id Enphasis in this short account will be found to be on broad operational problems of the Air Task Group, and on information on the results and significance of theoperation to the Air Force. _ ee. DELETED Operation CASTLE also showed that the system of firing thermonuclear devices from anchored barges (no thermonuclear device or weapon has to date been detonated as an air drop) in Bikini and Mniwetok Atolls was practical. By firing from barges anchored in the craters of pre- vious shots, the limited amount of available real estate was thus preserved for future tests. By leaving the reef intact, the lagoon was preserved, and lagoon operations were protected from strong ocean cur~ rents and roughness. The high-yield thermonuclear devices detonated on the surface at CASTLE ‘caused radiological contamination of personnel and natives in the atolls to the east of Bikini Atoll following BRAVO, and made it evident that the Pacific Proving Ground had outgrown its previously