Albuquerque. New Mexico. Other archives searched were the Department of Energy (DOE) archives at Germantown, Maryland, its Nevada Operations Office (DOE/NV) archives at Las Vegas, and archives of the Test Division of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. JTF 7 exposure records were retrieved from the WNRC, and an additional file of exposure-related documents that had been microfilmed by the Reynolds Electrical and Engineering Company. Inc., support contractor for DOE/NV was also useful. Primary documentation of personnel movement in areas of potential radiation exposure is sparse. This has been compensated for, where possible, with inferences drawn from secondary sources and the exposure records themselves. The work was performed under RDT&E RMSS B350079464 U99 QMXMK 506—09 H2590D for the Defense Nuclear Agency by personnel from Kaman Tempo and R.F. Cross Associates as subcontractor. Guidance was provided by Mr. Kenneth W. Kaye of the Defense Nuclear Agency Biomedical Effects Directorate.
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