Jack Jordan had a couple of visitors yesterday. They had called and wanted to meet him and talk about his military duty some 50 years earlier.
Jack is a nice looking looking man, white hair, easy disposition, he and his wife live in a very tidy, modest house in S.E. Portland. Pictures of relatives hung on the walls, just the kind of place you would expect your grandparents house to be.
We sat in the den, a room more comfortable than the larger and more formal living room. This room had the television and video tape player and a table where Jack had placed a stack of papers and photographs.
Jack had been a Navy man and served aboard the USS Wharton. His photographs showed the picture a smiling, healthy, young sailor full of the vigor of life, among friends and on a great adventure, known to the ancients, men on a boat upon the sea. Jack had just reenlisted for another tour. The Wharton had resupplied at Pearl Harbor and was again upon the open ocean. There was a rumor among the sailors aboard the Wharton, rumors are rampant in all branches of the military, they appear because the the goals and destinations of troops are slow to filter down through the ranks. Unknown to the men of the Wharton the mission was top secret. The rumor was, they were headed to an atoll named Bikini to be a part of a test for the atom bomb. The men knew almost nothing about atom bombs. They had heard Truman's message about how it had ended the war with Japan. And the rumor was that the bomb was about the size of a matchbox.
There was a great fleet assembled at Bikini. The natives had been removed to another island. They had been told that America needed to test a bomb on Bikini and they would have to leave. They could not understand this necessity but in their innocence and friendliness and being impressed with the great ships and number of Americans they boarded the ships and were sent away. They were very sad to leave and had no choice.
A large number of ships had been assembled in the lagoon and anchored in a pattern similar to the spokes of a wheel. This was the Target fleet and contained many different types of ships, including well known ships captured from the Germans and Japanese navies. These test ships contained all the articles found in a modern navel fleet, fuel, food, ammunition, aircraft, supplies, and even animals were stored on deck to be exposed to the blast. This enormous test would determine how the modern Navy would fair in an atomic war. The Wharton was one of the more than 100 support ships.
The Wharton had many civilian visitors on board, scientists, reporters and many fleet officers. It was a spit and polish kind of ship. Jack was the Radio Operator and passed on the communications between the numerous ships as the day for the first test drew near. All the support ships and the Wharton sailed out of the lagoon and around to the other side of Bikini approxitmately 12 miles from the center of the target fleet.
Jack complained about not being able to recall as many memories as he would like. Bill and I laughed at this, knowing full well his meaning. After so many years, only those events that really stand out are the ones you get to keep.
On the day of the first test, Able Day, "The sailors turned out on deck, and were given dark goggles to watch the blast. Sailors without the glasses were told to sit down, turn their backs to the blast, cover your eyes and don't turn around till your ordered to do so." Jack said. "The goggles lenses were so dark you could not see the sun through them."
This bomb was to be an air drop from a B-29 called Dave's Dream and would explode above the ghost fleet. "The sailors heard the countdown to zero and the bomb went off," Jack said. "He could see the light through the goggles and after a few seconds could see an orange ball of fire. I removed the goggles and the light was still very bright." Jack said he noticed the heat. "It was like standing in front of a big oven. Every one was excited." Soon the Whorton was under way and would enter the lagoon to tour the blasted target fleet.
The ships were blasted alright, near the center of the explosion some sank, all were bent, burnt, caved-in, and blown apart, gun barrels twisted. The animals were burnt and blasted, dead and dying. All from one bomb, it was a good test as far as the Navy was concerned, and there was much to study and learn. It was to be three weeks before the next test, an underwater bomb called Baker. Life was good, it was an exciting time for the sailors. It was a warm, humid, sunny life in the South Pacific. The next bomb test would change everything.
Baker Day, 84 target ships were arrayed in the target area: 40 within one mile of the detonation, 20 within one-half mile. At H-hour two-minutes, all hands stood by. At the moment of detonation millions of tons of water in a column one-half mile across were lifted straight up at a speed of 700 miles per hour to a height of one mile. Waves of 80 to 100 feet high swept through the target fleet. Three ships sank immediatly. A mushroom shape formed from the water lifted out of the lagoon. This heavy cloud began to fall back to the surface and spread out to cover the entire target fleet with a spray and fog of intensely radioactive water. Some of this fog enveloped the occupied support ships. The documentary Radio Bikini tells the tragic story of the natives and sailor John Smitherman who was stationed aboard on one of these mist covered ships.
Jack Jordan on the USS Wharton and others followed the ships which contained the radiation safety monitors and sailors which were to retrieve film and scientific instruments back into the lagoon. When the Whorton reached ground zero a pump failed stranding the ship in the radioactive lagoon. The Oregonian newspaper tells this compeling story and is included on the Crossroads page. Jack mentioned the sinking of the Saratoga, she had listed badly after the blast and sunk stern first after seven hours. Jack said, "We were anchored nearby by and all hands were called up on deck to watched her go down."
Vice Admiral Blandy was also at ground zero to survey the damage to the fleet. Jack said, "It was rumored that Adm. Blandy was made ill by his exposure and had to go aboard one of the two hospital ships." Once secret documents by the Radiological Safety Officer tell of the trouble and frustration caused by the radiation and is included on the Crossroads page.
Jack Jordan has led a happy and productive life in the years since Crossroads and is very thankful for his good health. He shares a great compassion for all atomic test veterans who have not.
Jack Jordan
Email: dcjordan@onemain.com
--Keith Whittle
These newspaper articles were furnished by Jack Jordan
Radiation danger ignored by Navy
This is an Oregonian article about the documents from Radiological Safety Officer, Stafford L. Warren, which exposed the disregard for the radiation safety of the sailors during Crossroads. And, notes the Veterans Administration's refusal to help the soldiers who were injured by radiation.
VA denies benefits to victim of atomic test debris
This is a tragic story about John Smitherman, the subject of the movie Radio Bikini, and 1983 President of the National Association of Atomic Veterans.