From: caddy94@webtv.net (william loftis)
Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998
To: pdxavets@aracnet.com
Subject: Buster Jangle Atomic Tests 1951 1952
A Group of us who could drive trucks drove from Camp Cooke CA. to Camp Desert Rock in late Sept. or early Oct. (1951). We hauled VIPs, mostly officers to the test area. The day we arrived there were no tents for us. The first night there we slept under the stars. The Engineers from Fort Lewis Wa. erected tents for us the next day. We were from the
505th signal group.
We soon began practicing and timing the drive to the test area. After a few practice runs we arrived at the first staging area early one morning. Airplanes were flying high over head and we were told we were going to see our first A-bomb. The group that witnessed this shot was only us truck drivers. I don't recall the code name of the shot.
Then, it was two or three days later that we repeated the above, this time we hauled all the VIPs. After the shot we moved near ground zero to observe the effects on some sheep in bunkers and Army equipment.
Through all the tests we carried film badges. After the tests we turned in the badges. We never knew how much raditaion we might have got. After about three months we drove back to Camp Cooke.
In December, I changed companys and was transfered to Camp San Luis Obispo in the early spring of 1952. I was sent back to Camp Desert Rock for another two or three months, as a switch board operator. This time most all the shots were on the towers. Before and after the shots we would lay wire in the test area.
Thats about all I remember, except the living conditions were much better in 1952. I spent between five and six months at Desert Rock all told.
I'm a member of N A R S, and would like to hear from any atomic veterans from Camp Desert Rock.
Bill Loftis
Battle Creek, Michigan
Email: caddy94@webtv.net (william loftis)
--Keith R. Whittle
June 18, 1998
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