127 Ill 13 March. The advance echelon was under the comuand of Volonel Paul he Wignall, Deputy Commander, who relinquished his command to Colonel Kieffer when the latver arrived at Eniwetok on 10 March 1958. The rear echelon, which remained at Kirtland throughout the operational period, was under the command of Major James A. sshcraft until 1 July 1958, when Major George L. Trimble, Jr. returned from sniwetok to Kirtland and as= sumed cownand, As the transition was begun from the planning phase to the joperational phase, most of the principal planning projects had reached, or + nearly reached, comoletion, For example, the Air Operations Center, an especially important planning item, began operation in mideKarch and provided training for newly-assigned controllers who had little or no experience with control functions in nuclear test operations. During this transitional period, also, the B36 crews, which had previously received little training under conditions completely simulating shot circumstances, were put in trained readiness for the test program, Zhe problem of acquisition and transportation of supplies and equipment had been reduced, alth-ugh some backlogs continued to accumulate but did not seriously impede normal operations. The Overati. nal phase of .peration HanDT.CK was begun on 14 march 1958, according to a Joint fask Force SaVuix messagel received by l'ask Grouv 7.4 on 1s morcn. AF WL/ iQ 2