LEBANON - Navy veteran Fred Schafer of Lebanon spends a lot of time these days trying to locate and then counsel members of the Armed Forces who were exposed to radiation during their military service.

Their exposure to ionizing radiation has resulted in a myriad of health problems for many of them, he said. Schafer and others are pushing the government to publicly acknowledge its role in exposing service members to radiation and to accept responsibility for their health care.

"We feel it's time we got some benefits," said Schafer, 63, a former fireman on ships that refueled destroyers and cruisers near Christmas Island, south of Hawaii.

Schafer said he was on board ships that circled the area when bomb tests were conducted.

"During all of those atomic explosions, we experienced fallout," he said. "They would give us dark glasses to wear, and we wouldn't be able to see our hands in front of our faces. But when a bomb went off it was like a giant X-ray of the man in front of us. We could see right through him."

Schafer maintains that his rheumatoid arthritis can be traced to those days on his ship when he was exposed to radioactivity.

"The government made us guinea pig participants in those tests, but then they never ordered any follow-up testing to see what effect the tests had on us," he said. "The government didn't want to admit that the testing had any effect on service people because then they would have to pay out health care benefits."

It is just now that the government is beginning to acknowledge what it has done, Schafer said. Things are starting to happen.

The 73rd Oregon Legislative Assembly passed a resolution designating July 16 of every year as Atomic Veterans Day.

"If it were not for the Internet, this group wouldn't be as strong as it is," he said. "Every time an article like this appears, I get between five and 10 calls from people who didn't know we existed."

According to the National Association of Atomic Veterans Web site, about a million service members were first-hand participants in atomic weapons detonations from the Trinity Blast of July 16, 1945, at Alamogordo, N.M., to the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963.

The Web site notes that troops, ships and various types of equipment were placed from several hundred yards to several miles from the center of each detonation to register the effect on people and machinery.

- BY CATHY INGALLS

ALBANY DEMOCRAT-HERALD