Page 4 - CAMPAIGN Summer 2021

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CAMPAIGN Summer 2021
A Message from the Chair
Dear Member,
Welcome to a bumper edition of the BNTVA’s Summer Campaign Magazine 2021, which celebrates the success of Shelly Taunt at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and her dedication to the nuclear test veterans through #teambntva. We remember 65 years since Operation Mosaic and Operation Buffalo, and commit ourselves to move forward to realise our welfare objectives and strive for recognition in the form of a medal for our veterans. We’re also proud of our determined London Marathon 2021 runner, Amanda Osmond, and trekker, Tracey Morris who are both training hard to raise funds for the BNTVA.
I watched a film recently called
“Time Bombs” about the 60 Canadian Queens’ Rifle soldiers who were asked to “volunteer” as an elite force in 1957, without further information. They were sent to Nevada to participate in Operation Plumbbob. Years after taking part in six atomic tests, these men established the Canadian Atomic Veterans’ Association with assistance from the Rev Laurence Deverall, previously of the BNTVA. Laurence was present at Operation Buffalo, Maralinga, as a young Corporal whilst in the RAF. He later emigrated to Canada and lost a leg
due to cancer, which was attributed to a result of being exposed to radiation at that time.
“Time Bombs” is worth watching, as it clearly shows the use of chemical and psychological warfare by the military on their own side, as well as the use of fallout as a weapon of war. The problem was that the atomic tests that the Queen’s Rifles took part in, weren’t simply practice manoeuvres but actual nuclear detonations. After taking position and sheltering in their fox holes, the men rose after the shock wave, and gained territory towards the blast zone as the cloud had formed in the style of conventional warfare advancement.
Everything about this scenario is wrong, including the waiting, the build-up, the anticipation... being told that the only risks were that of blast or heat injury, and that radiation was nothing to be worried about. We are all aware of the ticking time bomb of radioactive fallout, and for those of
us who weren’t at the “tests”, the stories of sudden quietness and whispers of fear before a detonation mixed with the physical and emotional legacy of these complexities over subsequent decades on the whole family.
This film is so poignant as it encapsulates the work of the BNTVA over the past quarter. In June, we submitted a fresh 90-page medal application to the Advisory Military Sub-Committee, which introduced the topic of moral injury, and attached primary evidence of documents, case studies of six veterans and positive outcomes of military-attributable injury from war pension appeals. Hundreds of hours went into the preparation of this submission by me, Wesley, Michelle and Andi hunting for documentation; Johnny Mercer MP
led support with a letter to Dr Charles Winstanley attached to the application.
The Right Hon Penny Mordaunt MP, the Right Hon Dr Julian Lewis MP,
Ian Blackford MP and our very own Chaplain, the Very Revd Nicholas Frayling followed up with letters of support. The BNTVA submission has received publicity in the form of BBC, ITV reports and local paper interviews, and one of our cloud flyers, John Folkes, kindly participated in several interviews concerning his role in cloud sampling at Maralinga in 1956-57.
The BNTVA Telford Conference 2021 which was funded by the Veterans’ Foundation was a great success in multiple ways. We received welcomes