Herb and I have met twice now and talked a couple of times on the phone. I told him I was working up some stories with the Atomic Vets here in Portland. He had the latest newsletter from NAAV and had read about Crossroads. He ordered the Crossroads tape from us and I showed up one day to deliver it.
I introduced myself and Don invited me in. We did the usual small talk and got to know a little bit more about each other. It was easy to visuallize Don in his sailors' bellbottoms of long ago, quick of step with a sailors' gait. Now days I see him as a fiesty character, no-nonsense, a man of few words. I would have guessed he had been in the Navy. We drifted around to the subject of Crossroads. He spoke about the USS FLUSSER with some emphasis. This was his home and work station for a while and I could understand its importance to him. He had been a gunner's mate. Doering served aboard the Flusser for a few months during the Crossroads tests. He served four years aboard the Philadelphia and has a nice plaque on the wall about her.
I gave him the government's recently released videotape, and he put it into his machine, turned on the TV. The film started and Don watched intently as the pictures of the target fleet were shown and the narrator described the ships and their names. You could tell Don had an intimate knowledge of the ships and how the Navy conducted its operation.
As the tape got closer to the explosion of the Able Shot, Don said, "We were told to turn our backs to the explosion, then about faced to see the mushroom." When the detonation occurred, Don said, "God damn, look at that. Oh, Boy! I'll never forget that."
On a previous visit, I'd given him a list of the government documents I'd found on the Flusser and he told me which ones he wanted. I delivered them to him today, but didn't have time to stay long enough for him to read them. "Here you go Don, here are the papers you wanted on the Flusser, let me know what you think. I've got to get back to work, see you later."
He said, "Thanks very much," shook my hand and off I went.
The documents from the DOE about the Flusser are included here.
--Keith Whittle, June 1997
[ USS FLUSSER | Operation Crossroads ]