~5Command personnel were aboard ships standing off Bikini Atoll at shot time. Some fallout did occur on these ships but. by maneuvering the ships and by having the personnel remain below deck for a few hours the total dose was minimized. For example, my film badge later showed 150 milli- roentgens. By the time of our return to home base on Perry Island, Eniwetok, the radiation data on the northern island of Bikini had been obtained from automatic recorders and showed values up to the thousands of roentgens per hour at time of fallout. and times involved. These were not unexpected values for the distances It is to be recalled that until 1954 one school of thought held that high yield surface detonations would create intense fallout only in the immediate area of the shot and that most of the activity would be carried into the stratosphere where it would be scattered widely around the world, March 1, 1954 saw the dismissal of that school - perman- ently. As had been planned previous to the detonation, an aerial survey was made at H + 31 hours over Rongelap Island, 115 statute miles to the east of ground zero, The reported radiation levels were about 4.0 roentgens per hour (extrapolated to ground level). The aerial reading subsequently was shown to be somewhat high, yet it triggered a chain of actions that was desirable. Obviously, something had happened to the predicted fallout pattern - later it was learned that shifting winds had veered RORARGHIVES southward over Rongelap, Ailinginae Atoll, Rongerik Atoll and Utirik Atoll.