Mobilization

Plans for brush clearing, soil and debris cleanup, and crater con
were reviewed, and equipment requirements were adjusted t

recent operations experience. Requirements were cancelled for 4

some of which hadalready arrived onatoll and had to be shippec
the United States, and 14 new items were added by the engineer
It appeared that manpower would have to be adjusted a.
construction engineers were due to be replaced by combat

cleanup forces on 15 November1977. The construction engineers
retained until their 179-day TDY limitation expired in Decemt

however, if the combat engineers’ arrival was delayed an equalti

would have delayed the start of cleanup. It was decided to reta
individuals in the construction forces having critical skills and tc
the mix of the replacement forces arriving |5 November 1977. In
to the four combatplatoonsscheduled to begin soil and debrisclez

the two platoons scheduled for Runit site construction and operati

extra construction platoon would be deployed. Some of the
platoons would be used to assist in completing construction, v
others would begin cleanup operations. The engineers predicted th

additional construction platoons were not provided, beneficial ox
would be delayed until mid-February 1978.85

Based on arrangements made at the logistics con!
COMNAVSURFPACships picked up cargo from the Militar
Terminal, Bay Area and delivered it to San Diego for later ship
Navy amphibious ships to Enewetak Atoll. Two LARCs, which |

towed down the Sacramento River from Rough and Ready De

several thousand measurementtons of other cargo were move

USS OGDENon 18 August 1977.86 Two weeks later, two more
and additional cargo were delivered to San Diego by the USS|

VERNON(Figure 3-19).

On Enewetak Island,thefirst fatality of the cleanup project occ

19 August 1977. Hull Technician Victor J. Priest, USN, was weldir
bow rampof a landing craft when preservative in the void area i1

ramp exploded, ripping a 6-foot hole in the ramp and killing t

accident was investigated by Commander, Amphibious Group
Pacific. Memorial services at the base chapel the following Sun:
attended by over 200 military and civilian personnel, includ

JohannesPeter and manyofthe dri-Enewetak.87.88

On 29 August 1977, the USS BOLSTERdelivered a YC barge
smaller barges from Pearl Harborfor usein intra-atoll transporta

JTG Logistics Officer took advantage of the ocean transport by h
YC barge loaded with over 100 measurementtons of cargo from |

Missile Range.89

Select target paragraph3