Operation Castle
US Atomic Veterans
Edwin K. Putnam
Edwin K. (Keith) Putnam sent email about his duty at
Operation Castle.
Bairoko reunions:
Anyone that might be interested in attending, all information can be obtained
from Dean Brown, the association's secretary, at (785)273-4226. That is
Topeka, Ks.
From: IPu5966907@aol.com
Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2000
Subject: Re: Atomic veteran (Operation Castle)
To: pdxavets@aracnet.com
Dear Keith:
I boarded Bairoko on December 7, 1952 and departed on August 31, 1954.
Except for a 15-day emergency leave when my wife, living alone in San Diego,
suffered a miscarriage, I was the senior enlisted man in the Captain's
Office. I was a YN1. This translates to E-6. After a period of carrier
qualifications off the coast of San Diego, California, we headed to the
Yellow Sea with a Marine Corsair squadron called either the Polkadots or
Checkerboards. Whichever the first one was, we had the other, as well.
While home-ported at San Diego we would go out and do carrier qualifications
on a fairly frequent basis. One of the largest, if not THE largest,
airplanes the navy had at the time was called an AF. This thing looked like
a whale and here these young fellows were expected to land it on this little
less than 500 foot flight deck. Well, one day one of these planes hit the
flight deck hard, turned upside down and went over the side, except, it did
not go all the way down into the water; the landing wheel is attached to a
thing called a "strut." This strut on this particular aircraft was probably
about two to three feet in length. When it went over the side the strut
sliced into a 40MM gun tub. Consider it is a round swimming pool only
instead of being plastic or some such, it is at least 3/8 inch thick metal.
Well, this thing went into the metal and hung there, with the wheel just
inside the tub! It's vertical stabilizer--commonly referred to as the
tail--was dipping into the water each time there was a little movement of the
ocean as the ship was sort of gingerly steaming along back into San Diego. All the newspapers
took photos of this thing.
Of course, it was no small feat for the crewmen to get out, but, thankfully,
they were able to do that, and no one was injured to any extent.
Later, we would depart San Diego for the Yellow Sea we engaged in sending the
Corsairs already mentioned off for bombing and rocket launching and 20mm
machine gun strafing runs against North Korea.
On the tour just before mine, one of the Corsairs did not return.
But, sometimes, things became a little dicey on the flight deck as some of
the planes would come back with bombs that did not drop and rockets that did
not fire. On at least one occasion a rocket came loose, skidded all the way
down the flight deck, dropped into the forward elevator--which,
unfortunately, was down-- and ended up shoved through the bulkhead of the
Navigator Cabin; then again, another one came loose and skidded in the same
fashion, but, luckily, it was caught up in a ribbon affair, a thing that
looked somewhat like what you see on the back of pickup trucks these days.
That is, when the pickup lid is removed people put these canvas things for, I
suppose, to reduce drag. Luckily, neither of the rockets exploded.
I do not recall how long we would stay "On the Line" off Korea, but I do
remember that we rotated with a British carrier force; we would be relieved
by them and then, generally, we would go to Hong Kong or somewhere in Japan;
once, it was Kobe, other times it was Yokosuka or Yokohama.
Following a short stay there, we would then do antisubmarine operations
between Japan and Okinawa. I remember being on liberty on Okinawa only one
time during this period.
Finally, of course, after taking on board that other Marine Corsair group and
their doing what the others did, the Armistice came about, it seems to me, in
July or August 1953. After that, I remember we stopped in Oahu, but do not
remember stopping anywhere else.
But, on the way back to San Diego rumors began to float we were going to get
a new CO--we had already gotten a new XO--and he was coming from the Atomic
Energy Commission, and, that meant we would be going to Bikini.
Well, this did come to pass. The first thing that happened when we arrived
back on the San Diego scene is that we shortly sailed up to Long Beach where
additional fresh water making condensers were installed. This definitely
spelled Bikini.
And so it was. We sailed to the Bikini-Eniwetok area and, while the
scientists had predicted the first show, Bravo, to have a 3-megaton yield,
they later revised this estimate--in view of what happened, of course--to a
15-megaton, official, I believe. Unofficial, 18-megaton.
When this shot occurred just about all of X-Division, including the chief
ship's clerk, Donald Aemmer were sitting in a circle on the flight deck. We
were some fifty miles from ground zero. Mr. Aemmer had a ball cap on his
head, but at some point decided to wear it with the bill pointed to the back
of his head instead of in the normal fashion.
When the shock wave hit us his cap flew off and went sliding across the
flight deck; he immediately stood up in, like, a half crouch, but then
thought better of it and sat back down! I do not remember what happened to
his cap.
As for Mr. Aemmer, though, a most unusual little story came about here with
him. When I first reported aboard Bairoko he gave me the normal check-out of
office procedure and then disappeared. I mean, literally, disappeared. He
was never seen again except at times when there was an all hands gathering on
the flight deck, or, when we were in port. He did not disappear alone,
however; the chief pay clerk went with him. What they did together I have no
idea. Maybe, they played a lot of cards or sniffed a lot of bourbon in the
ward room.
But, he still did not do anything in the Captain's Office unless I was gone.
Actually, most of the time I was away, he was, also. But, there was a day
here and a day there when he was on board and I wasn't.
