worry--if there were, the men would not be on the island.

Anyway,

the test was so far away.

At about 11° 33' north latitude and 165° 32' east longitude was
the tsland of Bikini, sikini Atoll, some 229.42 square miles of
turquoise waters surrounded by a reef sporting 36 islands or islets.
On one of those islets sat a device surrounded by steel and concrete

and costing millions of dollars.

The device represented the culmina-

tion of the efforts of tne German scientists at the Kaiser Wilhelm

Institute in 193%, Enrico Fermi and his Chicago Group in 1942, the
Manhattan Project whicn developed the first atomic bombs, and postwar
efforts by such renowned scientists as Dr. Edward Teller, together
with tne testing at tne Pacific Proving Grounds of bikini and Enewetok.
Cold, inorganic and impersonal--it was just there.

Composed of 200,

pounds of uranium 235, 200 pounds of lithium deuteride, and more than a
ton of uranium 238, complicated mechanisms and electronic circuitry to
insure it would go off, and go off at the proper time upon a radio
c:mmand.

‘the device was there, and its sensory apparatus awaited the

numan signal to order it to transform itself into a living, terrifying

giant--a giant which would live and in its living destroy itself and
everything within its reach.

Cold, efficient, and unfeeling,

it sat on

the island, oblivious to the muffled roar of the surf on the reef.
nhougaly thirty miles east of the device and seventy miles vest of

4

hongelap, ships of Joint Task Force Seven heaved and fell against tue
swells.

Aboard the dull, grey ships were five basic groups comprising

the waole force:

7.1 scientific and technical personnel;

69

aE

7.2 the Army;

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