Thanks again! I will share a little insight into the building of nukes. The only requirement we had for building nukes was to wear surgical gloves and a surgical mask. We never had radiation badges or dosimeters when we built them to measure exposure to radiation.
The manuals were designed in such a way that if you followed the instructions in the manual, the warhead would blow up on you. The instructions were actually intentionally written wrong in the manual. You had to remember which paragraphs to follow in order and that all that information was passed by word of mouth. No actual written records were kept on the actual order of building the warhead.
Everyone year, a special maintenance team would come in and take radiological measurements of our vehicles and tools. If any were hot, or contaminated, they were coded out immediately, taken away, and replaced on the spot. I should have got the hint then we were taking radiation and started to record it with a dosimeter. We actually brought in some dosimeters and geiger counters and measured the radiation being given off.
The only thing we were told was that this job was only for men as women would have their ovaries destroyed by the radiation. We were told that we would be temporarily sterile because of the exposure but would experience nothing worse than that.
In my mid-20's, I developed prostrate problems which I have had since then. I also developed arthritis in the hands and get tumors on them. After I was disabled, and medically discharged after spending nine months in Walter Reed, the problems progressively got worse. A number of studies cite these symptoms as the result of radiation exposure, though research is limited in the area.
I put a claim into the VA for radiation exposure for the problems above. The VA maintains there was no radiation exposure and does not acknowledge that soldiers built nuclear weapons. I guess this is the modern day Agent Orange involving government denial.
Despite all of this, I gained the utmost respect for the M109A3 and its durability. Easy to fix and hard to kill. My family is already starting to take a great liking to it. Despite the stress of be a nuke builder, and it was stressful, I will cherish the experience.
Tom
U will Love Aberdeen 
