Excerpts from the book Operation Crossroads
By Johnathan M. Weisgall
Bibliography
1. Herbert Scoville, Jr., "The Atomic Bomb and the Resultant Phenomena,"
Radiological Defense, vol. 3, A Series of Indoctrination Lectures on Atomic
Explosions, with Medical Aspects (Washington, D.C.: Armed Forces Special
Weapons Project, n.d.), p. 19; Herbert Scoville, Jr., "Nuclear Radiation
Effects in Tests A and B-Preliminary Report of," Sept. 15, 1946, Enclosure
J, p. 7. Attachment to Ralph A. Sawyer, Report of the Technical Director,
Operation Crossroads (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Navy, 1946), Los
Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Extracted version prepared by Defense
Nuclear Agency as XRD-210.
2. Ralph A. Sawyer, Report of the Technical Director, p. 25; F. T. Winant,
Jr., "Command Problems of Atomic Defensive Warfare" (Sept. 1947)
U.S. Department of Energy/Coordination and Information Service, Las Vegas,
NV (DOE/CIC) 0048678; Scoville, "Nuclear Radiation Effects," pp.
1, 9.
3. R. J. Buettner, "Safety Prediction-Test Baker," n.d., DOE/CIC
140564, pp. 1416.
4. Commander, Joint Task Force-1, Operational Report on Atomic Bomb Tests
Able and Baker (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Navy, 1946), pp. VII-(C)-53,
VI-D-79. Published as Defense Nuclear Agency document XRD-206, NTIS document
no. AD473986. The bomb was detonated at 8:35 a.m. and the first manned patrols
reentered the lagoon at 9:15 a.m. The salvage unit entered the lagoon at
10:15 a.m. and began checking and boarding target vessels. L. Berkhouse
et al., Operation Crossroads- 1946 (Washington, D.C.: Defense Nuclear Agency,
1984) Report No. 6032F, p. 97, p. 104; William A. Shurcliff, Technical Report
of Operation Crossroads. XRD-208. (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Navy,
1946), NTIS Document no. AD 367 496, p. 20.12.
5. Stafford Warren oral history transcript, conducted by Adelaide Tusler,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1983, vol. 3, p. 905.
6. Barton C. Hacker, The Dragon's Tail: Radiation Safety in the Manhattan
Project, 19421946 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987),
pp. 13839.
7. Newsweek, Aug. 5, 1946, p. 30.
8. Berkhouse et al., Operation Crossroads, p. 105; William Blandy to
Commanding General, Army Air Force, Cable, July 28, 1946, National Archives,
Manhattan Engineer District Records (MEDR), Washington, D.C., Box 26, Folder
F-2-7.
9. Radiological Safety Section to Technical Director, memorandum, September
25, 1946, LANL, App. 7, Sec. E; J. J. Fee, Operation Crossroads: Radiological
Decontamination Report of Target and Non-Target Vessels, 3 vols., Technical
Report XRD-185-87, NTIS Document Nos. AD 473 906 (Washington, D.C.: U.S.
Government Printing Office, 1946), vol. 1, p. 14.
10. Herbert Scoville, Jr., to Stafford L. Warren, memorandum, April 27,
1946, Warren papers, University of California, Los Angeles, Box 1, Folder
13; Bureau of Ships Minutes of Conference of 3 May 1946 (May 7, 1946), Warren
papers, UCLA, Box 1, Folder 13; Berkhouse et al., Operation Crossroads,
p. 105.
11. Fee, Radiological Decontamination, vol. 1, p. 4.
12. Berkhouse et al., Operation Crossroads, pp. 10612; Fee, Radiological
Decontamination, vol. 1, pp. 57.
13. Warren oral history transcript, vol. 3, p. 908.
14. Col. Cy Betts to Kenneth Nichols, undated memorandum, MEDR, Washington,
D.C., Box 26, Folder F-3-5; interview with Kenneth Nichols, Jan. 9, 1992.
15. Transcript of "Radio Bikini," The American Experience.
Boston: WGBH transcripts (#102), 1988; Fee, Radiological Decontamination,
vol. 1, ch. 12.
16. Harvey Wasserman and Norman Solomon, Killing Our Own: The Disaster
of America's Experience with Atomic Radiation (New York: Delacorte, 1982),
pp. 4344; Shurcliff, Technical Report, p. 219; Michael Uhl and Tod
Ensign, GI Guinea Pigs: How the Pentagon Exposed Our Troops to Dangers More
Deadly than War: Agent Orange and Atomic Radiation (Chicago: Playboy Press,
1980), pp. 3841; Studs Terkel, The Good War: An Oral History of World
War II (New York: Pantheon, 1984), pp. 7275; New York Times, Sept.
18, 1946, p. 1; Berkhouse et al., Operation Crossroads, p. 115.
17. Warren oral history transcript, vol. 3, p. 909; Fee, Radiological
Decontamination, vol. 3, p. 84.
18. Jack Schubert and Ralph Lapp, Radiation: What It Is and How It Affects
You (New York: Viking Press, 1957), p. 223.
19. Warren oral history transcript, vol. 2, p. 875.
20. Schubert and Lapp, Radiation, p. 224; Warren oral history transcript,
vol. 2, p. 875; Hacker, The Dragon's Tail, p. 141.
