Operation Teapot
US Atomic Veterans
Craig Hoyt
From: "Craig Hoyt"
To: pdxavets@aracnet.com
Subject: Desert Rock - Shot Bee,22 March,1955
Date: 11/20/06
Keith,
I just read your posting dated 22 March, 2000. It is interesting to note that your posting is dated exactly 55 years after Shot Bee.
I have spent considerable time searching for members of Marine Corps Test Unit #1. At this time I have found e - mail addresses for two men who were there when I was. Messages were sent to both of these Marines and both replied and I am grateful for the only contact I have had with an AtomicVeteran since March,1957. Matter of fact, until researching this subject, I had never heard of the Atomic Veterans.
Early March, 1954 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin I enlisted and was sent to San Diego for Boot Camp. After six weeks of mess duty while waiting for orders, I was given a ten day delay enroute to my next duty station. Mainside on Camp Pendelton. I had two assignments before being transferred to the Test Unit on Camp Pendelton in October,1954. My first assignment was in a clothing warehouse where perpetual inventory was the order of the day. Assignment number two was some gravy duty in a guard company.
For the next several months, we were kept busy with rather routine duties. We were very much like a traditional infantry battallion in every way except for our work developing 'vertical envelopment' tactics with helicopters that were used later in Viet Nam with good results. We were told at the time that we were doing this to learn how to use 'choppers' in desert warfare situations. Little did we know what we would be experiencing a short time later in the Nevada desert.
After being trucked to MAB, El Toro, we were flown To Desert Rock and began an odyssey that will be with me as long as my memory can retain it. There was little to do for a while but wait, and on a cold, early March morning, we were transported to Yucca Flats, assigned trenches (which were less than two miles from ground zero), and waited and waited. While waiting we heard weather information broadcast over loud-speakers. It was +14 degrees shortly before we had to lie face down in our trenches which were four feet deep and two feet wide. The count-down seemed like it would never end but then came the blast. First was a very bright light and intense heat, very noticable, even face down in the trench. I don't remember which came first, the sound of the bomb exploding with the roar of an angry god or the mini-earthquake, breaking clods of desert dirt off the sides of the trenches. Then came the first shock wave, something like a wind that wanted to clean the desert of every thing that didn't belong there. The second shock wave returned shortly with much less power than the first one. After it had passed over our positions on its way back to ground zero,we were allowed to stand up and look at what was happening. There before us was a mushroom cloud rising thousands of feet into the sky. It was a boiling, black hell, filled with what looked like yellow and red flames trying to consume the cloud as we watched in total awe.
Four hours after detonation we (1st Battalion 'D' Company) hiked to ground zero to see up close the destructive power man is capable of producing in the never ending quest for peace. On the way to ground zero we saw Horned Toads and other lizards scurrying around, getting out of our way before they became victims of scientific ingenuity. We were told that Shot Bee was a bomb similar in power to the bombs used to bring WW2 to an end . This bomb was in a house- like structure perched atop a 500 foot, four legged tower with an asphalt base the size of which I don't remember. The base was intact but only a few feet of the tower survived.
On the return trek we took time to examine some of the equiptment that had been placed at different distances fron the blast. A tank had been put in a hole in the sand with only its' gun and top of the turret above ground level. Some of the equiptment had paint burned off the side facing the explosion, some pieces were tossed around like a childs toy and the tank was buried by wind blown sand covering all but the gun and the turret top. Mannequins were placed at different locations behind our position and showed considerable damage from the heat of Shot Bee.
After our tour of duty at Desert Rock, we returned To Camp Horno and continued developing use of helicopters for vertical envelopment use until my discharge in March of 1957. I have read recently in a posting concerning our duty at Desert Rock that ther are "fewer than ten Marines" who have survived Shot Bee. It could be true but I find it hard to believe.
All Atomic Veterans of Shot Bee, especially those in 'D' Company, 1st Battalion, MCTU#1, feel free to contact me by e-mail.choyt@charter.net.
I lived and worked in Milwaukee until Labor Day weekend,1968 when I moved to Marathon County and worked for J.I. Case until my retirement 1 January, 1994. I have filled most of my time since doing volunteer work at a local nursing home.
I truly thank you all for your service to our country and may God bless you all in a mighty way.
Craig
Email: choyt@charter.net
Operation Teapot
Keith Whittle
November, 2006