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TATEMENT. OF CAPTAIN JANMSS S. RUSSELL, USN, TEST DIRECTOR, JOINT
TASK FORCE SEVEN, AT PRESS CONFERENCE, HEADQUARTSRS, USARPAC,
' FORT SHAFTER, T. He, MAY 18, 1948.
On behalf of the United States Atomic Unergy Commission,
I wish to acknowledge the outstanding contribution to progress
in the development of atomlc weapons which General Hull has
made as Commander Joint Task Force Sevon.
Joint Task Force Seven was formed because the
scope of operations at the Commission's Proving | Ground at
Eniwetok reqiired the assistance and services of all Departments
of the National Military Establishment.
Joint Task Force Seven
provided the command structurc, the military and Internal security,
the mcans for an overseas movement to a base 4500 miles from the
mainland, the construction forec, and the opcrating force .for the
Eniwetok Proving Ground.
Not only was it a completely unificd
operation of the Army, Navy, and fir Force including the Armed
Forces Special Weapons Froject, but it was a combincd operation
of military personnol and civilian scientists and tcehnicdans:of
the Atomic Ener ay Commission and its contractorse
The support given to the AEC Proving Ground Group which
conductad the ‘tosts was complotc, and without the assistanco
of military personnel in the technical phases of the operations,
the test program could not have becn carricd out.
Tho successful completion of this test program is a triumph
for the Los Alamos Selentific Laboratory, where weapon development
work for the Commission is carricd one It is also a triumph for
Dr. Darol Ks Froman and the rcemarlatblic scientific and technical
staff which he assemblcd for these tes us
again on behalf of the
Atomic Energy Commission, I wish to co nempatulate Doctor roman
and his staff.
ent
As Teat Director for the Commission, I want to pay tribute.
to the work of Dr. Alvin C. Graves as Deputy Scientific Director
under Doctor Froman and to Colonel Paul T, Feruss, USAF,” a8 *
Deputy Test Director.
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Ir order to understand the importance of the operationsof
Joint, Task Force Sevan it is necessary only to consider the reasons
why these tests wore held.
uring the period of wartime develop-
ment of atomic cnergy, the onc goal relentlessly pursued was,the
ercation of an atomic bomb which would work - - and work in.‘time
to be effective in World war II.
it nad only to work; it’:needed
not to be too cffioicnt, and the rclated problems of engincering
and production wore dcalt with in the urgency of wartime conditions.
The bomb did work.
It workcd initially at Llamagordoy :NeM.,
where the first test took placo on culy 16, 1945.
It worked-‘tegain
‘at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, then the following ycar at Bikini.
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