From: Mac256@aol.com
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2000
Subject: Bikini Lagoon Shots Able & Baker
To: pdxavets@aracnet.com
Dear Sir:
I enlisted in the U.S. Navy on 16 March, 1943, age 15 {b 9/5/27}. The USS
Presque Isle APB44 participated in the first two shots at Bikini Atoll in
1946. I was transferred to her at Pearl Harbor sometime in May,1946. Was a
bit surprised because I was nearing the end of my kiddie cruise. That was a
long time ago and my memory is fuzzy. I was a Second Class Signalman at the
time. In fact I was the only signal on board!! The rumor was that most of the
personnel onboard was straight out of the brig. We were the boat pool for
Operation Crossroads. The messages I received by light or semaphore were
rather routine in nature. Our boats were the normal boats carried by an LST.
I do recall we had a jazzed up boat for whatever VIPS we ferried around. I
don't recall ever getting underway before Able shot until the time for the
shot 20 July, 1946 if my memory is correct. We were 27 miles away for the
first shot {air detonation-2000 ft?} We tucked our dungaree bottoms into our
socks, buttoned our shirt sleeves and collar and then pulled our white hats
over our eyes. We sat on the deck with our knees up, arms crossed and head
and eyes shielded. I think we came back in to the lagoon that afternoon.
After the initial blast were could look. A sight to behold but the thought
ran thru my mind about the two bombs dropped on Japan. An horrific thought.
Beautiful but horrible at the same time. The second shot {Baker} was an
underwater blast. No need to shield our eyes on it. We were seven mils away.
We saw the mushroon cloud before we heard or felt the rumble. The mushroon
was absolutely gorgeous. For a 7th grade dropout and son of a sharecropper I
just hadn't seen anything comparable to that. We did not come back into the
lagoon but steamed to Kwajalein. After a couple of days I was transferred to
the USS Whiting to go to San Francisco for discharge. I stayed out 59 days
and reenlisted and stayed 20 years retiring 7 June, 1962.
Never thought much about any problems but-- I was diagnosed with stomach and
esopgheal cancer on 1 December, 1980. My cancer doctor could not figure out
why I had stomach cancer. He said that was an old folks disease. Over a
period of several weeks excluding the ten days i was in intensive care we
talked about it several times. Of course he knew by then that I was a retired
sailor. One day he came by my room and asked if I had participated in any
nuclear tests I told him about being at Bikini and he said "thats where you
got you cancer!!" He wrote a letter to that effect to the defense nuclear
agency to that conclusion.
Thats about all I remember that would be of interest.
W.G. "Mac" McCarley
Stockbridge, Georgia 30281
E-Mail mac256@aol.com
[ Operation Crossroads ]