Operation Hardtack 1
1958
US Atomic Veterans
Ken Brown
Ken Brown sent email about his duty at Operation Hardtack.
From: SOU59NWA@aol.com
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999
Subject: From another atomic vet-4951st Support Squadron
To: pdxavets@aracnet.com
I was there from October 1957 until October 1958. I witnessed the underwater
shot
that you mentioned. I was a mechanic, Airman 1st Class, and was crew chief on
an L-20 A/C for a few months and then on the crew of a C-54. I didn't know
that
this web site existed and just looked today after reading an article in USA
Today
newspaper regarding Atomic Veterans. I was stationed in Albuquerque at
Kirtland
AFB prior to going to Eniwetok. I got out of the Air Force when my year was up
at the test site with a little less than 6 months to go. At that time, if you
had less
than 6 months and were coming back from overseas, you could get out early.
Let me hear from you. Ken
From: SOU59NWA@aol.com
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999
Subject: Re: Atomic Veteran (Operation Hardtack)
To: pdxavets@aracnet.com
Hi Keith,
As I recall, there were six shots while I was there. But, that was 41 years
ago and
it's easy to forget the details of something that long ago. I vividly
remember three of
the shots. The underwater shot, the tidal wave shot, and another shot while
me and
another of my crew were waiting at a bus stop (for the cattle car). It was at
a very early morning hour (before daylight). We were on our way to warm up,
check out, taxi, and run up the L-20 a/c for which each of us was
responsible. The bus did not come (until after the shot) so we witnessed the
shot from the wooden bench at the bus stop at around four or five in the
morning. The countdown got down to the last
ten seconds, we turned our backs to the blast (As I recall, the waiting area
for the
bus placed your back to the water and consequently to the shot). We closed
our
eyes, covered our eyes with our hands, then lowered out torsos down to where
our
heads were touching out legs. The bomb was detonated, there was a
tremendously
bright white light like a giant flash bulb but with a much longer
illumination and was
very slow to fade. When it did start fading, the color went from white to
yellow, to
orange, to red. It went through a mulitude of colors before it finally lost
enough of
its intensity to allow us to open our eyes. We still had to wait even after
that
before we could turn around and look at it with our naked eye. It was an
awesome
sight.
The underwater shot was closer to shore and of a lower yield than all of the
other
shots. (We were told that a 10 megaton was detonated while we were there but
I
have never verfied this). We were encourged to stand at the water's edge to
witness
this shot. Shortly after the shot was detonated, the water that was drawn up
into the
air started to rain down upon us. At this point I left even though I was
encourged to
stay by the sergeant in charge. I have a photo somewhere of this shot. I
think they
sold them to us for a dollar or two.
The other shot I remember is the tidal wave shot in the middle of the day (as
was
the underwater shot). It must have been either on a Saturday or Sunday since
it
was on one of my off days. I remember being in the vicinity of the barracks.
They had
said a tidal wave would come across the island at two or three inches in
height. Of
course we all wondered how accurate they were on their measurements. The shot
was fired and at first nothing seemed to be happening. Then, the water
started
draining from the lagoon. A sunken Japanese ship that before you could see
only the
mast and part of several towers, you could now see the complete deck and
part of
the ship's side. You could also see the bottom closer to shore where there
had been
five or more feet of water before. The water finally stopped being seemingly
sucked
out of the lagoon and held in this weird condition for several minutes. We
then heard
someone yell "here it comes" and we could then see this wall of water headed
for
the island. As it approached and got to within several hundred feet of the
island, many of the people starting running or rapidly walking away from the
shore to flee
the wave. When it was within approximately 100 feet of shore I left and
mounted one
of the "cattle car" buses that was parked on the side of the road just to
our rear.
There were several people who followed me there. My theory was that if they
had
misjudged the size of the wave, the wooden floor and large rubber tired
trailer would
float and I would survive. As it turned out, the wave only came across the
island a
little less than halfway in our location with probably only about two inches
of water.
Thanks.
Ken Brown,
Email: SOU59NWA@aol.com
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