PREFACE
Field Command,

Defense

Nuclear

Agency

has

prepared

this

documentary to provide the general reader a narrative history of the

radiological cleanup of Enewetuk Atoll and to provide the interested

researcher a description of the procedures used to support and accomplish
the radiological cleanup. It is intended to present a balanced. objective
review of the mistakes made and lessons learned. as well as the many
successes achieved during the project. Much of the knowledge and
experience gained during the project would be applicable to any military
operation in the harsh environment ofa tropical atoll. and the radiological
cleanup experience represents an invaluable national asset in the Atomic
Age. It is the aim of this documentary to record that experience while it is
readily available. To complete the description of the United States effort to
restore the atoll, the last chapter includes an account of the Rehabilitation
Program which was conducted by the Department of the Interior
concurrently with the cleanup project.
This report was compiled from historical documents stored in the
. Enewetak Radiological Cleanup repository at the Defense Nuclear
Agency’s Field Command in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The
bibliographical notes, which are identified by superscripts within the text,
are intended to provide future researchers with a guide to documents
containing additional data regarding subject matter of the text as well as
sources for the text itself.
The compilers have endeavored to arrange events by topics and
operational categories as well as in chronological order. As a result, there is
some overlapping of chronology between the chapters and sections. To
facilitate continuity for the general reader. brief summary paragraphs have
been included where appropriate, with the hope that the researcher will
overlook these occasional redundancies.

In the use of names, the preference of the group being named has been

followed. In Marshallese, the prefix ‘‘dri-’’ means ‘*people of."* Thus,
‘*dri-Enewetak’’ means the people of Enewetak [sland in particular. as well
as the people of Enewetak Atoll as a whole. The people of Enjebi Island
refer to themselvesas ‘‘dri-Enjebi™’ in distinguishing themselves from the
other people of the atoll, but as ‘‘dri-Enewetak’’ when referring to all the
people of theatoll.
In referring to the operational element of the Defense Nuclear Agency

(DNA), the term ‘‘Field Command’ is commonly used for **Field

Command, Defense Nuclear Agency’’ in actual practice and in this

documentary. During the period covered by this report, the organization
originally known as the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) has been
reorganized and renamed twice. On | January 1975, it became the Energy

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