Atomic Veterans Photo Album

The Dock, Johnston Island Looks like the Navy is here!

Construction everywhere! Johnston Island, 1963

Main Street Here is Johnston Island 1962. The view down main street. Notice the only sidewalks on the island.

Looking out toward Sand Island. Taken from the control tower, Main St. to the left, an underground bunker entrance on the right. In upper right: a large pile of debris left from one of the failed missile shots.

Refreshments Anyone? This was the place to buy a cold drink and was called the "Dominic Double Dip."

The Thor rocket pictured here is THE one which exploded on the launch pad, then cost millions to clean up.

The Thor Missile The sign mounted on the stop sign reads "watch for aircraft." It should say "watch for missiles." I watch from back here.

Thor Rocket Up Close Easy does it. Wow! This is one big sucker! I wonder what this guard is looking at? Humm. It says "Thor." Now don't drop it!

One of the new launch pads, ready for flight. A few weeks before, the area that I am taking the picture from, was ocean! This dredged coral stuff gets into everything!

LOX Anyone? The entrances to the bunker. Dredging operations can be seen in the distance. The "LOX" plant is just across the runway.

Two large dredgers grind up coral from the reef, then force it through the floating pipes to the island in the background. Before dredging, the island was only one mile long and a half mile wide.

Sand Island. This was before North Island (Akau) and East Island (Hikina) were created by the dredging operation.