Nevada Test Site
1957
Tower, Observers.
Click on the pictures for a larger view.
In 1957, the sixth in a series of weapons tests took place at the Nevada Test Site. The Plumbbob tests consisted of 24 full size atomic detonations and six "safety experiments" and was the peak of atmospheric testing at the Nevada Test Site. There were 21 laboratories and government agencies involved.
The explosions were to test new weapon designs and included 43 military effects tests on civil and military structures, radiation and bio-medical studies, and aircraft structural tests. The Air Force, Army, Navy and Marines continued the Desert Rock Excercises, number VII and VIII with 18,000 personnel.
Defense Nuclear Agency Fact Sheet for Operation Plumbbob.
Information on the Plumbbob atomic test series including NTS Press Releases and fallout maps for each detonation can be found on the editor's first web site:
Anno Atomi, Growing Up with the Atom.
A CD with over 250 high resolution photos about Operation Plumbbob is available. Email the Editor.
United States Atomic Veterans
Bill Savidge was with the 98th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron
Joel Healy was with the Co. C 84th Engineer Battalion.
Charlie Zarek was with the 1st Marine Div, 7th Comm Bn.
 | PLUMBBOB/BOLTZMANN - May 28, 1957 - NEVADA TEST SITE -- BOLTZMANN Detonation. First Atomic detonation of the Plumbbob Series at the Nevada Test Site
|
Click on the pictures for a larger view.
 | PLUMBBOB/FRANKLIN - June 2. 1957 - NEVADA TEST SITE -- Initial flash of FRANKLIN with ZSC-1 air ship from Lakehurst Naval Air Station, Lakehurst, NJ, moored nearby to measure shock wave effects. |
Jim Lyons was in communications with the232nd Signal Co.
 | PLUMBBOB/WILSON - June 18, 1957 - NEVADA TEST SITE -- The fireball from the WILSON Event, 4:45 a.m. PDT, June 18, 1957, Yucca Flat, was photographed from a distance of about five miles, within seconds after detonation. |
 | PLUMBBOB/PRISCILLA - June 24, 1957 - NEVADA TEST SITE -- The fireball from the PRISCILLA Event, 6:30 a.m. PDT, rising above Frenchman Flat dry lake. |
Dave Packer was the Wireless Operator for1 RDU Royal Canadian Engineers.
 | PLUMBBOB/HOOD - July 5, 1957 - NEVADA TEST SITE -- HOOD's mushroom cloud begins to form above Yucca Flat. The above nominal test sent a thermal wave across the desert, igniting bushes and other growth on nearby foothills just to the right of the dust cloud near the surface of the ground. |
 | PLUMBBOB/DIABLO - July 15, 1957 - NEVADA TEST SITE -- Ionization glow surrounds the cooling fireball of the DIABLO Event, fired in Yucca Flat at 4:30 a.m. Monday, July 15, 1957. |
Russell Taliaferro was a USAF F-89 test pilot
 | July 18, 1957 - LAS VEGAS, NV, - NEVADA TEST SITE - JOHN Event -- Five Air Force officers will be observers at Ground Zero during the explosion of the first air-to-air live atomic rocket ever fixed from a manned aircraft, when they stand directly under the test scheduled for early Friday morning at the Nevada Test Site The officers, all members of the Continental Air Defense Command and based in Colorado Springs, CO., will stand directly under the burst sans helmets, hats, caps, goggles, or protective clothing to illustrate that the civil populace need fear no harmful effects were it necessary to use the atomic rocket in a tactical situation. The officers, left to right, are Colonel Sidney Bruce of Durango, CO; Lt. Col. Frank P. Ball, Washington, DC; Majors Norman Bodinger, Ridgefield, NJ; Donald Luttrell, Dallas, TX and John F. Hughes, McKeesport, Pa.
|
.
 | PLUMBBOB/JOHN - July 19, 1957 - LAS VEGAS, NV - NEVADA TEST SITE -- The flash of the exploding nuclear warhead of the air-to-air rocket (JOHN Event) is shown as a bright sun in the eastern sky at 7:30 a.m. July 19, 1957 at Indian Springs Air Force Base, some 30 miles away from the point of detonation. A Scorpion, sister ship of the launching aircraft, is in the foreground. Test officials said that the operation was fully successful, including accuracy in achieving detonation at the desired point in space, and including gathering of data on various weapons effects experiments. No fallout, other than negligible traces, was reported by off-site AEC radiological monitors. |
Sheldon M. Wallerstein was a 1st Lt. in the MP Provost Marshall's Office.
 | PLUMBBOB/KEPLER - July 24, 1957 - LAS VEGAS, NV - NEVADA TEST SITE -- -- Representatives of five European nations watch the cloud formed by an atomic detonation July 24, 1957 in Yucca Flat. Observers (seated, left to right) of the KEPLER Event, ninth in Operation Plumbbob, are: Max Steinbiss, of West Germany; Major General F.R.G. Matthews, of the United Kingdom; Captain Michel Saunois, of France; Mr. Luigi Pianese, of Italy; and Mr. Sait Koksal, of Turkey. |
Jim Carner was with Co. B 84th Engineer Battalion.
 | PLUMBBOB/OWENS - July 25, 1957 - NEVADA TEST SITE -- OWENS Cloud, Nevada Test Site, July 25, 1957. The OWENS cloud in middle stages of its surge to 35,000 feet above Yucca Flat, showing early phase of ice cap forming over cloud top. The test was fired at 6:30 a.m. today, as the tenth in the current full-scale series.
|
Steve Gurney was with the 19th Field
Artillery Battalion
5th Infantry Division.
Robert LaRue was with the USMC H&HS, 3rd MAW
Robert Pitts was a Marine with AFSWP at Lake Mead Base
John R. Jenks was assigned to Task group 7.4, Air Police
Jim Burlingame was with the 1st Radiological Safety Support Unit
Fred Greaves was with the 1st Radiological Safety Support Unit
Jim Farkas was with the 5th Marine Regiment at Shot Hood.
Monte L. Schlarman, was an Army Radio Chief and later a civilian miner at the Nevada Test Site. (Update)
Frank Ball, Officer Volunteer underneath Shot John, "Genie" at Operation Plumbbob.
David Barrett, was with the 261st Signal Corps laying cable in the tests areas.
Bob Winters, a Marine with the HMR-361, 3rd Marine Air Wing at Operation Plumbbob.
|
August 19, 2000--Robert M. Rhodes Jr. an Atomic Veteran of Operation Redwing 1956, Operation Plumbbob 1957, Operation Hardtack 1958 and who served with the First Radiological Safety Support Unit as a Radiation monitor has passed away. |
Robert H. (Bob) True a 2nd. Lt., USMC and served as a Press Escort at Operation Plumbob in July 1957.
Kenneth Umpherville was with the Queens Own Rifles of Canada at Operation Plumbbob, and has built a website for the Canadian Atomic Veterans
Darel Brower was Staff Sargeant, and ABC Monitor with the Marine Aviation Squadron at Priscilla, Diablo, and Hood. Update.
Larry Remole tells his story as a Marine at the Priscilla Shot during Plumbbob.
[ Home Page || What's New || Email || Family Mail Call || Notes and Hints ]
[ Atomic Veterans, Atomic Test Series and Dates ]
[Videos ]
Information about the National Association of Atomic Veterans
[ The NAAV Story ||
NAAV Medical Data Base Information ]
Atomic Veterans History Project ©1997-2007
For use of the material found on this web site, please send us an email with your request.
|
