“I'm not strange, weird, off, nor crazy, my reality is just different from yours.” 
 ― Lewis Carroll, Alice's Advnetures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass

THE AFTERGLOW

The impacts at the time were many.  The impacts in retrospect through a filtered lens and reality are layered and complex. Being born into the household of a Naval Officer's family that had been "Q-Cleared" (above Top Secret specific to nuclear energy and weapons) was a huge component.  The influences were structures and powerful, bringing unique challenges as well ad opportunities.  As a result, I grew up feeling very comfortable in adult environments at an incredibly young age. Officers Clubs, Military bases and injured vets recovering or in treatment on one hand, and on the other, it was San Francisco in 1967 and The Chief took me often on his rounds of Bay Area Naval bases with the occasional stop for 'sight seeing' along the way.

Breaking the silence...

By the age of 11, Oak Knoll Naval Hosp in Oakland was monitoring my father and beginning to form a team around him to assess, research, diagnose and treat his atomic radiation exposure "complications."  He and his wife Jeanne were beginning to realize the extent of his immediate and long-term implications and assess the impact to them and those around them.  There were a lot of whispered discussions and cocktails than usually.

Breaking the silence internally.

I was 12 or so when I was put on birth control pills upon my first signs of real womanhood.  It was 1968 in San Francisco, and no one was taking any chances.  
A small room filled with Naval doctors, surgeons, specialists and my parents informed me of my genetic compromises and probable complications.     

Level of secrecy ratchets up another notch externally.

His diagnosis and prospects were so immediately severe, they were afraid to risk me 3rd generation.  It was clear this information was exposing my fathers activities and that I was now considered qualified and was being told information at a high level that was on a 'Need to know only" basis.  My brother was not to know, he did not live in the household and it was "too early to tell" 

"It's best if the girl were not in the house at this time."

So after much belaboring of the issue... the arguing of the why, how and is this really the best option for theil?" Now a 16 year old... Barely had my drivers liscense... and t was off to Texas with a Vietnam Vet I had recently fallen for.  Eleven years my senior, he was Tom Selleck handsome, fit from two years of jungle running in Vietnam, and he was war tested, so he had The Chief's respect.  Maybe not approval, because as a a father, he could hardly approve of this.  But under the circumstances, I really did have to go... "until it was time."  - that my mother would need my help to care for him.  

Uncommon considerations.

Ironically, he and The Chief bonded with Steve over his Agent Orange exposure and their mutual love and respect of both rank and property - me.  I was well cared for in Texas and looked in on often by The Chief.  PTSD had not been named as such in 1971, but front line fighting on the Loatian & Cambodian border during those years will surely do it.  Houston was a very scary place for an educated young San Francisco liberal who was more familiar with the benefits of the Black Panthers in Oakland than the KKK office on Main Street in an east Houston bayou town.  

Common-Laws and Texas Taxes

With this options we were aware going in that it would be best for us to be Common-law married, just for good measure.  This would eliminate the risk of Steve going to jail for being considered to be "having a minor across state line for illicit purposes."   Trying to register to go to public school being a problem was one we did not see coming.  The real education was assisting the framing company, working with integrating paroled prisoners from the  state penitentiary into the crews, tornadoes, drag race boats and..."Mama".

When the unimaginable happens...

Only one other of these operations is known to have been performed before in the world. Global doctors are consulted.  Specialists are brought it.  Researchers and scientists globally have their ears perked for details and follow-ups.  All other options have been tried and ruled out.  It's go time.  The worst has in fact happened... or is about to.  I'm summoned home two years later, just turning 19.  It has been two plus years, at 55 years old he looks beaten.  She looks worried for him, and scared for her future.  My heart breaks for this once vivacious couple.  The crushing emotional and psychological burden was hard enough leading up to this radical remaining solution to save his life.

"Reproducing is not an option for you."

Years of serious issues with my reproductive system was getting out of control.  Two exploratory surgeries had not turned up the definitive cause of my symptoms, pain and infection.  A tubal ligation resolved anything other than again, insuring I would not reproduce left with no mean of birth control available.  I required a full hysterectomy at age 22 following 3 years of excruciating complications, 3+ surgeries, monthly hospitalizations of two weeks each for 18 months and absolutely all with absolutely confused civilian doctors with no idea about 2nd Gen reproductive organ complications.

Still Glowing: Living in Limbo

Currently, myself and other 2nd Gen Radiation Exposed offspring face a civilian medical community that does not know how to even talk to us.

DNA and other disasters

I guess it was naive of me to assume the government would monitor or care for what they had done to me, but we somehow thought they would be there beyond his needs, as they had me on their radar early in his process.
Most have never heard of a penilectomy (my fathers) which I well understood the prospect of by age 12.  Nor why a 23 year old female (me) would require a full hysterectomy after 2 years of reproductive organ nightmares, and in the end, post op, no one could tell me why it was medically necessary.  The mystery to a civilian hopsital may have been well diagnosed, as pelvic floor collapse and reproductive challenges are known to the military medical community who were studying them... but I was not longer covered at 22 as a dependent.  The financial burdens started young. 

Others with similar health (and family) challenges say hearing some of these stories helps them.  In the years now of research, amazing people and findings have emerged, the internet allows us to congregate and many are just fascinated with the era and technology.  Most have heard bits and pieces of the story.  Maybe more of it can linger here and with any luck, ears in Washington DC will begin listening.  Since we as a group, are obvious participants in well known and documented government experiments, we need support to help science mature and the medical community understand the impacts to the 2nd Gen exposure victims.
ra·di·o·ac·tive
rādēōˈaktiv
adjective
  1. emitting or relating to the emission of ionizing radiation or particles.
    "radioactive decay"