Operation Ivy
US Atomic Veterans
Zeke Beranek
Zeke Beranek sent email about his duty at Operation Ivy.
From: "Zeke Beranek" zberanek@mchsi.com
To: "Keith" pdxavets@aracnet.com
Subject: Operation IVY
Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2003
Operation Ivy
In May of 1952 I was a Radio Operator on the U.S.E. Elkhorn, AOG-7. The Elkhorn was anchored at Eniwetok Atoll. I was transferred back to Pearl Harbor for training for shore duty at Eniwetok Atoll and flew back to Pearl Harbor. In June of 1952, I attended a course in Radiological Safety, TRAPAC Course No. 425 at the Fleet Training Center, Pearl Harbor. It was completed August 1, 1952. Security Clearance for service at Eniwetok Atoll was granted on August 4, 1952. Prior to that, my home town of North Bend, Nebraska, was crawling with Federal Agents. They checked everything out on me for service at Eniwetok. From what my Mother commented, they talked to almost everyone in North Bend. North Bend had a population of less than 900 at the time. I did not volunteer for this upcoming tour of duty.
A little history of Eniwetok should be given next. In 1947, the U.S. Government moved the 145 residents of Eniwetok Atoll out to a safer place. Plans were being made to conduct nuclear and thermonuclear detonations at Eniwetok Atoll. Eniwetok Atoll had about 40 islets in the chain of islands shaped like a horse shoe. The island of Eniwetok was on one end of the open end of the horse shoe. A submarine net was used to keep the horseshoe closed.
The U.S. Army at Eniwetok wanted a Radio Repairman and I was a Radio Operator. They didn't know what to do so they lent me to the Air Force to be the coxswain on one of the AVRs, a plywood aviation rescue boat. One might say I was part of the Lend-Lease Program. I was actually in the U.S. Navy, working for the U.S. Air Force, and getting paid by the U.S. Army. I had to be ready to go each time a plane landed or took off from Eniwetok. The landing strip was just barely long enough for the plane to land. The AVR had two Hall-Scott Aviation Engines for power. You could go from standing still to very fast in nothing flat. If one was standing on the fantail and the throttles were thrust full forward, you could be thrown overboard.
I arrived at Eniwetok Atoll in August of 1952. The normal tour of duty at Eniwetok was one year. There were no females allowed there. On the island of Eniwetok, there were two bars. One was an NCO Club and the other an Officers Club.
In between the two was located the church or chapel as it was called. One could not get to the church without going by a bar. The island was not very wide. There was one place where a person could put his heels against the water, and underhanded could flip a stone or rock in the water on the other side of the island. There was an outdoor theater where movies were shown nightly.
Time spent on the AVR was mainly swimming and fishing. We would go fishing for Red Snappers and used filet mignon for bait. When a supply ship would come in to refurnish the bars with booze, they would always swing by the AVR and throw some beer and booze overboard. The AVR crew would dive into the water and retrieve it. They always had booze on the AVR. One time they ran out and -- well -- this is what happened. They took the duck (a vehicle that could go on land as well as in the water) and went ashore. They went into the Officers Club and with a late night requisition, received an order of beer and booze. They went in through the skylight. The person going in fell and broke his ankle. As long as they were there, they decided to go ahead and fill their requisition. The requisitioned booze and beer and men safely returned to the AVR, and called for medical help. The cause given for the broken ankle was falling down the ladder (for non Naval personnel, ladder means stairs) on the AVR.
Whenever a supply ship did come in, or any ship came in, the AVR was fired up, and circled the ship to see if there were any women that could at least be seen. One USO show did perform prior to the detonation of the Hydrogen Bomb. The personnel consisted of (as it was called) "Four Jokes and a Queen. It was 4 men and a woman.
Just for information (which will be useful later) one kiloton is equal to 1,000 tons of TNT while one megaton is equal to 1,000,000 tons of TNT.
For the detonation of the Hydrogen Bomb (called Shot Mike) all personnel at Eniwetok were evacuated. There were civilian as well as military personnel involved. Of the military personnel, there were 10,450 of which 5258 were U.S. Navy, 178 were U.S. Marines, and the remainder were U.S. Army and U.S. Coast Guard Personnel. The number of civilian personnel is unknown to this writer. It is known that on the Sunday afternoon poker games in the NCO Club, with 7 card draw, the minimum for each draw was $20, then the betting would begin till the next round of cards were passed. All personal belongings were taken with the evacuees. Nothing was left behind. The ship upon which I was transferred was a Troop Transport. It is estimated that we were about 35 or so miles from the detonation, the task force was 10 miles south of the island of Eniwetok, and Eniwetok is 25 miles from Elugelab, the detonation site. As a radio operator, I was assigned to the "Radio Gang." My assignment was to copy press, for the ships newspaper. Evacuation date of Eniwetok is unknown.
