Hardtack 1958
US Atomic Veterans
Thomas J. Hanlon
Operation Hardtack
Joint Task Group 7.2
1958 Series of Nuclear Detonations
Eniwetok Proving Ground(Marshall Islands) and Johnston Island
South Central Pacific Ocean
As recollected by
Specialist Thomas J. (Jerry) Hanlon RA 19554224
United States Army Ballistic Missile Agency
76th Engineer Company (Support) (Redstone)
Written in 1991, revised and printed in 1998
Chapter 4
On June 29,1956 I had orders to report to "I" Company TECR (Redstone) Fort Belvoir, 8 and did so.
It was about this time that I was to meet a man who had become a lifetime friend, Owen E. "Buzz" O'Maley. ("Buzz" died in August, 1996). "Buzz" and I were two of the first ten men recruited for the new company. Although we were but Army Privates, (lowest in the military chain of command), Captain Clayton selected the two of us to work in the orderly room (office) of the newly formed Engineer Support (Redstone) Company. The Company would eventually have a strength of about 180 men. "Buzz," did most of the office work and I did most of the field work, seeing that the men got to and from work, school, and assignments.
On July 20, 1956 we were transferred (on paper) to "G" Company TECR (Redstone) Fort Belvoir.
On October 15, 1956 we were transferred (on paper) to the 580th Engineer Company (Redstone Support). Fort Belvoir.
In August of 1956, I was chosen to be in the first Liquid Oxygen (LOX) Generation Class for the U.S. Army. The class was at the Engineering School; Mechanical and Technical Section. The First Liquid Oxygen Generation Class (LOX) ever held by the military began September 4, 1956.
The Army had manufactured liquid oxygen for years but the end product was converted to a gaseous state and used for medical and welding purposes. The LOX we would learn to manufacture was to be used in rockets or missles. (This was 1956, rockets and missiles were "hush-hush." The Americans and Soviets had divided up the German rocket scientists at the end of World War II. The United States was getting a good start on what would eventually become our space program)
We were learning new technology and the course was difficult, especially for me, because I had taken no physical science or chemistry in high school. Long hours in the classroom, along with a great deal of extra study into the late hours was required just to stay up with the class.
The Liquid Oxygen (LOX) generation plant we trained on was a 1 ton capacity, i.e., capable of producing 1 ton of LOX per day. The plant was in a self contained truck trailer about 30 feet long and additionally had a large portable electric generator for power. The controls, valves, gauges were in the rear of the trailer. The cooling towers or weirs were behind the main controls, and beside that a large vat to hold a caustic solution used in the manufacturing process. The air compressor and motor came next, at the front was the refrigeration condenser coil.
One day we were operating at LOX plant at 100% plus capacity attempting to maximize production output and also maintain the highest LOX purity we could. I remember two of the men on the plant other than myself; Pvt. Norman Pleasant and Sgt. Charlie Gossard. We had raised the air compressor pressure to about 3500 p.s.i. and we left Gossard at the controls. Pleasant and I were walking the catwalk alongside the cooling tower and caustic solution vat when an ear deafening explosion occurred. The high air pressure had built up in the cooling tower and ruptured the metal seams, allowing air and LOX at very high pressures to dangerously escape. All hell broke loose. The insulation hit Pleasant and I all over our bodies. The noise from the pressure leak was deafening. The caustic solution had spilled but only on our clothing. We were almost knocked off the catwalk.
Pleasant jumped off the plant and went to the electric generator to shut it off, I ran to the control room to open as many valves as I could to vent off the high pressure. Gossard ran away as fast as he could. Emergency crews were called and in a few minutes we had things in chaotic control. I believe what had happened is that as the air pressure increased, Gossard hadn't opened the valves to compensate for pressure increase, or a pop valve failed and allowed the tank to rupture. Fort Belvoir being in close proximity to Washington D.C., there was a congressional investigation to determine the probable cause of the accident. We spent many hours, behind closed doors, giving testimony as to the cause. Nothing was resolved as to the blame. Pleasant and I were thankful, as we provably would have been breaking rocks at Leavenworth.
