
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 9, 1994                   TAG: 9406090060
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post|
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

SOLDIERS MAY HAVE HAD ATOMIC TESTS

A secret "Atomic Medicine Division" of the Veterans Administration formed in 1947 may have been involved in exposing U.S. servicemen to radiation during the early post-World War II atomic bomb tests and assessing the effects, an administration task-force official told a veterans' group Wednesday.

Daniel Guttman, executive director of the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments, said the unit apparently operated separately from a previously disclosed VA medical-research section that used radioisotopes for treatment of patients with cancer.

Speaking at an annual meeting of the National Association of Atomic Veterans, Guttman said VA Secretary Jesse Brown uncovered the secret medical unit and reported its existence in testimony to the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs on Feb. 8.

The unit was set up shortly after Operation Crossroads- involving detonation of two atomic bombs at Bikini Atoll in 1946- in which thousands of U.S. servicemen were exposed to dangerous levels of radioactive material, Guttman said.

"What did this confidential unit do? Maybe nothing. Maybe it was disbanded shortly after it was formed. Or maybe it was involved in bomb tests. But we need to find out," said Guttman, whose committee had been criticized for investigating hospital radiation experiments on human beings and the intentional releases of radioactive materials by nuclear plants, but not the exposure of U.S. servicemen at bomb-test sites.

by CNB