Operation Plumbbob 1957
US Atomic Veterans
Russell Taliaferro
Russell Taliaferro sent email about his duty at Operation Plumbbob.
From: "Russell Taliaferro" piper@pchnet.com
To: pdxavets@aracnet.com
Subject: Nevada tests in 1957
Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2002
I was a test pilot in the USAF at that time and flew a highly instrumented
fighter (F-89) in the tests. I was closely controlled by precision radar
to be at an exact predetermined position near the blasts in order to
gather information on the shock effects which were considerable but
thankfully not catastrophic.
I estimate that I flew in about 6 of the
tests. Once I was at a slant range of, as I remember, 7,500 feet of
"ground zero". Some of the "devices" were, I was told, suspended in the
air by a balloon, others on the ground, under the ground, and on towers.
It was exciting and exacting flying especially as the weather conditions
had to be just right or the tests were cancelled, sometimes at the last
minute, and they were almost always conducted around 2-3 AM, pitch black
night.
We carried instruments on our persons to measure and record the amount
of radiation we received, and, for many years after those days, I received
reports from the Atomic Energy Commission, that the amount of radiation I received
was not dangerous. I am now almost 79 years old and in good health.
Russell Taliaferro
Email: piper@pchnet.com
Keith Whittle
March 25, 2002
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