R.V. Fisher
R.V. Fisher
Geological Sciences
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
I found RV Fisher's page about Crossroads through one of the search engines. I sent him an email about Portland's Atomic Vets. Here is his reply.
Dear Keith,
Thanks for sending me the info about the website dedicated to
atomic vets in Portland. I am quite familar with Oregon since many of my
family members live there (around Canyonville) and I have spent a lot of
time around Cow Creek, Azalea and Glendale. I haven't made contact with any of the people that I was with on the USS Haven. We were all in the army from Los Alamos doing "housekeeping duties." They have all disappeared. At the time I was 17 years old. I'm not much of a gung ho military man, but I'm fascinated by the saga of the atomic bomb and the consequences of being intimate with radioactivity.
Richard (rv) Fisher
DIARY OF TRIP TO BIKINI, 1946
My buddies on the trip: Caldwell Jones, Hollywood, Bill Sosnoski, Pasadena, Carl Northrup, East Los Angeles, Burris Bunn, Riverside, Wilbur Newton, Pomona
May 3. I signed up for the Crossroads test. My job as decontaminationist
and checking radioactive hotspots of chemists and physicists has become at
DP East has become very boring. I need something different. I signed up
for radiation monitoring but was too far down on the list to go, so I
signed for housekeeping troops. Cox and Fox, who enlisted with me in
Whittier, decided to stay on the hill at Los Alamos.
May 16. We were told that we would leave Los Alamos on the 18th. We had 3
shots and a vaccination this afternoon.
May 17. Got partial pay, $15.00. All packed and ready to go.
May 18. Left Los Alamos at 0700. I dread the train ride.
May 19. Arrived at Camp Knight, the POE part in San Francisco.
May 22 and 23. Caldwell Jones and I hitch hiked home. I saw Pinky about
30 hours.
May 24. We boarded the U.S.S. Haven. I got a small simple tattoo tonight.
It says Pinky.
May 25. Newton and I got changed from KP to working in Supply. Corporal
Foley is in charge of us. He seems like a pretty good guy.
May 26 to 28. Loaded freight and explored Frisco, Berkeley and Oakland.
Phoned Pinky on the 26th. We left on the 28th. This was my first time on
a ship and I got sick but held my food down. Saw the U.S. for the last
time, for about 160 days.
May 29 to June 3. I never expected to see so much water. The flying fish
are great to watch. I'm missing my everyday letter from Pinky. Took typhoid
shot. Been seeing movies every night.
June 4. Arrived in Pearl Harbor at 0730. We worked all day. Got off the
ship about 1600. Newton and I met one of Newton's old friends (Jack Load)
and we all went to Waikiki and Honolulu. We had a good time -- ate dinner
in Waikiki, took a few pictures and went to a USO in Honolulu.
June 5. We left Hawaii today at 1300. The weather is really tropical now.
June 8. We set back our watches another hour. We're behind California 5
hours.
June 9. Second typhoid shot. We passed date line at 0211.
June 10. Still working steadily in supply room.
June 12. We arrived at Bikini at 0930. What an island Bikini is. The
highest point of land is 14 feet. There are a lot of ships in sight. Saw
the Saratoga and the Nevada (target ship) and the rest of the ships. We
had our first mail call today. We also received our red I.D. cards.
June 13. We unloaded and loaded supplies from the hold today. Boy is it hot!!
June 15. Went to the island of Bikini today. Picked up a lot of shells
and coral. Water is warm and the sun hot. I'm getting a nice tan.
June 21. Today was my 5 months in the army anniversary. We had an
inspection today, and out hold was the worst spot the captain inspected.
Went to Bikini for the last time today. They closed it because they are
getting ready for the first test.
June 22. At 1500 we left Bikini Atoll in the USS Haven for a trial run.
June 23. Sailed back into the atoll.
July 1. Monday, Able day, and the bomb went off at 9 am. Happy birthday
to Pinky. I got goggles from Supply because I worked there. Only officers
and scientists were given goggles. Could hardly see the sun, but the bomb
showed brilliant through them. It quickly went dark and I took them off to
watch the plume. It was copper colored and darkly outlined at turbulent
convolutions as they infolded. A beautiful sight.
At a few thousand feet, moisture condensed over the top of the mushroom cloud and made a smooth white surface. It looked like a giant ice cream cone. I'm going to write
an article for the Whittier newspaper (my home town) about it.
The first two waves of non-target fleet vessels reentered Bikini lagoon within three
hours after the atom bomb sank two of the 73 anchored vessels. First to
return were crewmen checking radioactivity of possible lethal waters, ships
and islands to establish safety before letting the rest of the fleet to
reenter.
A brief announcement said, "radiological activity was about as
expected," but no details were given. Then the larger ships began to enter
the lagoon five hours after the bomb went off, led by our ship USS Haven.
As we entered we sailed past the aircraft carrier Independence. It was on
fire. The rear end of a Japanese submarine was crushed. The target ship,
battleship(?) USS Nevada, at the center of the fleet, was painted orange,
but the atom bomb was off target because only one side of the Nevada was
blackened. Radioactive monitoring of target vessels had begun by
midafternoon.
I am now glad that I didn't make the monitoring team,
because Harper said the Prinz Eugen, a German battleship which he monitored
was extremely hot, and he suspected that all the ships were hot.
