Operation Hardtack 1
1958
US Atomic Veterans
Harold Ferguson
Harold Ferguson sends this email.
From: fergusonharold@hotmail.com
To: pdxavets@aracnet.com
Subject: My experience in Eniwetok
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1998
| I am sending you an attachment with this e-mail. It is a photo of our department that was taken on Eniwetok. As you know cameras were not allowed and all pictures were taken by the military photographers. In the picture that I sent you, I am in the back row. I am the second from
the left. Click on the photo for a larger view. | 
|
Thanks for Andy Anderson address. I hope to write him soon. I will now try
to tell you a little about my experience in Eniwetok.
I was an Airman Second Class permanently stationed at Kadena Air Base in
Okinawa in 1958 and was sent to Eniwetok for 30 days temporary duty. I was a
radio equipment repairman and worked on the ground to air radio equipment
and tower communications equipment.
I don't remember how many shots that I saw. However, the first one occurred
as soon as we landed in Eniwetok. We didn't have time to get off of the
airplane and we were told to face away from the windows. I remember the
light flashed through out the airplane. I don't remember the effects of
the sound waves but I do remember seeing trucks tethered to water towers to
keep the towers erect.
The next shot that I saw, we were told to leave the buildings (supposedly to
keep things from falling on us). We went outside and turned our backs to
the lagoon. We did not have glasses, so we closed our eyes and put our arms
over our eyes. We could see the light from the shot through our arms and
eye lids. We felt the heat on our backs and it reminded me of someone
opening a stove oven at your back. I never timed the sound waves, but I
know we were close.
It seems strange to me that we were at a place where it rained every night.
I had always heard that you would get fallout in the rain. When, I first
went there I made fun of the guys setting on bleachers and watching movies
in the rain. However, it wasn't long until I was also bored and watching
the movies in the rain.
I started losing my hair while I was there and should have went to the
hospital but I did not. I would scratch my head and have hair under my
fingernails. I ended up with a small bald round spot on the back of my
head.
In the picture that I sent you, I am in the back row. I am the second from
the left.
We wore radiation detector badges and they took them up before the last
shot. It was so small it was a laugh compared to what we had seen earlier.
Sincerely,
Harold Ferguson
Email: fergusonharold@hotmail.com
Keith Whittle
Septenber 28, 1998
[ Operation Hardtack1 ]
