Palm Desert veteran witnessed atomic bomb tests in Navy

When Allan Nyman graduated from high school in 1952, the Korean War was raging. His mother, with incredible foresight, suggested that he attend a college where he could come out with a professional degree in four years.

Nyman decided to attend pharmacy school and after graduating in 1956, the 22-year-old was set to embark on his career. But the Vietnam War interrupted the start of the fledgling pharmacist's professional life when he was drafted into the U.S. Army.

"I went to an Army physical and they told me to come back in 30 days. I guess I had an infection," the 80-year-old Palm Desert resident said.

The delay worked in Nyman's favor. He immediately contacted the Navy.

"They said, 'You graduated college, we'll give you a test — if you pass, we'll send you to Newport (R.I.) to officers candidate school and, in four months, you'll become a Naval officer' — and that's what happened," Nyman said.

Nyman started on his path to becoming an officer in March 1957.

"It's the most comprehensive study," program, he said. "They wanted to teach you what Annapolis (U.S. Naval Academy students) learned in four years. Navigation, gunnery, engineering — very, very concentrated courses. We were all college graduates."

After Nyman was commissioned as an ensign in June 1957, he was asked where he'd like to serve and he chose San Diego.

"They said, who do you want to work for," I said I'd like to work for ServPac — Service Pacific. They cut me orders and sent me to the USS Hooper Island (ARG-17), a repair ship."

The old World War II-era Liberty ship was ported in San Diego, where Nyman served onboard as communications officer and, later, as ship's navigator.

"In March 1958, the captain called me in. ... They said they were going to take the Hooper Island to the Marshall Islands and I said, 'That's where they're doing the atomic testing.'

"I asked, 'Is that voluntary?' They said no. I said, 'Can I get hazardous duty pay?' They said no. So we sailed sometime in March."

The USS Hooper's first stop on its journey to the atomic testing site was Hawaii.

"As you sail into Pearl (Harbor), you go by the (USS) Arizona, you have your dress uniforms on, you stand at port, you pass the Arizona, they blow the whistle and they say hand salute. And you salute the Arizona — and you get chills."

Soon, the ship set sail for the Marshalls.

"We picked up an icebreaker and the icebreaker had three destroyers pulling test equipment that was going to be blown up when we were through with it. We started a 20-day journey across the Pacific because we could not go much faster than 10 knots because of the icebreaker."

Nyman served as navigator and communications officer — one of his jobs was cryptography — aboard the ship, which carried about 400 men.

He navigated by sextant — using the sun and the stars to determine the ship's location.

"There was no GPS then," he said, laughing.

The ship was bound for Eniwetok Atoll, the northwest outpost of the Marshall Islands, about 2,400 nautical miles west of Honolulu and about the same distance southeast of Tokyo.

Consisting of 38 islets strung on a circular coral reef 30 miles in diameter, the total land area is about 2.5 square miles. Eniwetok, along with Bikini Atoll, another tiny island in the Marshall chain, was the site of the atomic testing.

"As we came into Eniwetok, we slowed down — we had to put divers into the water over the side of the ship," he said.

The divers helped maneuver the Hooper Island around destroyed ships and other military detritus from World War that II scattered on the bottom of the sea.

The ship arrived on April 19 and, like everyone else in the testing area, Nyman was given a badge to wear that would measure his radiation exposure.

"The first experience I had with an atomic bomb — they shot one off at Bikini, off a barge at night," Nyman said. "Night turned into day for 45 minutes. Unbelievable, the power."

The ship was far enough away that Nyman and his shipmates didn't feel anything — at that time, at least.

"Then shortly thereafter, the next test — which was interesting — they gave us the goggles, and we could look at it, but the heat was so intense, you turned your back.

Nyman said he was present for about 17 out of the 35 tests — the test series was dubbed Operation Hardtack I — performed in the Pacific.

"I saw an island disappear — an atoll covered with water, until the water subsided," he said. "One shot was probably within a mile or two from the ship and the whole ship just shook unbelievably."

Nuclear weapons were tested in three ways — most were shot from barges, exploding on the surface, some were detonated underwater and a couple blasts were fired from high altitude.

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Life on the ship was uncomfortable, as it was hot and humid, and the meals were marginal at best.

"We had to get food from the refer ship, which was a big refrigerator ship," he said. "We'd get a plate of food and, many times, you'd look at the plate and right around the edges were roaches. So what you did is this," he said turning an imaginary plate clockwise and flicking his fingers off the edges.

As for the bread: You took the butter knife and went like this to get the weevils off, he said, demonstrating a scraping motion. Then you'd slap butter on it.

The ship was able to make water, but not enough for showers, so you had a choice — you could take a shower with ocean water — or not. I chose not to take many showers, because as far as I was concerned, there was radioactivity in the water.

During his time at the Eniwetok Proving Grounds, Nyman was loaned out to the destroyer USS Orleck (DD-886), where he served as one of the watch officers as the ship traveled in a small area for three weeks using sonar as a security precaution in case there were Russian submarines in the area.

