美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Atomic Vet' Uses Federal Compensation To Finish Music Degree（在线收听）

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Hank Bolden is an 83-year-old undergraduate at the Hartt School of Music in Connecticut. He's also an atomic vet - one of thousands of soldiers exposed his secret nuclear weapons test during the Cold War. Connecticut Public Radio's Diane Orson has the story of one man's remarkable journey.

DIANE ORSON, BYLINE: In 1955, Hank Bolden was in his late teens and stationed in California. One day the young musician was told he'd been chosen to participate in a special military exercise.

HANK BOLDEN: I had no idea what I was selected for.

ORSON: He was flown to Desert Rock, Nev., where he joined hundreds of other soldiers from across the country. He didn't know anyone else there. A day later, they were marched out to trenches.

BOLDEN: And the trench that I was in, there was nothing but soldiers look like me - all black faces.

ORSON: A countdown began.

BOLDEN: When it got down to zero, that's when the big flash went off. That big flash was the dropping of the atomic bomb for the testing. And they had us placed 2.8 miles from ground zero - not only in the path of the fallout but in the predicted path of the fallout.

ORSON: Then came a wave of heat and dust.

BOLDEN: And there weren't any goggles that we had to place over our eyes, just had a helmet - and our arms supposedly to protect your eyes. And you visibly see your bones. And you visibly see other folks' skeletons. You know, that's what I saw. Yes.

ORSON: After the tests, Bolden and the other soldiers had to swear an oath of secrecy never to talk about what had happened - not to family, doctors or to each other. Violation of the oath was punishable by 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Bolden says for decades, he never talked. But as years went on, he was diagnosed with bladder cancer, multiple myeloma and subcapsular cataracts. He began to worry that his health problems might be connected to what he'd seen.

ALEX WELLERSTEIN: There were a lot of tests in this period.

ORSON: Alex Wellerstein is an historian of nuclear weapons at the Stevens Institute of Technology. He's speaking by Skype.

WELLERSTEIN: These are really tests to see what happens to soldiers if they see a live nuclear weapon go off. Can they still be commanded? Do they become hysterical and no longer take orders? Do they become so overcome with fear that they can't do anything?

ORSON: At the same time, military commanders were not fully aware of the risks of exposing soldiers to ionizing radiation, says Wellerstein. Slowly, veterans who'd been unwittingly used as human research subjects began quietly sharing their stories. Congress lifted the oath of secrecy in 1996. Today, those who can demonstrate they're atomic veterans and have developed one of several specific medical conditions are eligible for compensation.

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ORSON: Last year, after receiving his compensation, Hank Bolden decided to go back to college. When he got out of the Army back in the '50s, he'd enrolled at the Hartt School of Music but never got a degree.

BOLDEN: I dropped out of college to go on the road playing music. And I like to complete what I've started.

ORSON: So the 83-year-old auditioned for renowned saxophonist Javon Jackson, director of Hartt's jazz studies division.

JAVON JACKSON: It was apparent to me that he is a practitioner, I like to say, a musician who can do it, but he wants to come in and learn a little bit more about the nuts and bolts of music, which I think is something to be in awe of.

ORSON: Bolden was accepted and awarded a scholarship. He says he's come to terms with what happened decades ago, when he was a young soldier.

BOLDEN: I have no regrets about being involuntarily volunteered because actually has played a part into my being here now - where I'm at.

ORSON: As for sitting in classes alongside students 1/4 his age, Bolden says, well, music will keep you young. For NPR News, I'm Diane Orson in New Haven.

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