Operation Crossroads 1946 U.S. Atomic Veterans Edward L. Rutkowski Ed Rutkowski sent email about his duty at Crossroads. From: POLKA35@aol.com Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 Subject: Crossroads To: pdxavets@aracnet.com Hi Keith, I am a Crossroads Veteran. I served aboard the USS Rhind (DD-404). As for my rank I was a Fireman First Class (E-3) but was only 17 years old when at Bikini. For the bomb test my ship was rigged with a speaker system to get the sound of the explosion. After bomb ABLE and going back to my ship I witnessed a lot of the destruction. The ships mast was rolled down a couple of times, the stack was laying on its side with about a foot of metal holding it which we hack-sawed off and threw over the side. All the hatches were sucked in and all the life lines were burned off. We all had to sleep forward of the stack due to the bitusmic gases coming from the boiler. With that, while living aboard after bomb Able and lived aboard until about a day or two before bomb BAKER. I served ten years in the US Navy and US Navy Reserves plus served 16 years in the US Coast Guard retiring 6/1/71 as an E-8. Thanks, Edward L. Rutkowski E-Mail POLKA35@aol.com [ Operation Crossroads ] [ 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.