From: Davja1928@aol.com
Date: Sun, 25 Jul 1999
Subject: USS John Blish AGS 10
To: pdxavets@aracnet.com
On the day of the first bomb we were out side the lagoon. We were told to
turn our backs to the blast. Then the order came to turn around and we saw
the mushroom cloud rising into the sky. The next day we went back into the
lagoon.
We carried aboard the ship three scientists from the Smithsonean museum.
they took water samplings and soundings.
For the second shot we sailed about 26 miles to a small uninhabited island,
where we anchored for three or four days and had a couple of beach parties.
The scientists aboard were excited about visiting the island because the area
had been under Japanese control until the end of the war.
They spotted some native bird they had never seen before. one of the
scientists shot a couple of them and stuffed them to take with him.
We returned to the lagoon about five or six days later where we continued to
take water and botttom samples. The captain's gig was in the water
continuously, so they burned the coxswain's clothes before we left. The
geiger counter was really buzzing aboard ship.
We left in mid august for Pearl Harbor. On the way to pearl the reduction
gear in one of our engines went out (we only had two engines) and we couldn't
put it in foward gear. We limped back to Pearl. When we got there the civilian workers didn't want to work on the engines. When they put the geiger counter on the engines the
geiger counter almost exploded. The controversy was settled somehow and our
engines were fixed. We returned to San Francisco in October, and I was discharged and returned home.
Dave Jacobs
E-Mail Davja1928@aol.com
[ Operation Crossroads ]