The ranchers filed suit for compensation in 1955, but during the trial they were unable to prove the fallout killed their sheep. In his 1956 decision, Judge A. Sherman Christensen wrote, "Of the three professional men who originally suggested radiation damage, two, upon further consideration, questioned their original diagnosis. None of them claimed to be particularly qualified in the field of radiation.

"On the other hand, some of the best informed experts in the country expressed considered and convinced judgment that radiation damage could not possibly have been a cause or a contributing cause."

In 1982, Christensen reopened the case, saying government attorneys had committed fraud on his court in the original suit. However, the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver overruled him in 1985, saying the government did not commit fraud or withhold information. The Supreme Court refused to review the matter.

The ranchers never were compensated.

"The government is too far in debt to pay for a bunch of sheep," said Vera Bullock, Cedar City, the widow of Kern Bullock, summarizing what she believes is the federal position.

There have been recent incidents as well.

In 1994, the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs released a report about the possible chemical exposure to Earl Davenport, a Tooele resident who worked at Dugway.

Davenport declined to be interviewed, but the report recounts what happened to him.

"He became ill in 1984 after being exposed to a chemical simulant called DMMP (dimethyl methylphosphate). He had been spraying the chemical into the path of a laser beam when a sudden change in wind blew the chemical all over his face and hair before he was able to put on a protective mask," the report says.

Although Davenport was wheezing and coughing the next day and his symptoms lasted for weeks, Dugway's clinic "merely gave him cough medicine and antibiotics. . . .

"However, by 1988, officials at Dugway had re-evaluated the simulant's danger and were becoming concerned that DMMP could cause cancer and kidney damage."

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E-MAIL: bau@desnews.com