| The Wetokian Web Issue |  |  | Summer 1999 |
| The Wetokian Web Issue | | | Summer 1999 |
June 28, 1999It's nearly July now and I haven't even thought about what to write. Here goes.
In the last issue I mentioned the research on the Rongerik accident and the interest expressed by Alan Day. He is still researching for his Bravo documentary and I have sent him several names and contact information for those who have agreed to an interview.
While this was happening, Boley Caldwell found Doug Keeney in Louisville. He has been writing on a book about Bravo for two years. He says he's about six months from publishing. He was pleased to get the contact information for those same men I reported to Alan Day
In several phone conversations with Mr. Keeney I was impressed with the amount of detail he has learned from his research. Just in ordinary conversation, he speaks of March Ist 1954 as if he was a bystander. Notes that were written, orders that were given, and attitudes that were expressed, are so real and straight forward he really does sound like an eyewitness.
So, in searching for those men for Boley and Sally Uehara, I came up with over twenty names and addresses. This is a good start toward a Castle Weathermen's reunion. Bernie Wynn, a 57th Recon B29 crewman, is considering setting up a gathering place in the fall in New Hampshire. I do hope he can work that out. I would be proud to know I helped in that.
Some of you know I received several good pictures of Wetok and Japtan. A good aerial view of the Nickajack Trail and some island scenes are in this issue. We have Mr. Richard Weaver to thank for those. Then later, Mr. Stanley Sigler, a friend of Weaver's came through with sharp clear snapshots of many places all around our little tropical paradise: The "Cattle Car", another Nickajack view, the mess hall, the weather station, Japtan palms, and others. I want to share these with you.
You will find a small preview of this collection on this issue's cover page. There are enough pictures now to publish a special pictorial issue. I'll talk to B.J. about that.
So, B.J. comes in with a trial page and I find there's still almost a column to go for Hoot's stuff. When she walked in, I was doing some E-mail and I'll share it with you.
From Paul Sulky: Harold, I have just read the two newest articles on the web 'Wetokian and they were interesting and enjoyable. The comment about the dogs confused me as I thought you saw some when you were there in 1958. Help me out here, please. Regards, Paul
And my reply: Good to hear from you. No, I saw no dogs in 58. Almost every day I went to Wetok from Parry to get the mail. I went over by plane (L 19 or 13?). So I never saw anything much of the island, except the terminal. It seems like I took the shuttle boat (The African Queen) once or twice. When I did take the boat, I had to catch the shuttle bus to the terminal. I can 't remember any detail of those trips. The first thing Burt asked me when I told him about being back there in 58 was, "Did you see Caustic or Sam? "
We did have an imaginary dog on Parry. Lots of fun in that. I got to an imagination level where I could almost see him. His name was Hodo. That was taken from the beginning of the word 'hodograph', one of our plotting charts for fallout. We let him into the mess hall and pretended to feed him from the table. A friend kicked him out of there one day because he was doing some embarrassing things under the table. That was just too real for me. I had to make an effort to ignore that dog from then on.
I wonder whatever happened to him?
Harold
| The Wetokian Web Issue | | Summer 1999 |