Operation Tumbler/Snapper
US Atomic Veterans
Leo Cox
20 June 2002
Portland, Ore. July 16, 1997, -- Leo Cox turned on the TV that morning to see Atomic Veteran Bill Bires being interviewed about his participation in the Nevada Atomic Tests. Bires said that other atomic veterans were meeting this morning at a local restaurant, but Leo was so surprised that he didn't catch the name of the restaurant. He immediately called the station to confirm where the meeting was and then dashed out the door to meet with others who, like him, had witnessed atmospheric atomic tests.
Arriving excited and nearly out of breath, Cox expressed how lucky it was that he had turned on the TV that morning to that channel and caught that interview with Bires. Eyes wide and with a ready smile to greet everyone, for Leo, this would be the first of several meetings that he was to attend.
Cox was very interested in his recently declassified military history. He had witnessed several of the detonations in the trenches as a young soldier. Leo Cox was our only known, Portland, Oregon veteran of Operation Tumbler-Snapper (Nevada Test Site, 1952).
At the April 15, 2002 meeting he added his experiences to our history review commemorating this year's 50th Anniversary of Tumbler Snapper. Leo told of his awareness of the "extreme power of the detonations" and "how beautiful the mushroom clouds were to see." Leo Cox, US Army, was a young soldier of the 409th Quartermaster Detachment from Port Townsend, Washington.
Before our last meeting April 15th, Leo confided that he had been given a diagnosis of throat cancer. Today, June 20, his dauther Pattie phoned with the sad news that her father Leo Cox passed away yesterday. A memorial for him is scheduled for Sunday at Lincoln Memorial Cemetary at 3 pm. He will be remembered and missed at the next meeting of Oregon's National Association of Atomic Veterans on July 16, 2002.
--Keith Whittle
June 20, 2002
Operation Tumbler/Snapper