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"ATOMIC VETERAN" RECOUNTS BOMB TESTS -- "I wish I

was making this up because, when I talk about it, people think

I have a vivid imagination. Unfortunately, it really happened."

Joe Cohen participated in Operation Teapot in Nevada in 1955, when the government dropped atomic bombs to study their effect. (photo: Matthew Brown / The Journal News)

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'Atomic veteran' recounts bomb testings

Richard Liebson
The Journal News

HASTINGS-ON-HUDSON - They gave him goggles and told him not to look directly at the flash.

Five decades later, Joe Cohen let out a rueful chuckle as he recalled his role in secret atomic-bomb tests held in the Nevada desert in 1955.

"I wish I was making this up because, when I talk about it, people think I have a vivid imagination," the retired 74-year-old transportation executive said. "Unfortunately, it really happened.''

Cohen was an Army private when his ordnance company crouched at the bottom of a trench at Camp Desert Rock on Feb. 18, 1955, while a B-36 Peacemaker plane dropped a 1,500-pound atomic bomb nearby in the first of of a series of 15 atomic blasts conducted that year to study their affect on military equipment and operations.

The Hastings resident, who drove trucks and heavy equipment in the Army, said his captain "volunteered us" for the tests, known as Operation Teapot.

"We thought it was a big joke,'' Cohen said. "They told us it would be perfectly safe, and we believed them. After all, none of us thought our government would put us in harm's way. What did I know? I was just a dumb, 20-year-old kid. I did what I was told.''

It didn't seem as funny that day, when his unit was marched to the test site after chow, wearing regular fatigues, boots and helmets, and handed their goggles.

"They kept telling us not to worry, that it was perfectly safe," Cohen said. "We noticed a lot of guys wearing white protective suits and carrying Geiger counters. They looked like Martians. We got into these 20-foot-long, 6-foot-wide trenches that were about 5 feet deep. By that time, we were scared. We crouched as low as we could get, and I remember that when they began the countdown, I started digging in the dirt as hard as I could, trying to get lower.''

When the blast came, "it lit up the sky like it was daytime," Cohen said. "There was this ridiculously loud explosion that made your chest vibrate, and we felt this long, hot wind. Rocks and debris showered down on us. Then the wind stopped, and there was a really quiet calm, with no sound at all, except for us breathing. I looked up and I could see the huge mushroom cloud starting to settle back down to the ground.''

Because the test was conducted to study how atomic blasts would affect operations, the Army placed tanks, jeeps, halftracks and other equipment in the drop zone. When the cloud subsided, Cohen and his comrades were ordered to move forward, toward ground zero.

"We were walking forward slowly with our M1 rifles, as if we were attacking a position,'' he recalled. "It was really dusty, but I didn't have trouble breathing or anything like that. We saw the tanks and howitzers all burnt up. There was a pillbox with dummies inside, all blown to hell. Everything was black, and even the tanks and big guns were melted. I couldn't believe it. I'd never seen anything like it in my life. As we got closer to where the bomb fell, we saw this huge, black crater."

When they got about 100 yards from the crater, "they turned us around and marched us to a shower point that had been set up in the rear,'' Cohen said. "The Martian guys came over and aimed their Geiger counters at us. They were going beep-beep-beep-beep really fast, but they told us not to worry; it was perfectly normal. Lovely. Then we all took showers. They burned our uniforms, gave us new ones and marched us back to the main part of the base.''

A few months later, Cohen witnessed another blast.

"It was pretty much the same routine,'' he said. "Nothing changed. They made it really clear to us that we were not to tell anyone what we had seen or done. It was all classified, and we would get in big trouble if we talked about it.''

Only his wife, Judith, whom he married in the Bronx in 1960, knew that Cohen was an "atomic veteran.'' When Operation Teapot was declassified in the 1980s, he said, "I told everybody, and they didn't believe me. They didn't believe that our country would use us as guinea pigs like that. It made me angry. I'd kept in touch with some of the guys, and they were traumatized. We were having nightmares about it, and getting sick."

In 1996, Cohen was found to have hairy cell leukemia, which his doctor said was because of exposure to radiation.

"I told him I was an atomic veteran, and he couldn't believe it," Cohen said. "I was treated with chemotherapy and I've been in remission since 1997. I have to get checked every two or three months. So far, so good, but it can change on a dime.''

Cohen still has headaches, bouts of fatigue and trouble sleeping. He's losing hearing in one ear, he said, as a result of his cancer treatment. Through his membership in the National Association of Atomic Veterans, made up of participants in U.S. atomic and nuclear tests between 1945 and 1962, Cohen has learned that many of his comrades have had trouble convincing the Department of Veterans Affairs that their illnesses were caused by radiation exposure. A 2006 study by University of Illinois professor Melinda F. Podgor found that 90 percent of disability claims by atomic veterans have been denied by the VA.

Cohen filed a claim with the VA 10 years ago, and was found to be 30 percent disabled. He received monthly checks of $310 until 2003, when the VA informed him that, because his health had improved, he was no longer eligible for the disability pension. Cohen, who believes he should have received 100 percent disability, appealed in 2004 and has been waiting for his case to be heard ever since.

"They're giving me the red-tape runaround,'' he said. "There are more than 200 pages in my claim folder. That's absurd. I'm only one person. It's our government's obligation to take care of any medical problems we have because of atomic tests. I want people to know about what happened to atomic veterans, and all the problems we're having with the VA."

Calls to Veterans Affairs were not returned.

Cohen said Reps. Nita Lowey, D-Harrison, and John Hall, D-Dover Plains, have been helping him battle the VA, as has Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY.

Schumer's office called last week to let Cohen know that his VA appeal was finally going to be heard by a judge.

"Mr. Cohen deserves to have his case heard again, and I am glad that we could help in moving this forward," Schumer said in a statement. "Mr. Cohen was a dedicated soldier who served our country with honor, and I will continue to help him in any way I can."

"That's the best news I've gotten in four years,'' Cohen said of the hearing. "I can't say that I've won, but I'm very hopeful.''

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