Frank M. Durbin
Frank M. Durbin sent email about his duty at Operation Dominic.
From: "Frank M. Durbin" durbinfm@pobox.com
To: "Keith" pdxavets@aracnet.com
Subject: Re: Dominic I @ Johnston Island '62
Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2001
Keith:
I joined HMM-364 in August 1962, at MCAF (LTA) Santa Ana. We boarded the
carrier Princeton and headed towards Johnson Island.
I remember that the high intensity glasses were not issued to us, or at
least to me, so it became the sport to purloin as many pairs as we could
scavenge. I also remember the SPs confiscating the glasses from the Marines
on the carrier deck just before the first 'fly by drop' of an atomic device.
My memory of the shock wave from the 'fly by drops' was that it was more
of a compression wave than it was a traveling wind.
The outer atmosphere detonations were particularly impressive and the
colors were absolutely beautiful. Those with glasses could look at the
fireballs after 60 seconds, and could remove the glasses after five minutes.
One detonation developed into a pair of glowing rings that slowly drifted
apart, and from another detonation two green beams of light emitted from the
fireball in opposite directions. I imagined at the time that the detonation
had occurred within the Van Allen Belt.
I also remember flying over to the island to enjoy a beer fest and
swimming. Now I wonder how thorough they were in cleaning up the
contamination from the launch pad explosion that destroyed the rocket and
the nuclear device.
It was a fascinating experience.
Frank M. Durbin
dkolb@tznet.com
Keith Whittle
April 21, 2001
[ Operation Dominic ]