Operation Ivy
US Atomic Veterans
Dave Purdy
Dave Purdy sent email about his duty at Operation Ivy.
From: Beckymiller266@aol.com
Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2004
Subject: Sadness
To: pdxavets@aracnet.com
Alfred Dave Purdy, Air Force, Operation Ivy, has gone to join so many brave ATOMIC VETERANS with our Father in Heaven. He lived in Springfield, Arkansas. He was a very kind, caring and brave man.
He wil be sorrowfully missed.
Becky Miller
From: "CLAUDE LOCKE" cjlocke1@msn.com
To: pdxavets@aracnet.com
Subject: Dave Purdy
Date: Tue, 2 Mar 2004
Hi Kieth,
I just thought that I would let you know about the passing of Dave Purdy. He died on Feburary 19th of this year. Dave was a part of Operation Ivy. As well as being a fellow atomic veteran, Dave was a very good friend of mine. I was talking to him on the phone when he passed away. He will be missed by all his family and friends.
Claude Locke
From: "Dave" adpurdy@cox-internet.com
To: pdxavets@aracnet.com
Subject: Operation IVY
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001
Dear Keith
Just a little update to my posting on your site.
After my name appeared on your site, I've been contacted by several individuals seeking information about their relatives who were participants in IVY. One person worked in the military finance office up at base headquarters, and though I never met him, we shared some mutual acquaintances.
Have been in contact with the Blackburn brothers, Stacy and Tracy, whose father was an L-13 liaison pilot with the Air Force unit there. I first learned of them there on the site, and while scrolling through their posting, was astonished to come across a photo of all the L-13 pilots in front of the AF Admin building. I immediately recognized it as a duplicate of the same photo I have had in my photo album for oh, so many years. I knew most of the pilots because they were assigned secondary duties with our unit. I also recognized their father, Lt Blackburn. After the shot, one of the pilots was kind enough to fly myself and a companion up over the shot island for a first hand look. Don't remember who the pilot was, but could very well have been their father. At least I would like to think it was.
Several weeks ago I was contacted by Becky Miller, daughter of Captain Jimmy P. Robinson, the 84 pilot who was lost after flying through the cloud. She was seeking any information she could gather. Of course, since he was flying out of Kwajalein, I had no way of knowing him.
However, while going through my military album the other night, I ran across the article which I have attached, which I clipped out of an issue of The Air Force Times while I was on duty in Japan. I emailed it to her as am sure she would like to add it to her scrapbook. Just one more little bit of information perhaps she hadn't seen before. Click on the picture
for a larger view
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After much stumbling, bumbling and perserverence in trying to learn html, I put together a page on IVY, and posted it to my web site. Tried to make it reflect IVY as I remembered it. Here is the url if you'd care to take a look:
Dave's Website
Hope you don't mind that I've linked to your page, but thought others might like to take a look at what was going on during those early years.
Thanks again for all the hard work in creating and updating your site. I check on it regularly, and am certain a lot of other people are doing the same thing. It's the tie that binds us older folk to the second, and even the third generation removed, and am thankful of their interest in this bit of our history.
Your friend,
Dave Purdy
Msgt USAF, Ret
Springdale AR
Email: adpurdy@cox-internet.com
From: "Dave" adpurdy@cox-internet.com
To: pdxavets@aracnet.com
Subject: Operation IVY
Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2001
Keith
I was a young enlisted man during my tour on Eniwetok, assigned to the administrative offices of the Task Element, where we maintained personnel records, did morning reports and correspondence, maintained a classified file section, etc., where we worked for Lt Col Omohundro. Our unit also supported a small communications section (teletype) and fire department.
The correspondence I have included is the DAF reply to my inquiry about exposure. Also included was the standard "fact sheet" from the DRA, plus a VA bulletin. Am quite certain all those who inquired received this same information. Very few of the personnel I knew wore the little barrel shaped plastic exposure meter - in fact, I was never issued one. Their estimation of exposure amounts has to be a very general one.
I am 72 now, and have had no health problems at all. After reading some of the heartbreaking letters here on the site though, I know many were not so lucky.
I arrived at the atoll in January 52, and, until the buildup began midway through the year, life there on the island was pretty hum drum. We were there to support the L-13 liaison aircraft, so there was plenty of time to explore the island, search for sea shells up off of Sand Island between Eniwetok and Parry, and even visit one of the islands further north, courtesy of the Navy and their DUKW. One thing that I clearly recall about Eniwetok was the lone tall cocoanut palm that remained standing on the island. Some enterprising soul had taken it on himself (a redneck, you might guess) to climb the tree and attach a Confederate flag to the top. I don't recall if the flag ever came down, or not.
I have corresponded with Tracy and Stacy Blackburn recently, after running across their emails here on the site. Their father was an L-13 pilot, and they furnished a photo of a group of the pilots before one of their aircraft. It was the photo that prompted me to write them, since I have the same photo here in my album. The faces are all so very familiar to me, since I saw them daily. Was pretty much of a failure though when I tried to attach names to the faces. Did the best I could. One of the pilots treated me to a flight around the atoll and up over the MIKE shot site to view the crater, and although I can't remember the pilot, told them I would like to believe it had been their dad.
Recall sitting on the beach at Eniwetok and listening to the B-36, via a radio hookup they had arranged there on the island, as he called "bomb away". Understand that KING was a souped up fission device, and as an air burst, it was spectacular. But after witnessing a fusion detonation, was really not that much of an encore.
Lots of memories of that year there on the island, and these pages have brought many of them to mind again. I was pretty young back then, and I know that many of the participants are now gone. I will keep monitoring the site here though, and perhaps I will come across a familiar name.
I also worked in Base Operations at Indian Springs AFB, during the Teapot series.
Thanks much for the site, and for the dedication and hard work in maintaining it.
Dave Purdy
Msgt USAF, Ret
Springdale AR
Email: adpurdy@cox-internet.com
Keith Whittle
June 23, 2001
[ Operation Ivy ]
