aur " 205 like a circus on closing night — every man had a job, knew what it was, and quickly did it. solved. The few minor problems that arose were quickly Turn-in of supplies and rehabilitation of equipment had started as early as mid-April, due to the available time resulting from the shot delays. Hed all shots been fired as originally scheduled, it was esti- mated that it would have taken fifteen days to accomplish what was actually done in the first five days after the last shot. Following his inspection of the Air Task Group on 19 May, General Estes stated that the only remaining work was roll-up of the weather islands. There was nothing to be gained by General Estes and his staff remaining on the is- | | land any longer. A rear headquarters had already been set up to handle Air Task Group affairs during the early post-CASTLE months. General Estes and his staff returned to the ZI shortly thereafter. By the day of the last shot a few small shipments of men and mate- riel were already en route to the 2I, but the mass exodus took on epic proportions within hours after NECTAR was fired, Approximately 1300 of the 1700 Task Group 7.4 personnel were returned to the.ZI during May, most of them leaving the Pacific Proving Ground within a week after NECTAR. Approximately 250 men remained on the island with the 4930th Test Support Group to perform normal housekeeping functions during the CASTLE-REDWING interin. Concurrent with the redeployment of Task Group 7.4 was the departure of men and materiel assigned to Joint Task Force SEVEN and the other four task groups. Almost overnight Eniwetok changed from a noisy, round-the-clock beehive of activity to a quiet, routine operation. On 26 June 1954, Task Group 7.4 was inactivated by USAF. AFWL/HO a 1 Until ii UZ