Uechi-Ryu.com

White Lightning

Bill,

I have a secret fear about cancer I wish to share with you.

During the early seventies, I slept in the torpedo room of an attack sub for up to a week or more at the time. As I slept, my back would be up against, and over, nuclear-tipped anti-submarine rockets, or ASROCs, for six to eight hours at the stretch. I would also lounge and read there when not working and when not in the mess hall with no place else to go in a crowded boat. When my front side was toward the rockets, and looking behind the canvas, I could see the white warheads with the red atomic inscriptions on them, one right there, such as the back of my head pressed against it while I slept.

When I think of those days, I occasionally think of, but not dwell upon, the likelihood of cancer caused by spurious radiation from those warheads and various other places in the boat I visited. This thought [or fear], alone, concerns me sometimes.


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Allen, Home: http://www.ury2k.com/pulse mirror: http://home.ici.net/~uechi/

Allen when I was in the military, I carried a radiation detector and was checked every so often. Heck, we didn't know why, had no idea what it was all about, didn't even know what radiation was let alone the danger. One possible cause of my cancer is over exposure to radiation. Of course if there WAS exposure, it was like over 40 yrs. ago. Who knows? Perhaps your fears are legit. I don't know of any way to get it checked out. Wish I could ease your mind. Sorry Buddy.
Bill

Hi Bill.

I don't think of it too often, except the Kursk and the Cole allowed me to drift down memory lane lately.

We wore radiation badges too, and I can remember rubbing it up against the warheads to see if I could effect a change. Seamen also came in with Geiger detectors on a regular basis and this "hot" area was "supposed" to be safe.

Then when I had my sailboats I used a 25# brick of lead from a spent nuclear reactor that I slid halfway down the rode when I was anchored-out in a storm. That was supposed to be safe too. Sea sometimes got phosphorescent at night -- wonder if that had anything to do with it (heh, heh, heh).

No way to check the radiation thing, but at least I don’t glow in the dark too often.

One never thinks about these things in his youth, but as one looks back he sometimes bounces his thoughts off the stupid things he has done during his youth and wonders how much of it has shortened his lifespan. By the time we figure we can stretch a few more years out of things it is usually too late.

I hope you are feeling ok, Bill. I would gladly trade you one day of my life for one of yours [only one] to give you some relief. I've got connections in high places, so pick your worst day, and we'll do it. In the meantime, I'd like to take a ride to the cape some Saturday or Sunday morning before the bad weather sets in and share a breakfast with you at a local restaurant.

Remember when shoe stores used xray machines to check if your shoes fit properly? I remember using it quite often before they were suddenly pulled.

How about those special decoder rings, you sent away for after finishing a couple boxes of cereal. One glowed in the dark. I remember holding it up to my eye, under the covers at night, revelling at the exploding light show! Of course, this was before television. . .

Wonder what our grandchildren will say about some of the things they did as children that will cause their cancers. . . things we do every day now. . . In blissful ignorance.

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GEM

Allen thanks for the trade offer but truthfully I have been feeling pretty good. After some rough times I am so grateful I am very reluctant to trade without knowing for sure what I am getting into. lol! Am glad you do not have a glow in the dark problem. We do not need a Christmas tree this year. After all the "stuff" they have given me, my family will just decorate me and stick me in the window. A boring job but saves me tree money. Give me a call anytime and we can have breakfast. In my day, the radiation detectors were little round things we carried around in our pocket. They probably didn't work anyway. Even now here on the Cape, we have the base and someone is always questioning the Pave Paws thing out there. It seems that cancer is an epidemic now, has to be related to our environment.
Bill

Oh my gosh George, you brought back some memories there. You must be talking about the Atomic Bomb Ring!! I remember that so well, I saved my pennies until I had the 75 cents and three box tops. All the guys wore them to school and you just weren't "in" unless you had one. It took a while but I finally got mine. They came out soon after the war and the atomic bomb became famous. Never gave any thought to the shoe machines but I suppose you are right, they were like Xrays. Remember we thought they were great at the time. No one knows how long small amounts of radiation exposure hangs in there. We are all exposed to it every day.
Bill

Bill,

My worst days are a treat compared to your worst days. My pain is doable [usually]. When the time comes...

Cancer is everywhere. You bet it is, Bill. Why in Punta Arenas, Chile, with a population of 120,000, you get a sunburn in 7 minutes. That's right, 7 minutes!

The ozone layer there is DEPLETED, allowing UV rays which cause cancer to penetrate the atmosphere. Livestock and fish are being damaged enough by UV penetration through the hole in the ozone across Chili to affect the local economy. UV unravels the DNA in plankton, which affects the fish populations [no food, no fish -- then -- no fish, no food].

On the Cape here, the towns abutting Otis AFB have the highest cancer rate of anywhere in the state. Those stats really make me feel good, my kids were raised here.
Bill

Pretty soon, George, they will discover birth control pills cause breast cancer then we will have a breathless society.

Blame it on Radon. Must be Radon.

Too many places in this country are contaminated with a lot of different things.

Only place left to go is head up to the North Country.

Thanks a lot! I lived in Punta Arenas for a year and that's where I got the worst sunburn of my life - blisters from neck to toe - backs of my knees swollen bigger than a canteloupe I swear. Misery for over a week.

Add that to a housing development near here that has the highest concentration of Hodgkins in the state - turns out some reports state that the military base near by used the area as a dump for fuels etc. - then it became a landfill - then a housing development! Nice eh?

In college a friend dragged me to a couple SEA meetings (students for environmental awareness) and the propoganda/facts they handed out were a bit scary - like legislation to raise the allowable amount of radiation in nuclear waste - the recycled materials are used in low cost cooking-ware, utensils, household appliances, school supplies etc. They still maintain their radioactivity even though they have been recycled from what they say. Also this same legislation allows construction over sites containing nuclear waste - as long as the levels reach the new limit - which is like hundreds of times higher than it used to be.

We are a virus on the planet. After we consume and poison everything around us we'll consume/destroy ourselves.

You're welcome.

What was that neat little exponential function in Calculus, Lori, that after a certain population density the bacteria population destroyed itself? I wonder just how close we are to that one kicking over for the human race.