21. William Myers to Stafford L. Warren, memorandum, Aug. 27, 1946, DOE/CIC
140671; D. L. Collins, "Operation Crossroads Reports to Rad Safe Instrument
Division," DOE/CIC 140718.
22. Stafford Warren to William Myers, letter, Dec. 31, 1946, DOE/CIC
140703.
23. Berkhouse et al., Operation Crossroads, p. 50.
24. Shurcliff, Technical Report, p. 9.11.
25. Commander, JTF-1, Operational Report, pp. VII-9C)-4, II-(A)-2; Shurcliff,
Technical Report, pp. 3.4243.
26. Stafford Warren to William Blandy, memorandum, Aug. 7, 1946, p. 3.
DOE/CIC 140692.
27. David Bradley, No Place to Hide 1947/1984 (Hanover, N.H.: University
Press of New England, 1984), p. 104, pp. 109110.
28. Warren oral history transcript, vol. 3, pp. 907, 911; Stafford L.
Warren to Viola Warren, letter, July 30, 1946, DOE/CIC 140484.
29. Warren oral history transcript, vol. 3, pp. 914, 936; Berkhouse et
al., Operation Crossroads, p. 112, New York Times, July 30, 1946, p.8.
30. George Lyon to William S. Parsons, memorandum, May 5, 1947, DOE/CIC
140713.
31. Interview with David Bradley, Oct. 29, 1992.
32. Stafford Warren to William Blandy, message, Aug. 15, 1946, p. 2,
Warren papers, UCLA, Box 4, Folder 5; list of overdoses evaluated on Aug.
9, 1946, Aug. 8, 1946, and Aug. 6 and 7, 1946, Warren papers, UCLA, Box
4, Folder 1.
33. Warren oral history transcript, vol. 3, p. 937; F. G. Fahrion to
William Blandy, "Weekly Report for Week Ending 24 August 1946,"
p. 3, DOE/CIC 48648.
34. R. J. Rieckhoff and D. W. Jones to William A. Wulfman, memorandum,
Aug. 10, 1946, DOE/CIC 140634.
35. Stafford Warren to William Blandy, memorandum, Aug. 7, 1946, p. 3,
DOE/CIC 140692; D. R. Bergh, Flag Secretary, memorandum prepared on Aug.
6, 1946, Conference on CJTF-1, Aug. 8, 1946, p. 2, LANL (hereafter Bergh
memorandum).
36. General Accounting Office, Operation Crossroads: Personnel Exposure
Estimates Should Be Improved (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office,
1985), GAO/ RCED-86-15, p. 8; interviews with Ralph Lapp, Nov. 10 and Dec.
14, 1992.
37. Bradley, No Place to Hide, pp. 11314.
38. Hacker, The Dragon's Tail, pp. 35, 4041, 5253, 6165,
7779.
39. Report of the Medico-Legal Committee on Plutonium Hazard Associated
with Test Baker, July 22, 1946, DOE/CIC 140586.
40. Interview with Robert Conard, July 11, 1992.
41. Stafford Warren to William Blandy, memorandum, Aug. 7, 1946, p. 2,
DOE/CIC 140692; Stafford Warren to Commander Task Group 1.2, memorandum,
Aug. 13, 1946, DOE/CIC 140649.
42. Scoville, "Nuclear Radiation Effects," pp. 11, 46, LANL.
43. Stafford Warren to William Blandy, memorandum, Aug. 3, 1946, DOE/CIC
140630.
44. Col. Cy Betts to Kenneth Nichols, undated memorandum, MEDR, Box 26,
Folder F-3-5.
45. Bergh memorandum, p. 3.
46. Stafford Warren to William Blandy, memorandum, Aug. 7, 1946, COE/CIC
140692.
47. William Blandy to Navy Department, Naval message 0080303Z, Aug. 11,
1946, COE/CIC 48661.
48. William Wulfman to Stafford Warren, "Monitoring Problems"
memorandum, Aug. 9, 1946, COE/CIC 64034.
49. Berkhouse et al., Operation Crossroads, p. 27; Fee, Radiological
Decontamination, vol. 1, p. 13.
50. Handwritten teletype message from the U.S.S. Haven, Warren papers,
UCLA, Box 4, Folder 5.
51. Stafford Warren to Viola Warren, letter, Aug. 11, 1946, DOE/CIC 140498;
Stafford Warren to Adm. F. G. Fahrion, memorandum, Aug. 13, 1946, DOE/CIC
140666; Fee, Radiological Decontamination vol. 1, p. 13.
52. Stafford Warren to Commander Task Group 1.2, memorandum Aug. 13,
1946, DOE/ CIC 140649.
53. Berkhouse et al., Operation Crossroads, p. 119.
54. Stafford Warren to Viola Warren, letter, Aug. 20, 1946, DOE/CIC 140472;
Warren oral history transcript, vol. 2, pp. 844, 878.
55. Bradley, No Place to Hide, pp. 9596.
56. E. B. White, "Journal of a Contaminated Man," New Yorker,
Dec. 4, 1948, p. 171; Winant, "Command Problems."