We graduated from LOX training November 2, 1956. Out of a class of 221 was ranked 15th. For a young person that didn't apply himself in high school, and had no chemistry or physics, I did all right.
(When I was revising this document I found, on the back of a photograph of the graduating class of the 1st LOX class, the names of my classmates. I had not realized until then that the only one of that class to go with Operation Hardtack was me!!)
About the time the LOX plant training class was completed I was reassigned to the 76th Engineer Support (Redstone) Company.
On 20 December 1956 several of us were appointed "Private First Class." Our monthly pay, as I remember, went from $68.00 a month (less $4.00 clothing allowance), to $72.00 a month. Wow! !
Our newly formed company found us living in old wooden barracks, left over from WWII, and having few comforts. Captain Clayton wanted to know how we could "spruce things up." I had not been home for about a year, and didn't have the money or the leave time to travel home to Weaverville for Christmas of 1956. There wasn't much going on for several weeks, so during the holidays some of us decided to use our talents to "spruce things up." One of the guys knew of a base warehouse where oak hardwood flooring was stored. Buzz O'Maley made out very official looking papers for "requisitioning oak flooring. We borrowed a truck from the motor pool, drove to the warehouse, presented the official looking "requisition", and drove off with the flooring!! It was the prettiest floor in any mess hall on base.
For several weeks the officers in the company had been "riding ours tails." No let-up. Clean this, move this. Paint that. I was on KP duty one day and we had cleaned the mess hall quite well. Captain Clayton came in to do an initial inspection for the "big" inspection coming at 11 a.m. that day. This wasn't right. That wasn't clean. "What is that half rotten pepper doing in the garbage?" "Clean everything again"!! We did. Everything was now "spit-shined" and "standing tall." A few minutes before the Base Commanders mess hall inspection, I took a chicken bone and chucked it under the coffee urn. (The devil made me do it! !) Sure enough, when the Inspecting Officers came in, low and behold the chicken bone presented itself. "What in the hell do you mean, Captain Clayton, that this mess hall is ready for inspection." And they walked out!!. Boy, did those cooks get chewed on. Ouch !
While on the subject of cooks and mess halls I will relate another true story. For several months the food served in the mess hall was gelling poorer and poorer both in quality and quantity. Now when a soldier has only his limited monthly pay, there is little or no money to eat out, so we had no choice but to eat in the mess hall. We knew something was amiss, but didn't know what. A head count is taken by someone on KP. The mess sergeant would demand we run the head count up by 10, 20 or 30 at each meal. The number of meals served is basis for re-order; more numbers more food, less numbers less. We discovered that he was taking the bacon, ham, steaks, coffee and etc., out the back door and selling it. We had tried to talk to the Captain about the situation, but he told us he had talked to the sergeant and that he had denied stealing. Gerald Kilduff discreetly took pictures of the food being passed out the back door and being put in private vehicles.
We planned, very quietly, to purchase some food we could keep in our lockers, and on payday (the first of the month) we would not eat in the mess hall. Out of about 150 men total who regularly ate in the mess hall, only the officers and a couple of the sergeants, about 15 men, ate in the mess hall for breakfast. About the same number at noon. At 1 p.m. a special formation was called. The company was standing at attention. I was standing to the right of Captain Clayton and the other officers and we were facing the troops. He ate us up one side and down the other. Then asked 1 man from each platoon (5) to step forward and report to his office. I was one of the men. Even though I worked in his office I knew he would not paint me any slack." He asked each of us, separately, "What the hell this is all about?"
