Chairman Hall, Ranking Member Lamborn and distinguished members of the committee.  My name is John E. Olsen and I live in Billings, Montana.  I am a former ETN-2 (64-65) and I write to describe my experiences within the “Project SHAD Technical Staff” (PSTS).

I entered the US Navy in 196I after three years at Montana State University, including Advanced Army ROTC.  After boot camp, I was assigned to ET ‘A’ school for preparation as an Electronic Technician and assignment to the fleet. In 1964 I received orders to Project SHAD Technical Staff on board the USS Granville S. Hall for LT 2085.  In normal transfers an enlisted person goes to the receiving station on the coast involved.  In my case that should have been “RECSTA Treasure Island” in San Francisco bay.  Instead, my orders were to the “Presidio” in San Francisco.  A suite in a fancy barracks, and I did not see anyone else in the building while I was there.  A few days here, then transported to Treasure Island and immediately bussed to the airbase to catch a MATS flight to Pearl Harbor.  The morning after arrival I was picked up by car and driven to a warehouse and told to go to an office in the back and up one flight.  There I was met by a Chief Petty Officer and a Lt(jg), who I later learned was the Personnel Officer for PSTS.  Our conversation hinged on the concept of war; whether the old style of breaking things and killing people or would we rather just take over an ill populace.  I was told that “President Kennedy had personally believed this and he had chosen us to carry this concept into working order.  We were the best at our primary jobs, could handle very well other jobs on board a ship, and we could pass the security clearance factor.”  Well, when our president wanted me for special work, who was I to say no!  Of course I accepted the challenge.  When the 2085 was tied up and the civilian crew had left, those of us already in Pearl went to the boat and met our skipper and chief engineer.  Our skipper was a full Lieutenant and the Chief Engineer was a senior E-6 Engineman about twice my age.  All this for a small boat, 107 feet in length and mostly black in color.  (Army colors)  It needs grey, but first we find out that we do not wear our Navy uniforms.  Then we gather on the Granville S. Hall for a security briefing that informed us that we would not leave the base without an undercover escort, one of which we may,  or may not, figure out but there would be someone else also covering us.  We went out on shakedown cruises, training on seamanship, and for our job in research.  Then we had firefighting training.  We were brought as a crew into a ‘classroom’ setting and trained on the exposure suits and gas masks.  This part of the training was filmed by an Army photo unit.  Then to the G. S. Hall for shots, something special as we were only told the basics when we got them.  Then decontamination of the interior of the vessel using challengers filled with betaPropilactone and formalin.  I turned them on and left the area, closing the hatch behind me.  After the challengers were empty they shut down and we opened the 85 and went back to our home. No one told us it was safe to re-enter the boat.  We still had liquid running down the bulkheads in most of the vessel.  We had sealed only the refrigerator and opened the rest of the interior to assure there were no bugs still on board.  Now on to Emergency Ship handling school where an E-4 (me), an E-6 (one of our cooks), and three officers off a submarine, a Lt Cmdr and two Lt (jg)’s made up the class taught by a Commander. 

We had five LT’s and six crews, we were trained for our job, but there was a President who had not been elected, but had assumed the position after the death of our beloved JFK.  Volunteers were requested to keep one crew in Pearl and transfer the balance back to the fleet.  I elected to stay with the unit as I had earned advancement to E-5.  During the down time we put in electronic spares on each boat, cared for the vessels, and a few excursions.  One was the time a Russian Trawler had need of spare parts only available in the port of Honolulu.  Well, on that day, while a Geodesic Survey ship and other ‘proper’ ships of the line were in the harbor, we were out with one of the LT’s equipped to spray agent, practicing our man overboard procedures.  Grey harbor tug manned by people in civilian clothes with the ability to lay down a spray – and they had the long lenses and lots of film.  Were we out there as bait of a sort, I so believe to this day?

Election up coming, let’s get up to strength by bringing in the other new crews.  Now we are back on our proper vessels getting ready again to go into research, to work.   Most of the engineering crew had some experience with tugs but most of the ET’s came from destroyers or large vessels.  But our Weathermen came off a carrier or a shore installation, never anything as bouncy as a tug.  The placard said “This vessel not to be operated on ocean or coastwise waters, signed, commandant US Coast Guard” and seemed to have validity.  I do know that one time I had a roll of 65 degrees and a pitch of 40 degrees as this was what was needed to throw the gyro out of kilter, and it did.  OK, after the inauguration of LBJ we were ready to start Shady Grove.  This was to take place near Johnston Island and we needed to transit to that site.  We left Pearl Harbor on the 21st of January. 

