James M. Gates, Jr.

Who was James M. Gates, Jr.?

James Major B. Gates was the last survivor of the segregated 95th Engineers Combat Battalion, which was used as "guinea pig" testing. They were stationed in closest vicinity during atomic blasting at Camp Desert Rock in Nevada in 1954. He was quoted as saying, "there is no reckoning why the government would hurt its own people."

Jim Gates was part American Indian, European, and African-American. He grew up in Chicago's South Side, sold moonshine at age 4, drove a buggy to school, and at age 9 joined the Army with parental consent. At age 15, he saw combat in Korea, was captured, jailed and beaten. Upon returning to the United States in 1953, Jim's unit was first shipped to Ft. Leonard Wood in Missouri for 8 weeks of basic and special project training, including gas exposure. In 1954, his unit was sent to Yakima Washington, where Jim and the others worked as extras in the Audie Murphy movie "To Hell and Back". Jim said the movie title was Providential. By July of that year, his unit was sent to Nevada by night-train to prevent the men going AWOL, and at that time told not to reveal what awaited them in Camp Desert Rock under the penalty of red balling when they became civilian.