Operation Ivy
US Atomic Veterans
Abelardo "Abe" Marquez
Abelardo "Abe" Marquez sent email about his duty at Operation Ivy.
From: abemarquez@sbcglobal.net
Date: March 29 2007
To: pdxavets@aracnet.com
Subject: Fw: Operation Ivy
"Operation Ivy - The Testing of the Hydrogen Bomb"
As remembered by Abe Marquez, GM3.
Hello, My name is Abelardo Marquez AKA "Abe". I served on board the USS Fletcher DDE-445 from 1, July, 1952 to June 1956. When I came on board the Fletcher, she was on dry dock as she had run aground while under gun fire from shore batteries in Korea. While in dry dock, we were being questioned by FBI agents once or twice a week. I thought it was part of the Navy's regular routine. Until a friend of mine told me this had never happened before. He thought we must be going into some kind of secret mission, or something big was coming up. After dry dock we had some training and started loading a lot of supplies. We even loaded 600 cases of beer which was very unusual as US ships do not normally carry beer. Again, I was told that maybe we were going to a place where there was no beer. No one knew what was going on. We also had a ship's party in Honolulu. Everyone on the ship attended this huge party. While we were at the party, replacements were sent to man our ship while we enjoyed the party. The rumor was that this "party" had cost $10,000! There were truckloads of whiskey, thick steaks and an orchestra at the nightclub which was rented for the event. It was all very luxurious. $10,000 was a whole lot of money in those days.
We departed Pearl Harbor on September 5th or 6th of 1952. We were told we were on our way back to Korea. But during the night we changed coarse to south by southwest. The next morning, Capt. Rawlings called the crew to the fan tail of the ship and told us what our mission was going to be. We were going to test the first hydrogen bomb in the world. At this time we were required to turn in all of our cameras and radios, as we were not going to be allowed any contact with the outside world for the next 3 months. We were allowed to write home, but we were told our mail would be censored. We were allowed to talk about the islands, acitivities like swimming, eating coconuts, fishing, but we could not mention anything about our mission. If we disobeyed we would be put in jail.
On Monday, September 8, was my birthday, we crossed the international date line that morning so after lunch it was Tuesday September 9, therefore, I only had half of a birthday. Captain Rawlings wished me a happy birthday and assured me he would make sure I got the other half of my birthday on the way back. There was no entry in the log book for September 9.
Arrived Bikini Islands a few days later and began patrolling our restricted area around the islands. We enjoyed ourselves by swimming and drinking beer. You could have an island to yourself, as there were many small islands in the lagoon, but we had to return to the ship before dark because there was no light or electricity on the islands.
Several times we had submarine contact but they stayed out of the area because they knew they would get blown up if they didn't. A week or so before the bomb was detinated, I was going on watch at 3:30 a.m. as port lookout. I noticed the Fletcher was going full speed. I asked a couple of fellow sailors, who had just let off duty, what was going on. They pointed to the sky where a bright light was coming straight down. It looked like a bright star. I didn't pay much attention to it until it stopped at about a 45 degree angle, then it got my full attention. The bright light stayed there for about 4 to 5 minutes. Suddenly the light began going straight back up until we could not distinguish it from the stars. Captain Rawlings told the yeoman to log it as a UFO because he couldn't tell what it was. A nervous laugh errupted from the crew because no one knew what it was. It's hard to explain something like that.
Time went by and the day came for the H-Bomb to be detonated. It was early in the morning and I was standing on the bow of the ship by mount 51. The bomb was supposed to go off on our starboard side of the ship about 20 miles away. I went to the port side of mount 51, faced away from the explosion and covered my eyes and face. When the blast occured, I could still see the bright flash despite tightly shutting my eyes and covering them with my hands. When I opened my eyes a few seconds later I looked toward the starboard side of the ship and could see the huge mushroom going straight up, up, and up; it got bigger and bigger until it was completely overhead and spread for a 100 mile radius. We could feel the shock wave coming, my ears started to pop, and for a moment I thought my clothes were going to be blown off my body. It took 20 to 25 seconds for the shock wave to hit us. After the shock wave passed everything appeared to be back to normal, but we were still under the huge mushroom. You could hear the boom of the shock wave as it went out to sea. After the explosion, the islands where the bomb was detonated disappeared, they were gone, no more, nada.
About 15 days later an atomic bomb was dropped in the area by an airplane to compare the differences between the H-Bomb and the A-Bomb. It was like comparing a basketball to a tennis ball. The H-Bomb was 100 times bigger than the A-Bomb. With our mission accomplished, it was time to go back to our home port of Pearl Harbor. Everyone lived happily ever after (with radiation exposure).
Abelardo "Abe" Marquez
GM3, USS Fletcher, DDE-445.
July, 1952 to June, 1956.
Email: abemarquez@sbcglobal.net
Keith Whittle
March 30, 2007
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