But, I remember one little traumatic thing taking place because of his being
there one day and taking care of the ship's mail. I was called to the
Executive Officer's Stateroom after we were underway, and, upon arriving the
exec began to chew me out because a piece of mail had not been acted on
before we sailed.
Sitting behind the exec was someone I always referred to as this little you
know what lieutenant jg from the Engineering Department who had brought me
two letters one day, and, after reading them--seeing as they said the same
thing--I asked him which one did he want sent. He said, "Both." I said,
"Why, they say the same thing?" He said, "To let them know the other one is
coming." Well, needless to say I certainly did not send up to the captain
these two letters. He got one.
After this, I could not please the exec. Before we went to the test area
there were times when he would ask me to provide something, like a message
from the files, and, when I would hand it to him he would say something like,
"That surprised you that you found it so quickly, didn't it?" When we left
the test area on the way back, all hands were told the helicopters aboard
would do a round-robin thing of dropping off all who wanted to visit the
beach for a while, such as to visit the PX. Commander McCabe told me,
"Putnam, you can only stay thirty minutes."
After being in the PX for only a short time he came up to me and said, "Your
time is about up, isn't it?" Well, I decided to ignore him.
Then later, before I departed Bairoko, he told me, "Putnam, you will not be
one of the ones getting a Certificate of Meritorious Achievement." I had no
idea what he was talking about.
But, about two months later, after I had reported to the Officer in Charge,
Navy Recruiting Station, Columbia, South Carolina, a mailer-tube came
addressed to me. Inside was that certificate he said I would not be getting!
The only other thing I have to say about my tour aboard Bairoko is that, one,
it was the most exciting and personally rewarding period of time I ever spent
in our great canoe club on the way to completing twenty years of service,
and, two, everything that went to Captain Emmet O'Beirne to be signed went
through my hands first and last.
Edwin K. (Keith) Putnam
Chief Yeoman, USN(Ret.)
Email:IPu5966907@aol.com
From: IPu5966907@aol.com
Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2000
Subject: Re: Atomic veteran (Operation Castle)
To: pdxavets@aracnet.com
Keith:
Here is a little
bit more about my recollections of Bravo:
In the shower it was immediately obvious who the people were that were
working on the flight deck, taking care of the helicopters, etc. You could
see a red ring completely circling their waist..
Additionally, although some people lost their "badges" which were
supposed to gather the amount of radiation each person received, I do not
believe these badges were ever given more than a cursory, or, should I say,
"spot check" to determine the amount of radiation a particular person
received. My own badge was lost; they gave me a "probable" radiation of 300
milliroentgens.
I, personally, do not believe any such thing because approximately twelve
years following the test series, skin cancer things commenced taking place up
around my temple on both sides, on the nose and on both sides of my eyes.
This, I believe, occurred, I believe, because, for some reason, I went up on
the lookout bridge and peered through the ship's very large spotting
binoculars. These binoculars had very large rubber flaps which sort of
wrapped around your upper face.
In 1966, a four stripper medical person at the Washington Navy Yard did a
freeze on an area around my right temple, just in front of the ear. This is
liquid nitrogen, I think. Anyway, at the check visit some weeks later he
stated in my medical record the words, "It's gone." Well, it wasn't gone,
unfortunately, because some six months later it is back.
Later, in 1983, having had it scratched off and burned off numerous times
by a local dermatologist type, I ran into this doctor in Palm Harbor, Florida
who had the expertise to do what is called MOHS, a surgical thing which
starts off like taking a slice of pie and continuing in a somewhat round
circle until no further evidence is microscopically found. The thing finally
wound up looking like a silver dollar size round, very ugly raw area with,
like, a tear going upwards, not downwards.
This reminds me of a little thing my wife brought home one day: A good
friend of hers at work was explaining something and she used the term
"skyrocket," only instead of saying it skyrocked upward, she said,
"downward." My wife told her that "skyrocket" meant to go up, and she said,
"Yeah, it skyrocked down." I thought that was just a bit humorous and
thought I would pass it along.
Anyway, attempting to get something through VA with my skin cancer, which
is on both sides of my face and not the prettiest thing to behold, was a
fruitless endeavor. They say basal cell carcinoma is not caused by anything
like the radiation we received at Bikini-Eniwetok, but, rather, the sun.
Unfortunately, just like Desert Storm, where our people were obviously
exposed to something unkind to the human frame, the VA and DOD turn a deaf
ear--as long as possible.
Otherwise, Keith, except for the fact we learned that radiation does not
just go away, but permeates the whole area the dust particles fall into, but
that it also goes
"downward," that is to say, through deck after deck. No place to hide from
radiation when you are aboard a vessel that has become "dirtied" by
radiation. And the water spray gizmos they had installed, "just in case,"
well, they were woefully inadequate.
Again, American servicemen were the guinea pigs, but, in this case, so
were the scientists involved! What would really be interesting to me, as you
might guess, would be to read something put together by one of those persons
who lived long enough to tell about radiation and what it does to us.
If I think of anything even remotely worthwhile will certainly pass it
along.
Thank you for your time, Keith, and let me tell you, you have done a
brilliant job of informing the American people what the testing of atomic
weapons is all about.
My hat is off to you, sir.
Sincerely,
Edwin K. (Keith) Putnam
Chief Yeoman, USN(Ret.)
Email:IPu5966907@aol.com
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