“A masterful work of original scholarship . . . an absolute page-turner as well polished as it is researched.”

— William R. Levesque, former prize-winning Tampa Bay Times journalist

Harvey Lucas thought he’d escaped his brutal upbringing by joining the US Navy. Then he was set to work shoving atomic waste off the deck of the USS Calhoun County.

Harvey Lucas worked on a navy ship in the late 1950s, dumping atomic waste off the coast of Manhattan. By 1980, five of his five children had been born with birth defects and his body was withering. Thinking his health issues connected to his military service, Lucas filed a health-based compensation claim with the VA. It was denied. Lucas died five years later, of a radiation-associated cancer.

Lucas’s widow pursued her husband’s claim at the VA for more than a decade, facing numerous roadblocks and denials. In 1998, she finally won and I decided to look into the history of the Lucas claim and the ship Lucas served on, the USS Calhoun County. I prowled through the ship’s deck logs, tracked down veterans, and interviewed more than a hundred sailors, health physicists, and VA officials. 

The result is Half Lives, a riveting story detailing the collision of the US government’s efforts to evade and deny radiation claims with a torqued and litigious family that would stop at nothing to get their due. 

Praise for Half Lives

“A riveting portrayal of life aboard the Calhoun County . . . I highly recommend this book.”

— Mary Burnham, Wife of Commanding Officer Rowland E. Burnham

“I am still in awe of the research Derrick accomplished . . . had Derrick worked as a reporter and published Half Lives in a major newspaper, her work would have been worthy of a Pulitzer Prize.”

— William R. Levesque, former prize-winning Tampa Bay Times journalist

“A reminder of all the forgotten sailors who served on the USS Calhoun County. Thank you Deborah Derrick.”

— Bernice Albernaz, Wife of George Albernaz, Calhoun County Veteran