We explained. He, of course was very mad. We then asked if we could all come into his office at one time. He agreed. Standing at a very stiff "attention," he told us to relax. Each of us withdrew a different photograph from our pockets and handed them to Captain Clayton, Lt. Yeager and First Sergeant Haver. Captain Clayton jumped up and said "Get me that S O B mess sergeant right now." Sergeant Haver brought him from the mess hall to Clayton's office. The sergeant denied everything. He then was shown the photos and came up with a lame excuse. Captain Clayton removed his sergeant stripes and relieved him of his duties on the spot. What we did is, in fact, mutiny. If we had not been right we would, most probably, have been tried for mutiny. If fact, several months later at the base main headquarters, a similar thing was tried, the men didn't have a good case and all were demoted and further punished.
President Dwight D. "Ike" Eisenhower had been re-elected in November 1956, and his inauguration was in late January of 1957. Soldiers were asked to volunteer to stand guard along the Washington D. C.'s Pennsylvania Avenue parade route. I didn't volunteer, but always wished I had, However, several of us Gl's stood on Pennsylvania Avenue and watched the parade, and gave a sharp salute when the President and colors passed by. Major John Eisenhower, Ike's son, and his family lived on Fort Belvoir in military housing, not far from our company. We would see them periodically.
In early July of 1957, Captain Clayton asked if I would like to go to Cape Canaveral, Florida with 5 other men to learn about the handling of LOX in practical applications. I said yes. Two days later we left in my 1947 Mercury coupe. Driving down the eastern seaboard on Route 1, we drove straight through to Titusville, Florida, just north of Cape Canaveral, arriving after 25 hours of driving.
We were billeted at Patricks Air Force Base, Florida, about 10 miles south of Cape Canaveral. The Cape, not yet world famous, was then known as Florida's central seacoast shipping point.
Security was very strict. All who went on to the Cape did so with specific security clearances, (my security classification was "Secret').
Our small group went through orientation as to what our mission would be while at the Cape. We were shown the Redstone missile, and the Jupiter C missile a longer and modified Redstone. Alcohol and hydrogen peroxide were used as the fuel and LOX converted to gaseous oxygen was used as the supporter of combustion. The missiles varied in length from about 79 feet to 95 feet. our mission at the Cape was to work with the civilians of Pan American Airways (the company that had the overall civilian contract at the Cape), as well as with the military, to transfer LOX from a special LOX railroad tank car into 9 ton LOX trailers, then when called upon, to transfer the LOX into the Redstone missiles that were set up on the launch pad in a countdown for launching.
This was the first time the U.S. Army was directly involved and immersed in a project of this type, although the Army had been involved with the captured V-2 German rockets after WW II and brought to the United States for research and development of our rocket program.
We did a lot of experimenting. Such as "should the transfer tank be a olive drab, the usual army color, or white in color to absorb less heat, how long a duration was required to "cool down" the missile prior to fully loading with LOX, and what protective gear was needed and etc". I remember one soldier standing in a pool where the minus 297 degree LOX was forming from the leaks out of a loose connection, stamping his foot and the sole of his boot crumbled into a hundred pieces. LOX had to be handled very carefully! !
We watched a number of missiles fired; Atlas, Vanguard, Thor, Navajo (or as we refered to it; "nevergo"!), are names I remember. Most did not perform as expected and we saw several rockets explode on the ground or at lift off. Four or five Redstones were fired while we were at the Cape and all performed as expected with no failures. The Redstone used technology similar to the German V2; thus the reason for greater success.
We were introduced to men later made famous by the space projects, such as Chris Kraft who would eventually head NASA; Dr. Werner Von Braun, our chief rocket scientist who had been Germany's rocket scientist on the V-1 and V-2 project at Peenemundee; and General Medaris, Commanding Officer of Redstone Arsenal Headquarters, Huntsville, Alabama.
In a couple of months the project ended and we returned to Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
Chapter 8
Thomas J. (Jerry) Hanlon
Email: Hanlon937@aol.com
Keith Whittle
March 5, 2001
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