Title: The PC 1546 and the Air Force Weather Relief Crew at the radioactive Atoll of Rongerik.
There are many important stories surrounding the runaway H-bomb detonation of Castle Bravo. Perhaps best known is the deadly fallout on the Marshall Island people at Rongelap. Another is the story of the Lucky Dragon, a Japanese fishing boat whose crew was witness to the detonation and also caught and injured by the fallout. Less well known are events that happened to the US military participants.
Recently two veterans of Operation Castle sent email about their duty. Bob Carlomagno, the radarman aboard the PC 1546 and John Sapp an Air Force weatherman stationed on Eniwetok. Although many miles apart at the moment of detonation, chaotic circumstances brought them together a few days later for duty at Rongerik Atoll.
At H hour, Bob Carlomagno, on the PC 1546, a Navy Patrol Craft, was positioned just south of the Belle Grove with the Estes, Bairoko and Philip, positioned just to the west and slightly closer to the explosion. Within minutes and without warning, hot, highly radioactive pulverized coral and sand began raining down on these ships. All ships were sealed and immediately beganing moving away from the area with full washdown equipment in use. All were severly contaminated, the crews condemed to the lifelong uncertainty of man-made radiation exposure.
John Sapp the Air Force weatherman was over a hundred miles away at Eniwetok Atoll and had gathered outside with other men to observe the detonation.
Hours later, a messsage was sent by a detachment of Army and Air Force weathermen on Rongerik Atoll that a radiation detector was registering it's highest reading and fallout was visible. These men were stranded in the same fallout now drifting down on the natives at Rongelap.
When it was discovered that heavy fallout was occuring on the populated atolls. The destroyers Munro and Renshaw were ordered to effect the evacuation of the natives. The weathermen were evacuated by seaplane many hours after the fallout began.
While the weathermen and Rongelap natives were removed from the islands and being examined at Kwaj, the mission of Operation Castle had not changed. There were 6 more thermonuclear detonations to fire. Joint Task Force 7 had to have the weather information from the abandoned Enewetek weather station at Rongerik atoll, so a relief party of weathermen were sent to the radioactive island, at first by plane, and then assigned to the PC 1546 just off shore.
The duty for the sailors on the PC 1546 was to provide quarters and support for the Air Force men of the weather relief crew as they ventured onto the fallout covered island and worked to get the weather information critical to the next Castle detonation. Sapp's long and detailed story is a rare look into military life during the unprecedented atomic hazards of the Cold War. Carlomagno's 8mm film shows the islands just before the detonation and life aboard the PC 1546. Although treated separately, when both Bob's picture album and Sapp's story are examined, a good visualization of the history is possible.
