On a lazy afternoon in May of 1995 the army recruiter called the McFadden home, Nathan picked up and after a short conversation he was enlisted to join the army right out of high school.

He attended basic training in Fort McClellan, Alabama. During basic training Nathan decided he wanted to be military police. After basic training he went to school to become a policeman. Once he had finished that he had orders to go to Johnston Island Atoll.

Johnston Island is a tiny island out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean where the army handled all of their chemical weapons.

“The island is only two miles long and half a mile wide,” said McFadden.

All of the weapons were stored in a corner of the island. McFadden’s main job on the island was a gate guard.

“The gate guard would have to search every vehicle that came in and out of the facility,” said McFadden. “I would have to go around with a mirror on a stick to search under all the seats”.

According to McFadden this was the worst job on the island due to the constant heat

“It was only less than 1000 miles north of the equator, so it was just blazing hot every day,” Said McFadden

They didn’t have to work all the time on the island though, there was a gym, a barber shop, a nine hole golf course, an outdoor movie theater, a bowling alley, and of course 13 bars.

Johnston Island stored all sorts of dangerous chemical weapons, due to this there were chemical leaks what felt like everyday.

“The alarms would go off and we would have to put on our hazmat suits,” said Mcfadden.

They would wear special hazmat suits called MOPP gear which stands for Mission Oriented Protective Posture.

As of 2004 Johnston Island was decommissioned as a military installation and renamed as a U.S. Wildlife Refuge in 2009.

After his time on Johnston Island, McFadden was sent to Fort Hood in Texas where he was involved in a car accident in 1998. Due to his injuries he was honorably discharged from the military.