~ one ee wet eye tae ¢ ENCLOSURE III UNITED STATES ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D,C, February 3, Admiral Alfred C, Richmond Commandant . U.S. Coast Guard Washington, D.C. 1955 - Dear Admiral Richmond: - SistSteeisssThepurpose of this letter 1s to request that a suitable Coast Guard vessel be made available to the U.S, Atomic Energy Commission for the purpose of accomplishing the special mission hereinafter Gescribed, The Commission is in the possession of scientific data which strongly suggest that radioactive debris from Operation CASTLE, originally trapped in the North Equatorial Current, are now moving via the Kuroshio Current toward the islands of Japan and Formosa, It is vitally important to the Commission's scientific program and to the future use of the Pacific Proving Grounds to assess the possibility described above and to determine with greater precision the fate of radioactive con- tamination from the detonation of nuclear and thermonuclear devices in the Pacific. We believe also that should levels of radiation significantly above natural background be detected in Formosan and Japanese waters, important political consequences might ensue regardless of the fact that the activity is not conSidered to be harmful to health, Discussions with the Office of Naval Research and the office of tne Chief of Naval Operations (Op 36), and who we un- derstood were in contact with Captain C.G. Bowman, Commanding officer, Floating Division, and Lieut. D,A, Webb, Testing and Development Division, U.S. Coast Guard, led us to believe that (1) the Navy could not provide a suitable vessel due to prior conmitments, (2) a suitable Coast Guard vessel, an AVP, the USS Matagorda, was available to the AEC at Pearl Harbor, end (3) the procedure to obtain the vessel was a formal request to the Chief of Naval Operations, Hence, a letter to the Chief of Naval Operations, a copy of which is enclcsed, (with attachments), was prepared and dispatched, We now understand that the Chief of Naval Operations prefers that the AEC make direct application to the Commandant of the Coast Guard - which is this letter, the purpose of It 18 planned that the proposed survey be a joint undertaking by the AEC and the Office of Naval Research, We under- stand that by letter dated January 28, 1955 the Office of Naval = “2 (SECRETS ‘ cocway ™ “ roe aoa . .