July 3. The Haven's newsletter reported that Brigadier General Roger Ramey
announced that yesterday at midafternoon, the lagoon was still reacting
from the blast and the radiation. Forrestal in a radioed interview warned
against premature conclusions, but said, "I'm surprised at the unimportant
damage inflicted on heavy ships in the Guinea-pig fleet." He said,"there
will will be Navies in the future." (he didn't mention long term effects
of radioactivity. He might be unaware of it.)
July 4. The nation's birthday. We had a huge dinner (lunch) to celebrate
the 4th and the successful completion of the atom bomb test on a fleet of
ships. They gave out cigars and cigarettes.
July 6. Our work in supply is starting up again. I got some German
invasion coins from Harper. He got them off the Prinz Eugen battleship.
July 7. Foley has me running guard mail. I went with him to the Mount
McKinley (Task force flagship) and while I was waiting for him I asked the
coxs'n of the LCVP to let me drive. He did. It was great fun. (there was
much spray from the sea in that little boat. Probably radioactive.)
July 8. Saw Admiral Blandy when on the Mount McKinley.
July 12. We were paid. I sent $60 home and lost $9.50 in a poker game.
My last game.
July 13. Lt. Flaharty gave all us guys a beer bust today.
July 20. Showed RKO newsreel of Able day blast.
July 21. Today is our 6 months anniversary. The island is secured again
(closed down). They are showing a series of captured war films of the
results of the atom bomb at Hiroshima. They showed the effects on human,
animal and plant life. Burns on people. Shadows on walls where people
were standing.
July 22. On Baker day they are expecting a column of water shaped like a
redwood tree to shoot up to 1800 feet and the debris of ships to rise above
that. A wave is expected that may sweep over Bikini Island.
July 25. Thursday. Baker Day. Detonation at 0835 Bikini time. We all
got up early, ate, and waited around for the bomb to go off. Goggles
weren't needed this time because it was on the level or slightly under the
water.
This second blast happened so fast I could hardly describe all the details.
First, I remember a semi-circle of smoke that started rolling over the water
engulfing all the ships under it. The column of water was not nearly as
high as expected, or was it the same shape? It's sides were straight up
and down and it rose about 6000 feet. It was foamy and white and more of a
rectangular shape with a cloud of smoke at the top. The smoke soon spread
over a wide area and it was shaped like a triangle. The smoke rose after
about 15 minutes but the mist underneath was still too thick to see the
ships.
We were only 8 miles away this time and all the ships were in sight. A few
minutes after blast, I felt the concussion and heard a loud boom, which was
not anticipated by the scientists. And I could see a white line emerge
from the smoke. It was a small wave about five feet high, and there wasn't
any damage to the islands in the atoll. I didn't see any ships sink
because of the smoke, and after awhile I went to my bunk to hear of the
damage over the radio.
We went on water hours today.
Friday, July 26.
Information from Haven Newsletter report.
Detonation at 0835. Water column nearly 2 miles high. At least 16 ships
still afloat when the mist settled. The giant 100 foot waves that had been
predicted failed to happen. Television observers on the Mount McKinley
said the waves emerging from the atomic mist appeared to be five feet high.
The 29,000 ton battleship Arkansas was sunk. The 33,000 ton aircraft
carrier Saratoga sunk at 1600 hours.
July 26. We are just inside the lagoon off Enyu island now. There is a
tremendous amount of radioactivity in the water.
July 29. I saw General Stillwell today. A small man.
July 30. In the past month we've been working under the tyranny of Foley,
but no more -- he finally gave in and let us work on KP -- what a good deal
it is -- every other day we work about 6 hours.
August 1. My first day at KP. All we do is serve and mop the floor after
each meal. Between times we lie in out racks. I'm going to get fatter on
this job.
August 3. Cox wrote me a letter and it said that we made T/5's -- I don't
know though.
August 4. Heard that all enlistees had to stay at Bikini after the ship
left, so Sos, Newt, Jones, Northrup and I signed up to go to some port to
help moniter ships that were in the lagoon. Jones, Northrup and I picked
China as our first choice, the Philippines and then Australia. I don't
know whether we'll go or not. I got my birthday present from Mom today.
The cookies were good.
August 5. Got card today for passing date line on trip over.
August 6. Hear we were going home. Took our names off list.
August 7. Got autographed picture I sent for of Ingrid Bergman. I'd like
to meet her some day. Heard officially that we are T/5's.
August 8. My birthday. My day off for KP too! This morning I mopped
floor. This afternoon was absolutely dead as usual.
August 10. Day off again. Put on detail on island. Worked a little. It
was sure hot. I'm sunburned. Ate K rations at noon. I built a bench --
really sharp. Rumors flying around thick and fast. Don't know when we are
going. Supposed to be 4 days on any ship they find for us. Haven is
supposed to be staying. Just house keeping troops and eligible discharges
going supposedly.
August 29. Returned to San Francisco aboard USS Henrico (APA-45)
Email: R.V. Fisher
http://magic.geol.ucsb.edu/~fisher
Be sure and read Prof. Fisher's description of his Bikini experience from his new book Out of the Crater: Chronicles of a Volcanologist due to be published in December 1998.
[ Operation Crossroads ]