Immediately after the detonation (10.4 megaton), November 1, 1952, great waves rolled over the nearby islands. The fireball was 3 ½ miles in diameter. Within 15 minutes, a mushroom cloud was 136,000 feet into the air (25 miles) and it was 100 miles in diameter. The power of the detonation was 10.4 megatons which was over 250 times the power of the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb detonation. The detonation this time utilized liquid hydrogen - the weight of the bomb, which wasn't really a bomb, was 82 tons measuring 80 inches wide and 244 inches long. Following the detonation, a high level of radiation covered all of Eniwetok Atoll and beyond. The crater created by the blast was 175 feet deep into the coral reef and over 6,240 feet across. The crater was large enough to hold over at least 14 Pentagon buildings. Over 100,000,000 tons of material was thrown into the air. The large dark stem on the pictures of the detonation clearly shows that. The fall out from the detonation was to the north of Eniwetok Atoll. The task force, as stated above, was to the south of Eniwetok Atoll.
The return date is known, three days after the detonation which makes the return date
November 4, 1952. The water in the lagoon was still muddy and churning. Before the evacuation began, the lagoon was clear and one could see the fish swimming in the lagoon.
After we had returned, work was being done on an LST. An Army personnel man went by. He had accidentally left his Geiger Counter turned on. It went crazy and was bleeping like mad. Nothing was done about this. It is unknown if this was before or after the atomic detonation.
On the morning of the detonation of the atomic bomb, (Shot King) November 15, 1952, not a cloud was in the sky. The detonation (500 Kiloton) was early in the morning, right after sunrise. After the blast, there was a cloud, the mushroom cloud. It traveled right over us. It stopped and rained for about a half hour. The rain stopped and the cloud then moved on. No Geiger counters were broken out to test for radiation. As with the LST, nothing was done for protection against radiation.
There were two AVRs at Eniewtok Atoll. I lived on one most of the time. In late December, warning of an approaching typhoon was announced. It hit us December 29-30, 1952. Prior to it coming, it was decided to move all the electronic equipment from one AVR to the other thus one AVR would be abandoned knowing it would be demolished by the typhoon. As the equipment was being moved (the AVRs were tied side by side) the Red Cross man showed up with coffee and donuts. He was selling, not giving them away. He was informed to leave or be thrown overboard. After stating he was just doing his job, he was informed he had 10 seconds to be gone. He jumped back into the duck and left.
Of those that were going to ride out the typhoon on the AVR, they were ridiculed, told they were crazy, and all sorts of things. At its worst, the troughs of the waves were 60 feet. The AVR was tied to a buoy, engines going full blast heading into the wind and the cable connecting the AVR to the buoy was tight. Had they broke loose, they were ready to head for Kwajalein. They did not break loose. When the typhoon had passed, they were the only ones with dry clothing, as they had all of their personal belongings on the AVR. As we went ashore, we went with "spit shined shoes." The power of this typhoon was much stronger than the power of the H or A bomb witnessed. This shows the power of God as compared to the power of man.
When it came time to leave Eniwetok Atoll and return to the good old USA for discharge (HONORABLE, by the way) there was a problem. I had to get out of the Air Force and back into the Army, then had to get out of the Army and back into the Navy. I was really in the Navy, doing Air Force work, and getting paid by the Army. As stated earlier, the normal tour of duty at Eniwetok Atoll was one year but I only had 6 months until my discharge date came up after arriving at Eniwetok Atoll. I flew from Eniwetok to Kwajalein to Hickam Field (Pearl Harbor where he bumped a naval Lieutenant on the flight) to Treasure Island, California.
Isn't it strange? We are now going back to the Eniwetok Islander. They were all evacuated in 1947. In 1977, the U.S. Congress passed legislation for $12.4 million for clean up, rehabilitation, and resettlement for the Eniwetok Islander. Yet, Military personnel were there all the time. One does not understand how radiation could not have any effects on military personnel but could have an effect on the Eniwetok Islander. (The same thing can be said about the inhabitants of Bikini where Atomic Tests were conducted in 1946 where the Bikini Islanders were evacuated.)
Zeke Beranek
Email: zberanek@mchsi.com
Keith Whittle
October 26, 2003
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