er When these stations were origtihty constructed the layout of buildings and structures was haphazard at best.

Prefabs were erected at any

convenient open space, regardless of their distance from related activities.

In many instances the buildings had been erected without first pre-

paring any type of footing or foundation.

Most of the buildings had ply-

wood floors which would not support floor loads required for kitchen

equipment and storage of supplies.
lands were primitive.

Latrine facilities on all the is-

There were no shelters for critical equipment,

such as walk-in type refrigerators, as well as no concrete pad foundations or shelter for gasoline-driven electrical generators.

Nor was

there any shelter or storage space of any kind for the large stocks of

sensitive meteorological supplies and equipment required to sustain the
operation of the weather island detachment for five months.

On a morale

level, there were neither day rooms nor recreational activities of any

nature, other than outdoor movies.
Following BRAVO, the first shot, the twenty-eight personnel on

Rongerik and approximately 236 natives from Rongelap and Utirik were
evacuated to Kwajalein due to a high radioactive fall-out rate in those
areas.”

ILLUSTRATION 11, opposite page, shows Bikini-Mmiwetok Danger

Zone.
Not only did weather personnel receive information from such estab~lished Pacific stations as Tokyo, Hawaii, Guam, Wake and Kwajalein, but

from twenty-man weather teams taking radiosonde observations on these
four weather islands surrounding the RPniwetok-Bikinf area.

Finally,

eight especially modified B-29's were dispatched, three daily, to fly
ten and twelve hour missions in the areas of doubtful weather.

AFWLIHO

a

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