At 0100 hours on 2 March, Task Group 7.4 at Fniwetok ordered all Air
Force personnel to remain indoors until the arrival of the evacuation
party.
Concurrent with each evacuation, Colonel Clinton S, Maupin,
Surgeon, JIF SEVEN, calculated the following dosages at the different
4slands;
110 to 125 r at Rongelap; 10 r at Utirik; 60 r at Ailinginae;
and the abovementioned readings at Rongerik.
These calculations were
based on the T71-2 decay law and were subject to change if further study
disclosed a change in the exponent.
The typical radiation rate meter readings were:
Rongerik at H plus
twenty-four hous, 1.2 r/hr gamma at approximately thirty inches from
_
the ground by T1B ion chamber; Rongelap at H plus eight hours, 374 mr/hr ‘
and at H plus fifty-four hours, approximately 1.4 r/hr of gamma; Ailinginae at H plus fifty-nine hours, 412 mr/br of gamma; and Utirik at H
‘ plus eighty hours, 100mr/hr of gamma.
All contaminated personnel and natives were evacuated to the
Kwajalein Naval Station for observation, treatment and housing.
On H
plus eight days, JIF SEVEN started operation of Prograni 4.0 under Task
Unit 13 of Task Group 7.1, to study and document the acute effects, if
any, of the over-exposed inhabitants of the atolls.
The medical group
was headed by Commander Eugene Cronkite and his party from the Naval
Medical Research Institute, Bethesda, Maryland.
Colonel Karl Houghton,
AFSWC's Human Factors Chief, visited Kwajalein twice to ovserve the
progress of their studies and to obtain any information of interest to
USAF ,
The dosage spread of the different groups of personnel covered the
range of estimated operational tolerances being considered by the
AFWL/HO
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