e

information, ANTPR researchers must scrutinize individual unit morning reports
and secondary sources to verify claimants’ participation in the nuclear tests.
2.4

AIR FORCE NTPR EFFORTS.
The Air Force NIPR (AFNTPR) team is responsible for about 25,000

participants, which is approximately 12 percent of the total number of U.S.
nuclear test participants.

It was tasked with assembling participant and dose

information for its personnel in those series postdating 1947, when the Air

Force was eStablished as a separate military service.

The Army Air Force

personnel who took part in the two preceding operations, TRINITY (1945) and
CROSSROADS (1946), are the responsibility of the ANTPR.

The exception

involves Army Air Force participants who later entered the Air Force and took
part in subsequent nuclear test series.

DNA assigned responsibility to AFNTPR

for compiling Army and Air Force records on these personnel in response to
claims filed with the Veterans Administration (13).
2.4.1

Resources.

The AFNTPR Team Chief, part of the Air Force Surgeon General’s office,
oversees the effort, which is conducted at the Air Force Occupational and
Environmental Health Laboratory (OEHL), Brooks Air Force Base (AFB).

OEHL has

a radiation services division and is a logical organization for involvement.
AFNTPR was officially established in March 1979.

During 1978, when a

basis was being laid for the AFNTPR, Lieutenant Colonel George S. Kush, USAF,
attended NTPR meetings.

The first AFNTPR Team Chief was Colonel Paul F..

Fallon, who held the position from March 1979 to February 1984.
is Colonel William D. Gibbons, February 1984 to the present.

Project Officers have managed the AFNTPR office at OEHL:

His successor

The following

Captain John L.

Ricci, September 1978 to September 1979; Captain Robert J. Berger, September
1979 to May 1981; Captain David S. Pitts, May 1981 to June 1985; Mr. John A.
Herman, June 1985 to January 1986; and Mr. William D. Holland, January 1986 to
present.
As of 1 May 1986,

“
the Team Chiefs and Project Officers had overseen a

total AFNTPR expenditure of 175 person years and $3,924,000 (14).

38

The numbers

Select target paragraph3