nog : » . : . ae . - a tehe tt ae at ee . . . OF re toe ea aa Rta Eo . ow ee heoe fs te et Wh 1 allla a 9 similar to those dropped on Japan. In Operation Crossroads, two bombs were detonated—the first, ABLE, an air drop over the 90-ship target array in Bikini Lagoon; the second, BAKER, an underwater explosion. Ogle sawthe first detonation, not as a flat picture, but with all the attendant effects of sound and shock. And 21 more he witnessed at Bikini. For Operation Crossroads was only the first of many nuclear tests in the Pacific. Ogle has participated in all of them, as an experimenter, adminis- trator for test group operations, and lastly as Scientific Deputy for Joint Task Force Eight. Although test operations shifted to Eniwetok Atoll in 1948 for Operation Sandstone, the increased rate of field testing and the advent of very high yield test detonations, with associated problems of site contamination from both, made it necessary to expand the Pacific Proving Ground. Bikini Atoll, 194 miles east of Eniwetok, once again becamethe scene of nuclear weaponstesting for Operation Castle in 1954. It was used until August 22, 1958, when Juniper shot of Operation Hardtack-Phase I signalled the end of Bikini's use asa testsite. This date also marked the beginning of a moratoriuminitiated by President Dwight Eisenhower which resulted in a complete cessation of all nuclear tests until late 1961 when Soviet Russia ended the moratorium with a full scale atmospheric test series. The United States followed suit with Operation Dominic, but did not use either Eniwetok or Bikini as a Pacific test site. Dominic utilized Christmas Island, an atoll previously used by the British for their nuclear testing program. Following the end of Dominic in the fall of 1962, negotiations between the United States and Russia culminated in the limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963 which prohibits all nuclear tests in the atmosphere. Although the beautiful islands of Bikini Atoll are far distant from the Jemez mountains of New Mexico, once they were temporary home for men from Los Alamos. Many LASL employees as- signed to nuclear test operations remember them well, if not always fondly, for overseas duty was frequently long. As full sunlight illuminated the atoll, our atrcraft banked low over Enyu Island's air strip and continued on next page The air strip on Enyu Istand can be seen in the foreground of this photo of Bikini Atoll. Bikini Island is just below the misty rain clouds which frequently hang over the atoll during the afternoon.