Operation Teapot Canadian Atomic Veteran H.J.C. Nottelmann Sharon Morrison sent email, a certificate, a photo of the Apple 2 detonation, given to her father, and a Canadian newspaper article regarding her fathers unit participation during the Teapot atomic tests. From: Sharon.Morrison@cdi.ca To: pdxavets@aracnet.com Date: Tue, 11 May 1999 Subject: Operation Teapot Hello, I just found a reference on your site, in the family emails, about a Canadian Veteran who participated in Operation Teapot. My father was in the Canadian Military and was there in 1955, as well. He died of a heart attack 19 years ago. We had always known that he was there but it wasn't until last year when my mother died that I found in their papers a certificate that he had been presented with for his participation in Operation Teapot. Have you ever heard from anyone else who has one of these?? Just curious. The whole outlook of the certificate is very lighthearted, there is a picture of a teapot and some cartoon like characters on it. They were playing with something VERY dangerous and thought the whole thing was a big game. H.J.C. Nottelmann I am having the certificate scanned & it should be ready in a few days. I will email the file to you. I would be very proud to have you put it on you site, my Dad would have liked that very much. He would have enjoyed the internet. My father's last name is spelled wrong on the certificate, they always spelled it wrong. He was in the army for 25 years and on any award he received they spelled it wrong. Weird!!! (Must be "Army Intelligence") The correct spelling is Nottelmann it ends with two N's not one. He died in 1980 from a massive heart attack, he was only 58 years old. We have a picture in one of our photo albums of the atomic blast he saw and a picture of him in Nevada. I remember him telling us that they were not all that far from the blast, although I don't remember exactly how far away he was. He said that just before it was detonated they were told to turn their backs, close their eyes & cover their eyes with their hands. They had no special protective equipment or anything. He said that when it went off, he was able to see the bones of his hands, like an x-ray picture, through his closed eyes. That's how bright it was & how close he was to it. I don't remember much more about what he said about the experience, I was only three at the time. He retired from the army in 1967, he was in the Signal Corp for most of his time. The other thing we remembered, while my sister and I were talking about it, was that he also had a wooden board with his name burned into it. He told us that there was asbestos covering it and their name was cut into the asbestos and it was placed close enough to the blast that their name was burned into the board when the bomb went off. They later removed the asbestos so all that remained was their name. We never found it after my mother passed away so she may have thrown it out. We do remember seeing it when we were children though. It really is a shame that the piece of wood I talked about is missing, I would really like to have had that bit of history. Thanks, Sharon Morrison Email: Sharon.Morrison@cdi.ca Keith Whittle May 26, 1999 [ Operation Teapot ] [ Home Page || What's New || Email || Family Mail Call || Notes and Hints ] [ Atomic Veterans, Atomic Test Series and Dates ] [ T-Shirts || Videos ] Information about the National Association of Atomic Veterans [ The NAAV Story || NAAV Medical Data Base Information ] Atomic Veterans History Project © 1997-2000 For use of the material found on this web site, please send us an email with your request.