17 AIR TASK GROUP PLANNING FOR THE OPERATION Concurrent with the build-up of men and materiel for CASTLE, Air Task Group staff officers were faced with numerous problems, same of them typical of any Air Force organization. Someof their problems, however, were peculiar to an organization assigned to such a mission. A. THEHIGH ALTITUDE SAMPLING PROBLEM The experimental use of a B~57 to determine its desirability for. ; future operations and for long-range sampling and photography missions in event of an atomic war, was first discussed by General Estes and representatives of Task Groups 7.1 and 7.4 at Los Alamos on 13 August. The following day in Baltimore, Lt General Donald L. Putt, Commander of ARDC, stated that the availability of a B-57 for CASTLE would be an- nounced at the earliest possible date. By October, the Air Task Group had decided that a B-57 would be used if at all possible, LASL hed al- ready forwarded requirements and specifications for B-57 sampling wing tanks (LAWIT-7) to Tracerlab, Inc., of Berkeley, California, In early October 1953, however, production of these tanks was at a complete standstill because complete specifications requested from the Glenn L. Martin Company had not been received. In addition, all of the Tracerlab engi- neers were tied up on the B-36 sampling device (LABB-6) until the first of November. Tracerlab's chief engineer stated that their initial de- sign for airflow was not compatible with the B-57 tank then in production. Sa AFWL/HO 24