A Radioman's Exposures
Teletype solvents, 500,000-watt transmitters, and shipboard asbestos — in his own words.
Thomas Alan Bowman Sr. was a Navy radioman (RM2) before he was this project's founding story. Late in his life he wrote down what the work exposed him to. This page publishes his account so other radiomen — and their widows — searching for these same words can find them.
What follows under “His account” is his testimony, in his own words, from the statement he prepared for his VA claims (January 22, 2025). What the VA's own records document is set apart, and labeled, at the end. The two are not the same thing, and this page does not blur them.
His account — teletype repair: trichloroethylene and carbon tetrachloride
During teletype repair training, exposure to trichloroethylene and carbon tetrachloride was common. These chemicals were used in a fog-like agitator process without protective equipment like masks or gloves. Prolonged skin exposure caused severe irritation, with skin turning flaky white, requiring lotions for relief. Immediate symptoms were not reported, as it was considered standard practice — and the trainer also worked under the same unsafe conditions.
His son adds, from his father's telling of it across the years: the cleaning ran in 55-gallon drums, telecommunications parts washed in the solvent, hands in the drums. Nobody wore anything. Nobody thought anything of it. It was the job. If you repaired teletypes or cleaned communications equipment in solvent baths, trichloroethylene (TCE) and carbon tetrachloride are the names to put in a claim — start with the evidence kit and free accredited help.
His account — radio frequency: Annapolis, 500,000 watts
He worked with high-power transmitters at a station in Annapolis, Maryland, which sent messages to submarines using 500,000-watt transmitters. Exposure to radio frequencies often resulted in burns felt internally, from the bone outward, though no visible marks appeared. Morse code transmissions could be seen through fluorescent tubes near the antenna, indicating the immense power of the equipment. Safety protocols were minimal, and the long-term effects of exposure were not well understood or addressed at the time.
His son adds, from his father's telling: near the gear, a man could hold a light bulb in his bare hand and watch it light from the transmitted energy — and if the bulb didn't light, the fuse was blown. That was the test equipment. If you stood watch at Naval Radio Station Annapolis or any high-power transmitting station that talked to the submarine fleet, this account is yours too.
His account — asbestos: painting the sleeping quarters
After being transferred to a ship, he often worked in environments where asbestos was present, particularly during painting and maintenance of sleeping quarters. At the time, the dangers of asbestos were not known, and no protective measures were in place.
Read that the way it happened: not once, and not in passing. Painting and maintaining the berthing — the sleeping quarters where the crew lived — was recurring work, and the asbestos was in the spaces being painted, scraped, and kept up. His son's words for it: “He painted and was exposed a lot.” No mask, no respirator, no warning. Any sailor who painted shipboard spaces or maintained berthing compartments breathed the same air — the searches that bring men here (Navy painter asbestos, asbestos sleeping quarters, shipboard painting exposure) are searches for this exact work. He served aboard USS Arikara (ATF-98), including salvage operations in Da Nang harbor, December 1969 to February 1970.
Documented, and stated exactly: his VA chart records bilateral interstitial pulmonary fibrosis with right apical honeycombing. This page does not assert what caused it — his account says he spent years trying to get the VA to examine the question at all. The chart carries the disease and his account carries the exposure; both are printed here, side by side. How his service classifies — and what the VA conceded — is laid out on the classification page.
What the VA's own record documents
Separate from his account, and stated exactly: USS Arikara is on the VA's own Agent Orange ships list twice (Category II, Saigon River salvage, August 1966; Category III, docked to piers at Da Nang, September to December 1969). The VA conceded his herbicide exposure in January 2020, and granted his presumptive cancers at 100 percent — prostate cancer effective September 20, 2022, and metastatic adenocarcinoma of the right iliac crest effective April 29, 2023. The solvent, RF, and asbestos accounts stand as his testimony: accounts like his are how other men's claims begin.
Were you exposed like this?
If you were a Navy radioman, a teletype repairman, a transmitter watch-stander — or you are the widow or child of a man who was — begin with VA Resources, work the evidence kit, and when you are ready, tell your story. His full case record, including this account, lives at DearDougCollins.com/the-radioman.
The dated record of how long the danger of exposures like these was documented before it was conceded — asbestos, solvents, Agent Orange, and the rest — is kept at They Knew.
And the wider fraud record — the VA cases the government itself has prosecuted, and the settlements it has taken — is tracked at The VA Fraud Case Files — AllegedFraud.com.
Information only, not legal, medical, or benefits advice. Exposure accounts are the veteran's own testimony, printed as he gave it; documented VA findings are labeled as such.