July 1, 1946
Monday
Dear Mom and Dad,
Hi folks, I guess you know what happened today. I thought I'd drop you a few lines to let you know I'm still okay and alive. As for being sterile, I don't know myself. I'll let you know in a couple of years for sure. I imagine you got most of the news about the bomb drop on the radio and newspapers already but I'll tell you my part in the thing.
We left here, Bikini, yesterday about one o'clock P.M. us I mean our whole task unit. We settled down in formation and steamed around approximately twenty miles from here. Things went along smoothly and this morning we set up all the frequencies we were supposed to be up on, including the voice broadcast from the B-29 that dropped the bomb.
Incidentally, I had quite a time finding him on the frequency. I spent about two hours tuning around before I picked him up. As you know, the bomb drop was scheduled for 8:30 this morning but was posponed for a half hour, making 9 o'clock this morning HOW hour. That is the intended time of drop. As it turned out it was both HOW and MIKE hour. MIKE hour being the actual time of detonation.
At 8:30 everyone except the guys on watch had to go aft and stand facing the bow of the ship. That way they were facing away from the explosion. I had to be on watch so I was up on the bridge. Everyone had to cover his eyes with his arm two minutes before the bomb drop. We got the word on when the drop was to be from the B-29. At nine o'clock they announced bombs away, three times.
A few seconds later the explosion came. We were almost exactly 18 miles away at the time. I could feel the rush of air and the noise, faintly, but I had my eyes covered so I couldn't see the color of the blast. A couple of seconds after the explosion I looked at the place of the blast. A large cloud was already billowing up into the sky, a faint pink in color. With the naked eye it looked like a huge mountain of coral. It was really beautiful. Too bad I couldn't get a picture of it. I would've liked to.
After the blast we steamed around some more for about an hour and then headed back to Bikini. We arrived here a little after two and a half hours after the bomb drop. We were the third wave in here. The first wave was the drone boats. That is radio controlled boats carrying radiologic instruments, next wave was the PGM's with scientists ect, and then came us. Some of thte ships in our unit carried Boarding Teams. They, the teams, went aboard certain ships to make sure they were safe and clear of radioactivity and the rest of us were fire fighters. Our ship hit it lucky so far, we haven't had to fight any fires yet. We roamed aroung as much as possible, looking over the damage to the ships. The Independence is really a wreck. But it's still afloat. I quess thats about it. The rest you can read in the newspapers. We secured and anchored about six o'clock tonight. And boy I'm about dead. I've been busy since four this morning. On my feet most of the time. I figured I'd better write this to you while it's still fresh in my mind because I imagine the next time I see you to talk to I'll have forgotten most of it.
This is all for tonite folks. Don't know when this will go out. Maybe in a day or so. Until next time so long and take it easy.
Loads of love,
Bud