STATEVENT OF CAPPALN JANSS §. RUSSSILL, USN, TES? DIRECTOR, JOINT TASK FORCE SEVEN, AT PRESS CONFERENCE, HEADQUARTERS, USAHPAC, FORT SHAFTER, T.H., MAY 18, 1948. On behalf of the Mited States Atomic Unergy Commission, I wish to acknowledge the outstanding contribution to progress in the development of atomic weapons which General Hull has made as Gommander Joint Task Force Sevene Joint Task Force Seven was formed because the scope of opsrations at the Commission's Froving Ground at Eniwetok reqiired the assistance and services of all Departments Joint Task Force Seven “3 © of the National Hilitary Establishment. Ca provided #he command structurc, the military and inteernal security, the moans for an overseas movement to a va ¢ 4500 miles from the mainland, the construction forces, and ths opcrating force for the Eniwetok Proving Grounde Sot only was it a completely unificd operation of the Army, Navy, end Air Force including the Armed Forecs Special Weapons Frojcet, but it was a combincd operation of military personnel and civilian scientists and tcehnicians of the Atomic Energy Commission and its contractors. The support given to the AnC Frovins Gr ound Group which & the assistance 3 of the operations, conducted the tests was complete, and wit! of military personnel in the technical rhea the test program could not have been carri + , + by Cc) ; a The successful completion of this test program is a triumph for the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, weapon development work for the Commission is carricd on. It i Dr. Darol Ke. Froman and tre remarkabic scien staff which he assemblicd for these COGUG « nga Atomic Energy Commission, I wish to conrratu and his staff. 9 a triumph for ec and technical behalf of the Doctor Froman 4s Test Director for the Commission, want to pay tribute to the work of Dr. Alvin C. Graves as Deputy Scientific Director under Doctor Froman anc to Colonel Faul tT. Feruss, Deputy Test Pircctor. USAF, as Ci Tr order to undcerst nd thec importance of the operations of Joint Task Fores Seven it: i Ss necessary; only to consider thc reasons why these tests were h 7 During the per}od of wartime dcvelopment of atomic energy, +t c onc goal relenticesly nursucd was the e a mb which woulda work - - and work in timé to be. effective in Worle War IT. It had only to work; it needed not to be too efficicnt, and the rclatcd problems of cnginccring and production were dcalt with in the urgency of wartime conditions. ta cr The bomb did work. It worked initially at tlamagordo, N.M., where the first test took place on July 16, 1945. It worked again at Hlroshima and Nagasaki, then the following year at Bikini. SY