After arrival in Johnston Island we again deConned the interior of the vessels before doing anything else.  Our air group arrived, Marine A4’s and the ground crews.  The General paid a visit to each boat.  Soon we were underway to run the initial test, and first series of trials to get us acquainted with the actual procedures.  About a week out at sea then back into port for a couple days, then out to station again.  The weatherman and I strapped the theodalite in and proceeded to do the wind balloons and information to control each evening, in code.  Five or six days at sea then a couple days in, then back out.  The testing takes much of the night, then during the day a minimum crew operates the ship to the lab ship then back to station.  Minimum crew was one person on the bridge and one person in the engine room, and I had been appointed to day watch.  Of course, that meant that during the tests I was asleep in the sleeping quarters, never knowing what was leaking through the filters, and going into my lungs.  Our filters got everything down to 1 micron, but they were made of paper, and this was close to the ocean and there was actual seawater in the area.  Salt water and paper made for paper changing its porosity, in other words, it leaked. 

My morning at sea began before sunrise as I assisted the navigator in shooting the stars to determine our position after the external decon of the vessel.  As the ship was opened up for day operations most of the crew went to sleep and one engineer and myself brought the vessel to the lab ship to off load the samples and get the special supplies for the next nights tests.  And so it went until April when we completed “Shady Grove” and I was on my way back to Montana State University.   My field of study was Electrical Engineering and Business.

By the end of my first quarter on campus I needed to get some work to keep me busy so I applied to the Electronic Research Laboratory.  I started with the Digital Data Systems group where we would be working with Water Resources Research group.  We developed the Snow Pack measuring devices that are put into the mountain areas of the west.  And I built the prototype.  After about three years of school, I finally earned a BS degree in Commerce (General Business).

Now to work, and a large construction company looks like the place to put my varied experience to work.  After completing the field training I am offered a position in the purchasing department of Southwest Operations of Chicago Bridge and Iron Company.  Since I had more law courses in school I was given the pleasant chore of contracting our company attorney, and one of the choices available was Leon Jaworski and Associates.  Good thing he had a number of attorneys on staff as he was called to Washington, D.C., to head the Watergate investigation.   As we expand operations I am handed the steel buying and before long become probably the largest single consumer of steel on the Gulf Coast of the United States.  About 1975 I was given the added responsibility of managing the annual audit of SW operations, and this is the year we go from ‘Over the Counter’ to the New York Stock Exchange.  About this time that I am handed one of the largest jobs I have ever had.  Negotiating with and meeting the proposed supplier off and on for a few months then one morning I receive a call, then place a call to New York lasting about 10 minutes and I’ve spent over $10 million.  I also furnished most of the steel for the last greenfield refinery built in the US. 

Next was Chemtrol Corporation as the Purchasing Manager of this specialty insulation company.  Fireproof and radiation proof insulation was important in the nuclear power field anywhere in the world. And we did it!  I’m with the company only about a month when Three Mile Island happened, and this certainly put a crimp in our future.  After less than a year I move to  Sales Manager for an Electronics and Metrology Company.  We handle everything from single meters to plant process control (Dow Freeport).  We do temperature measuring of the GM first battery powered vehicles to clocks on the space shuttle.  It is during this time that the first indication of possible troubles from SHAD arise.  I’m 41 and have hypertension, but then I have a massive spasm of the heart muscle.  The difference between a spasm and attack is a spasm leaves no damage to the heart muscle, even though it can kill just as dead.  Very unusual as normal medications work only for a short time then fail as the pressure goes up higher that before.  Soon I am again not getting paid so move back to Montana.  The prognosis is not good. 

I finally cannot afford medical care so end up with the VA hospital in Miles City, still trying to nail this down.  Finally a sophisticated test shows a probable tumor within the body so I am sent to the Salt Lake VA Hospital where the tumor is confirmed.  I am scheduled for surgery, but first I needed to be switched from the normal anti-Hypertensive to a quick acting variety when a timing fluke reared its ugly head.  My blood pressure went up to over 300+/300+.  The nurse told me I wasn’t supposed to be there any longer, but I made it to the operating room and had an adrenal tumor removed.  I did not feel, per what I had been told upon leaving SHAD, that I could tell the medical people that my internal fluids might be hazardous to their health.  But I did survive this and went on to live without blood pressure problems for quite some time, but now have had a mild attack which took me to a cardiologist some two weeks after the event for one stent.  Skin cancer, prostate cancer, replaced hip, arthritis , COPD, and now osteoporosis and scoliosis of the lower spine for me and only some cancer in the family history make me wonder, was it SHAD.

From the age of 41 I have been unable to find work of a nature to fit my field of study, or that would pay anywhere near the amount I had earned at the electronic sales job that I had then.  If that salary were brought to the present it would be in the neighborhood of $150,000, and with that I could have some funds set aside for retirement, but the best I have done since then has been below $18,000.  That’s not enough to leave a nest egg.