Max E. Peterson sent email about his duty at Operation Castle.
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004
From: Max Peterson maxpete1@airmail.net
To: pdxavets@aracnet.com
Subject: Operation Castle
Dear Keith
Since cameras were a no no, my memory is rather vague as to Operation
Castle. I was an ET -1 during most of 1954, and as you know, the ET gang
had the responsibility of maintenance and repair of all of the
communication (HF, VHF, & UHF), radar, and LORAN equipment. I got to watch
all of the shots but the second one, from the flight deck. I was one of the
many that didn't have dark goggles to wear, so we always faced aft until
after the initial fire ball subsided. Apparently the bow of the ship was
always pointed toward ground zero. Then we were allowed to turn around and
watch the cloud form. I was always amazed to watch the sound waves push the
normal clouds away just before we heard the "boom". I still remember
watching the blast cloud form and spread out on that first shot. Our eyes
were looking almost straight out right after we turned around, and as we
watched the cloud move toward us, our heads slowly moved until we were
looking almost straight up. About that time, GQ was sounded and we spent a
lot of time at our stations with all of the ventilation turned off. I
watched the second shot on radar from CIC. That was really scary. Every
time the radar would sweep by ground zero, the return got bigger. I was
really glad to finally see 2 sweeps that had the same size return.
We were
told not to write to our parents or friends about what we saw, so when the
Colliers magazine came out with the Bairoko on the cover, my folks started
to tell me all about what we were doing. I do believe they knew more about
it, than I did.
The other shot I remember was about in the middle of the
tests, and compared to the others, it sounded like a fire cracker going off
It was either a misfire, or just a trigger or maybe a really low yield
shot. But it was not worth the wait on the flight deck. As I remember, we
only had 1 day of liberty that cruise, and it was a day in the sun on one
of the coral islands. I got the worst sunburn that day I have ever had.
Scuttlebutt had it that if you reported to sick bay with a sunburn you were
in trouble. I managed to get some Noxzema, and for about a month, my legs
and shoulders were caked with it. I don't remember how many layers of skin
I lost, but I didn't go to sick bay and I didn't miss any work. Some of us
brought back live coral from that one day of liberty, and a few days later,
we wished we hadn't. Boy, did it smell.
My dosimeter did not indicate an
excess amount of radiation, so I was lucky. My health has been quite good
since then. I developed Glaucoma in both eyes when I was about 40, and I
was the only one in our family to have ever had it. I also started to gray
at the ripe old age of 28. But the doctors never thought that radiation had
anything to do with either one.
Another thing that amazed me about the Bairoko was the fuel capacity she
had. I went aboard early in 1954 in San Diego. I don't remember ever seeing
us take on fuel before or during this cruise. When we returned
to San Diego, we off loaded fuel for about 5 days, then set out for San
Francisco. I helped get her ready for mothballs, and in late 1954, I took
the short hop over to Treasure Island for discharge.
Sincerely,
Max E. Peterson
Richardson, TX
Email: maxpete1@airmail.net
Keith Whittle
Febuary 12, 2004
[ Operation Castle ]