Operation Ivy
US Atomic Veterans
Roger Loeffler
Roger Loeffler sent email about his duty at Operation Ivy.
From: rloeffler2@aol.com
Date: Mon, 5 Dec 2005
Subject: Operation Ivy
To: pdxavets@aracnet.com
Hi:
I came across your website by accident and would like to add my name to the
list of people who served during Operation Ivy. My name is Roger Loeffler and
was a cryptographer in the Signal Detachment
We arrived on Eniwetok during June or July of 1952. Most of us
cryptographers had just graduated from Camp Gordon and this was our first assignment. We
set up a Comm. center on Parry some time before Mike and stayed until a week
or so after, so we were on Eniwetok when King exploded.
On the Estes for Mike we were issued dark glasses and watched the
explosion. The official film of the test was taken on the deck above us and panned
down to show our group of five or six along the railing. We went down to the
Comm. center to handle an enormous amount of classified messages and did not
come on deck again until five in the afternoon (the test went off about 8 A.M.
) The mushroom cloud was still visible.
Someone wrote home describing palm trees being tossed in the air during the
explosion, which of course was impossible to see because we were more than
thrity miles away from ground zero. The fireball was so bright, even with
glasses on, that no one could see anything anyway. This account was published in a
local paper and brought about an investigation by the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
I was assigned to encode their report. After a full day of work, I started
encoding the message about 11 P.M. and finished about 8 A.M. the next
morning. We then had to sign pledges that we would not discuss any part of the
operation for 10 years.
For King we were at the beach on Eniwetok listening to the talk between the
ground and the airplane . We heard the release and after what seemed to be
an entenity, the bomb exploded. It scared the dogs on the beach so much that
they ran of howling.
I stayed on Eniwetok until late June of 1953 and was sent to Fort Riley
where I was discharged in Novlember, 1953
Recently I read two books dealing with the Hydrogen bomb and Operation Ivy.
The Dark Sun by Richard Rhodes
The Bomb by Gerard J. DeGroot
Thanks for the opportunity
Roger Loeffler
Email: rloeffler2@aol.com
Keith Whittle
December 7, 2005
[ Operation Ivy ]