As we approachedcloser to the shore natives began to gather on the beach, and in
the center of the long narrow island, the metallic roofs of huts used for dwellings and a
few larger huts of the village school, dispensary, council house and church could be
made out. After the fallout episode, when
the radioactivity on the island had greatly
diminished, all the native huts were burned
and in their place the AEC provided each
family with an individual hut made of wood,
elevated about 4 feet from the ground and
having a corrugated tin roof. From the roof,
gutters led to drain pipes which in turn
emptied into cementcisterns, built as part of
the new accommodations. Since there are
no springs, wells or streams, collection of
rain is the only available source of water on
the atolls. The larger village buildings also
had this arrangement and the water so collected was used for communal washing, the
women sitting around in a circle, chatting
and washing out garments. The huts were
devoid of furnishings except for a few mats
and boxes containing household utensils.
Cooking was done over an openfire in the
yard, and children and adults gathered under
the huts, sleeping there on mats made up of
woven palm leaves..
The Ron Annim anchored about 500 yards
off shore and since there was no wharf or
dock, all the supplies and equipment had to
be brought ashore in a small open launch
and two small boats powered by out-board
motors. The ship winch swung the heavy
items such as the deep freezes and refrigerators, over to the launch in a cargo net. Also
unloaded in this manner were the huge roll
of canvas for the tent, along with lumber and
cement blocks, laboratory equipment including a Coulter Counter, microscopes,
centrifuges and all the paraphernalia needed
for living, eating and working on theisjJand.
Unloading the ship and carrying the supplies and equipment to the campingsite and
to the huts in the village took nearly all day
30
we
atten
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012
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son of the District Commissioner, Skippy
Coleman, on vacation from college in New
Zealand. He came along as mess boy and
general helper and proved to be an un-
usually interesting and intelligent young
man.
STAFF
The working area consisted of several
large huts in the village. The Council House
was cleared of benches and utilized as the
administrative headquarters, x-ray
depart-
ment and for certain laboratory tests. The
day following our arrival, Dr. Watrou Su-
tow, a pediatrician from the M.D. Anderson Hospital in Houston, was flown in by
the Navy. The plane landed in the lagoon,
taxied to its mooring and Wat came ashore
with his luggage in the small rubber boat.
Dr. Sutow was an old and very goodfriend.
He had been in Hiroshima working with the
Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission during
the two years I spent there, and I knew
him and his family very well. Wat had been
out on several prior surveys and since he
was an expert on child growth and development as well as an excellent all-around
pediatrician, he was a great addition to the
team. The pediatric and adult examinations
were carried out in a large hut used as the
school house. Interviews and histories were
taken in the front part of the building and
the rear and middle-third of the hut were
Tufts Medical Alumni Bulletin
On
RONGELAP
and everyone pitched in and worked like
stevedores. Meanwhile, carpenters flown in
from Kwajalein built a floor and erected the
frame for our tent putting the canvas over
it, no slight job. There were ten camp cots
with mattresses and the tent was pitched in
a small grove of palm trees overlooking the
sandy beach of the lagoon. Nearby large,
empty hut rented from the Marshallese,
served as a joint cookhouse, dining hall
and ward room. The Marshallese practitioners slept in the dispensary and school hut;
we all ate together in the mess hut. Fortunately on Majuro, Bob Conard had been
able to hire an excellent English-speaking
cook. Salvadore was a tremendous addition to the party and kept us well fed. We
were lucky also in acquiring another very
useful member for the trip, the 17-year-old
‘To. SIRARCEEeeteDU,
waters of the lagoon the long curving white
shore line of Rongelap Island with the waving palm trees made a pretty picture.
Sa tia
and as we proceeded through the calm blue