While the U.S. and other countries were aware of the atomic blasting going on in the Pacific, the details, including how long the tests were ongoing, were not immediately made public.

A United Press International story, printed in The Desert Sun on June 3, 1958, alluded to this very fact:

"There were indications today that the underwater phase of the 1958 nuclear tests at Eniwetok has been completed with three detonations — and a lull in activity at the Marshall Island testing grounds was anticipated," according to the story.

"It was also apparent the Atomic Energy Commission in Washington had taken steps to dry up unofficial sources of fairly accurate information concerning the tests which had been available for several weeks in Hawaii."

According to information released by the Defense Nuclear Agency public affairs office in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 5, 1982, this series of nuclear weapons tests — each test was named after a tree or plant, i.e., Yucca, Fir, Maple, Cactus — took place from April 28 to Aug. 18, 1958.

Nyman was in the testing area from April 19 to June 23, 1958.

The unpleasantness of witnessing weapons blasts capable of wiping out huge chunks of the human race, was eased, somewhat, soon after returning to civilization.

"When I left the Marshalls and we came back — which was July 4, when we pulled back into Pearl — that's when I met Roberta."

His wife-to-be had just graduated from UCLA and was set to begin teaching in September, but before she launched her teaching career, she and a couple of friends decided to enroll in the University of Hawaii for six weeks.

"You could stay at a hotel right on the beach, then take one class," Roberta said. "Someone fixed me up with an attorney who lived in Hawaii — he invited me out to dinner and it was Fourth of July."

The head of the attorney's law firm was the president of the local temple.

"So he said, 'Oh, we have to go to services — would you go to services with me first, then we'll go out to dinner?' So, I said yes."

Her girlfriend and another group of women — schoolteachers who had come together to Hawaii for their break — decided to go to temple to check everything out and make sure Roberta was OK.

"So we got into Pearl, and I would say I was depressed ... and out of the shadows walks a friend of mine who was commissioned when I was, from Philly, and he came on the ship and he said, 'Let's go look for girls.' I said 'Well, I have to tell you Ed, after what I've been through — I'm not religious, but I've got to go to temple, then we'll look for girls.' So I went to temple and somebody dragged Roberta over to meet us. We were in uniform, Eddie and I, and we said 'Get rid of your dates, we'll meet you back at the hotel.'

"I said, 'No,' and the next day, they came to the hotel," Roberta said. "They both wanted to really go out with my girlfriend. I was like a beanpole and they tossed a coin and Allan lost. But that's what happened.

"Allan took me out a couple of times, for ice cream, it was very innocent — it was a different time. They took us to the officer's club for dinner. Then his ship left and he wrote me and when I got back to Sherman Oaks, Allan called and he asked if he could come visit and my parents said he could come, but he has to stay at the house. That was in August, and he came up, and we got married in February 1959."

Allan, who went on earn his master's degree with the GI bill, resigned his commission in the reserves during the escalation of the Vietnam War.

As the years passed, Nyman attempted to obtain more information about his exposure to radiation during the nuclear testing.

In August 1982, he received a response from the Department of the Navy explaining that a major research effort had been undertaken — the Nuclear Test Personnel Review — reviewing radiation exposure of those in the area during the testing.

"An important finding to date is that radiation exposure to the participants was generally quite low," the report said. "The average exposure was less than half a rem (A rem is a unit of biological dose of radiation which takes into account the effect on body tissue)."

According to Nyman's records, his total recorded exposure was .391 rem gamma.

So far, no illnesses that Nyman is aware of have been associated to this exposure.

After the war, Nyman began working as a pharmacist in the Los Angeles area before moving out to the desert in 1985, where he purchased Ed Mullins' Palm Desert Pharmacy.

He was co-owner (while he still lived in the San Fernando Valley) of Ramon Pharmacy from 1969 to 1972. He owned the business again from 1994 to 1998.

Allan and Roberta, who are active in the local community, were honored in December with the Love of Israel Award during a Jewish National Fund dinner, and the couple are past recipients of the Anti-Defamation League's Desert Community Humanitarian Award.

They both serve on the board of the Jewish Federation of the Desert — Roberta is immediate past president — and Allan serves as vice president on the board of the Tolerance Education Center.

Denise Goolsby is The Desert Sun's columnist for history and profiles. She can be reached at Denise.Goolsby@DesertSun.com and on Twitter @DeniseGoolsby

Allan Nyman

Age: 80

Born: Sept. 27, 1934

Hometown: Malden, Mass.

Residence: Palm Desert

Branch of service: U.S. Navy; USS Hooper Island

Years served: March 1957-July 1960

Rank: Lieutenant

Family: Wife Roberta; three children, Leslie Kurtz of Calabasas, Michael Nyman of Brentwood and Mark Nyman of Orinda; six grandchildren