THE B-29 DRONE MODIFICATION

My first trip in there was an eye opener. They had some of the toughest looking military policemen I'd ever seen waiting at counters that you placed your bags upon. You dumped everything out, and everything was gone over with a fine tooth comb. Tooth paste tubes were squeezed, shirt collars examined, and your shoe's heels were checked to see if they were hollow or hinged to conceal whatever. Then we were all off to orientation to be advised that our mail would be checked, and if need be, censored. We were sternly lectured, ''What You see here, what on hear here, and what you do here, stays here." Not complying with those instructions would mean you would be court-martialed! I think this island should've been nicknamed the military's "Alcatraz" with nothing but men, dogs, and water all around.

I was amazed at the "territorial areas" that the island's dogs commanded. Our dog Caustic stayed pretty close to the RAWIN shack a lot of the time, but she was well liked by everyone so she moved around a bit, and being a female wasn't harassed much. Her son Samson was another matter. He rode the bus just like the Gl's and every "territory" he passed, he'd poke his head out and give the residents" a thorough tongue lashing. He'd get on the bus at BASOPS, ride to the mess hall, scrounge some food, then return to the BASOPS.

Caustic was a piece of work. If no one brought her food from the mess hall, she'd go down to the beach where there were dead fish Iying about, have a brief snack, then come into the RAWIN shack and let a fart that would peel the paint off the walls. Do you suppose there was a message there, "Bring me some food. or else?" Don't get me wrong, I liked Caustic. She never barked, nor jumped up on anyone. When you leaned down to pet her, she just wagged her tail and dipped her head, thankful for being noticed. To me, I thought she was totally cool the way she never got in anyone's way and went off to fend for herself if no one fed her. In fact she would go in the shack and "cut the cheese" may have been diet induced, but the guys interpreted it as a message to remember her. More than once I heard the guys say, "If you guys are going to chow, bring something back for Caustic, PLEASE!!"

I remember at one time a Navy supply ship came in and these seamen brought a pet cat ashore with them. The island dogs didn't know what to make of this tunny looking thing with the long tail. As the cat walked along the road the dogs would bark and keep circling the cat. They finally got close to Shithead's territory. Shithead growled a couple of times at the dogs and they decided to pull back and watch. Shithead started snarling and baring his teeth at the cat. That cat must've figured this was the guy trouble would come from, because he arched his back, hissed, his tail started whipping around, and he stood his ground. Tired at messing around, Shithead charged the cat, and at that the cat sank his claws right into Shithead's nose. That dog took off whimpering like crazy. From that day forward, you could always tell where that cat was, because those dogs parted like the Red Sea to allow the cat to go by. The animals on that island, to me, were ranked as morale boosters right up there behind mail call.

During one of the tests, we were asked to launch a balloon just prior to a blast. Under normal conditions, during a run, when the balloon is gaining altitude and there is a cooling trend to the temperature on the chart, when the instrument hits the hot air trapped in the atmosphere, there is an inversion of the chart. Following that momentary jog on the temperature curve, the signal shows the temperature cooling off again as the balloon gains more altitude. The atomic blast occurred miles away, but you should've seen "that" inversion.

Chapters
|| The Assignment || Eniwetok || The B-29 Drone Modification ||
|| The Hydrogen Bomb Test] ||
|| Rongerik part 1 || Rongerik part 2 || Rongerik part 3 ||
|| Mystery and Reflections ||

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