Engineer Memoirs
As time went on they let us go out of the room. But while we were in transit, we
practically never left the room where these things were located. Maybe to go down to
meals. But other than that we stayed in the room with them--just in case--not so much
that anything would happen to this in an emergency, but that if there was any kind of
an emergency on board ship, they wanted somebody right there to deal with the core.
Q:
On the train the biggest concern would have been a train wreck, a derailment of some
kind.
A:
That's right.
Q:
So what ship did you sail on?
I sailed on the McKinley, which was the command ship.
A:
Q:
And there were 12 of you from Los Alamos?
A:
There were about 12 from Los Alamos. There were a whole lot more that went from
Sandia Base in Albuquerque.
The whole task force was big. It sailed under blackout conditions. I believe they had
The ships sailed in a convoy, with some destroyers escorting it, and all ships blacked
out. We stopped very briefly in Honolulu, maybe a day or two, and then went on to
Eniwetok.
Q:
Did you see the tests?
A:
Oh, yes. We saw all three of the tests. The tests were conducted on the northernmost
island of the atoll, which is roughly oval. Eniwetok is the largest island and is at the
southern end. It's in the quadrant from maybe four to six o'clock, looking at it
clockwise. The tests were on an island up north that would have been between twelve
and one o'clock.
They were on towers. I was involved with the assembly of the second of the three
weapons that were fired. There were effects tests done, and for the tests that I wasn't
on the assembly team, I worked on some of these effects tests. They measured the blast,
the heat, and the nuclear radiation that came out of the weapons.
Q:
With instruments?
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