Faith, family and the bomb

“Scorched wool” was how Marine Corps veteran Leroy Supak recalls a herd of sheep that had the misfortune of grazing near an atomic blast detonated at Yucca Flat, Nevada, on April 18, 1953. Unfortunately, Supak and 221 other Marines weren’t much further away from the cloud of radiation.

“The sheep were about 3,000 yards from ground zero. They were all dead except for one. We were about 4,000 yards away in a trench,” Supak said. “I was told there was no way we could survive being that close to the blast, but we did. I was OK but I think my family paid a price.”

Now 87, Supak has seen the ravages that cancer has had on his wife and daughter since he participated in the test exercise Upshot Badger 62 years ago.

“We stayed in the same clothes that we wore during the test. I took those clothes home and mama washed the clothes,” he said, referring to his wife, Annie, who was pregnant at the time. Supak continued to wear the same field jacket for years after it was exposed.

Both Annie, and the daughter in the womb, Lorrie Gander, survive today after multiple bouts of breast cancer. An older daughter, Margie, also had breast cancer. Annie strongly believes that a tumor that Leroy had in the 1960s was also cancerous.

“All of the cancers that have been in this family, I think that the radiation had a big effect on us,” Annie said. “They didn’t really talk about it back then. When you’re in the service, you have to do what they tell you to do. Leroy had breast cancer. Margie had breast cancer. Lorrie had it twice, and I had it. The Atomic Energy Commission sent Leroy a letter years ago saying he was eligible for benefits, but we had our minds more on our family and never did anything about it.”

It is a situation that The American Legion is trying to rectify. During a recent visit to the Supak family farm in El Campo, Texas, Steve Henry, an assistant director from the Legion's Veterans Affairs & Rehabilitation Division, started the benefit application process for Supak.

“He is qualified for health care benefits based on the fact that he was exposed to radiation through atomic testing,” Henry explained to Leroy and his family. “He served his country. He applied for those benefits, and I will do everything I can to see that he gets those benefits.”

Lorrie said that when she was “diagnosed with cancer in 2004, it was very aggressive and we treated it with six rounds of chemotherapy and radiation. The doctor told me that it was a very weird form or type of cancer. It returned in 2011.”

In 1994, Supak’s son tried to track down the Marines of Easy Company who participated in Upshot Badger. Of the 221 Marines, only 32 were still alive. “There was one young boy from Indiana who had a blood disease and wanted to know if I knew anybody that was still living. That’s when we started looking,” Supak said. “What bothers me is what happened to my family. They did not just use me. They used my whole family. Deadly radiation is not something that is found in the genes.”

Thousands of veterans are believed to have been exposed to harmful radiation during the above-ground nuclear testing that was common in U.S. deserts between 1945 and 1962. Other “atomic veterans” earned their designations while serving in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan following World War II.

The atomic test at Yucca remains permanently etched in Supak’s memory. “It was 4:35 a.m. but everything was so bright. They told us to close our eyes, but I cracked them open a bit. I could see the bones through my hands. To my left was everything that the bomb destroyed and to my right everything was still green. There was a 32-ton tank that was halfway buried in the desert.”

Supak, who before becoming a Marine served in the 25th Army Division during World War II, remains proud of his military service. After being discharged from the Marines in 1954 he raised seven children while working mostly as a farmer. He belongs to American Legion Post 251 in El Campo. “I served my country, and I served for freedom. That is something I will always be proud of. I believe that my Lord Jesus Christ has taken care of me.”