Cold War hero from Orange who helped save the world battles for his health

He once held what seemed like the fate of the world in his hands.

Now Jack ReVelle, a former Air Force hero who helped avert nuclear disaster during the Cold War, is merely trying to hang on as long as he can.

ReVelle, 83, was discharged from a skilled nursing center this week and sent home to Orange, where he says he will be mostly confined to his bed. In early March, ReVelle fell while carrying groceries in his home and broke his hip. He had hip replacement surgery and still can’t move his left arm above his shoulder.

“I can’t even take a shower without help,” ReVelle said. Putting on socks, he said, is nearly impossible.

He’s trying to recover from the surgery while he battles Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a recently diagnosed cancer of the blood with no known cure. He requires a blood transfusion every week because his bone marrow is not making enough red blood cells.

ReVelle, who said he has been told he has less than three years to live, is fighting over insurance coverage, over his discharge from the skilled nursing home and over the cause of his blood disorder. The Veterans Administration has rejected his claim, ReVelle said, that he was poisoned by radiation during his tenure as a commander for the Air Force’s Explosives Ordnance Disposal unit.

“They (the officials at the V.A.) are making a veteran jump through hoops to prove his claim,” said Amina Mousa, ReVelle’s attorney. “They dismissed his claim outright. Our evidence has not been looked at thoroughly.”

A hearing in which ReVelle will be battling against the Veterans Administration is set for April 25 in San Diego. Mousa will try to show a link between ionizing radiation exposure and MDS.

“The link is at least as likely as it is not,” Mousa said.

The former Cold Warrior is in conflict again.

“I feel like I’ve been thrown to the wolves,” ReVelle said.

Under pressure

In the winter of 1961, ReVelle was called to fix what could have been the biggest mistake in the history of the world.

Two megaton nuclear bombs – each 250 times more powerful than the atomic bombs used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki – accidentally fell out of a B-52 bomber into a field outside Goldsboro, North Carolina. When the bombs didn’t explode on impact, ReVelle was called to render those bombs safe.

ReVelle found the first bomb hanging in a tree. It was quickly loaded on a truck and taken away.

The second bomb had landed in a muddy field. It took eight days of digging to find the core of the bomb.

ReVelle, whose only protection was a pair of gloves, pulled the “demon core” of the bomb out of the ground with his hands. He cradled it to his chest and carried it carefully to an E.O.D. truck.

The incident at Goldsboro was called a “Broken Arrow,” the code name for a mistake involving a nuclear bomb.

It was the second “Broken Arrow” of ReVelle’s career. In 1960, a nuclear bomb accidentally exploded inside a shelter at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey. ReVelle’s team cleaned up that mess.

And ReVelle witnessed 25 nuclear tests on Christmas Island in 1962.

“I was exposed to radiation,” ReVelle said. “There is no other source for the cancer.”

He was also exposed to Agent Orange while serving in Vietnam, ReVelle said.

New challenges

The prospect of living at home seems impossible to ReVelle and his wife Brenda. Before he retired, ReVelle had a long career in data collection and analysis. He never had health problems until recently when doctors told him was anemic.

When he fell in his home, he lay on the floor of his garage until his wife of more than 50 years found him. She will be helping him now that he has returned home.

“There is no way he could be self-sufficient,” Brenda ReVelle said. “There is no way he can get himself out of bed.”

The ReVelles were given a “Notice of Medicare Non-Coverage” explaining that his insurance would no longer pay for his skilled nursing rehabilitation.

Two administrators at the Walnut Village Rehabilitation and Care Center in Anaheim declined to comment on ReVelle’s discharge. Skilled nursing facilities are, in most cases, short-term solutions during rehabilitation, according to Medicare rules.

ReVelle, however, said he shouldn’t have been discharged “until they get me in shape where I can put my clothes on, or get out of bed without assistance. I have all the insurance that I need.”