Subject: Dominic 1
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1998 07:39:00 -0700
From: Robert Hodes <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
To: "Mortensen, Wes" <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Wes,
Here is something that you might be able to use on your site some day.
As you know, some of the barrier crews were tapped to go to Johnston Atoll and Christmas Island in 1962 to participate in the atmospheric atomic
tests. All of these tests were all part of Operation Dominic 1.
Well, I found a web page that gives a description of every "event" (as
they were called then) in the Dominic 1 series of tests. The guys that
participated can go to this site, and if they know the dates they were
deployed to the area, they can get the names and description of the
tests. For example, the tests that I was involved with were called
Arkansas, Questa, and Frigate Bird.
Another interesting thing. On July 9 1962, they sent a large device up
into the upper atmosphere aboard a rocket. It went off in the late
evening before midnight. You may have seen it from Midway or Hawaii.
Vicki and I were attending a Miss Hawaii pageant at an outdoor theater
near Diamond Head when it went off. It was spectacular. The sky went
from pitch black to a bright turquoise green, horizon to horizon. This
wasn't just a flash - the colors stayed for a couple of minutes. At
its' brightest, you could have read a newspaper from the light. As time
went by the turquoise changed to blue, then dark blue, then purple, and
finally balck again. I'm sure many people thought that the end of the
world had come! When it went off, I remember saying to Vicki, "They did
it". When I had been on Christmas Island a couple of months earlier, I
had heard rumors that they were going to put up a "big one" by rocket.
Also, there is a web page for the National Association of Atomic
Veterans that I found:
http://www.naav.com/
I don't belong, but someone might want to join.
Regards,
Bob
