- « + personnel directly in front of the blowers later developed minor radiation burns on the neck and around the beltline. These burns were not immediately discern~ ible but showed up a few days after exposure. Successfully treated as ordinary skin irritations, these burns were no more serious than to cause some discomfort in the hot climate. Evacuation, Disposition, and Reentry BIKINI SHOTS. standard procedure. - Bikini personnel evacuations before shots followed a Once a shot device was armed, no major ships were permitted within its vicinity. Eneu Island served as a staging area for the personnel who were ashore preparing for a shot. Ships scheduled to take on passengers anchored off the island at about 1300 on p-1l. All Passengers were on board before nightfall and in time to conduct a thorough muster. The following ships received the majority of evacuees: Fred C. Ainsworth: Curtiss: H&N construction personnel scientific and technical personnel Bairoko: personnel scheduled for early reentry via helicopter, such as radsafe monitors, the teams responsible for restoring basic services in the shore camps, and firing party boat crews @® Estes: staff personnel from the task force and task group headquarters and their commanders, firing party personnel, and, when required, firing party boat crews @ USS Belle Grove: H&N small craft dispatcher and boat pool personnel from both TG 7.3 and TG 7.5. Most ships left the lagoon for their assigned operating areas before the shot device was armed. The only exceptions were the Belle Grove, the tug assigned to tow the shot~-site support barge (YCV) to sea, and the Estes, which evacuated the firing party (Reference ll, p. lla). No ship other than the Estes was permitted within 20 nmi (37 km) of ground zero once the firing circuit for the shot device was ready to activate (Refer- ence ll, p. 6-5). After the task group ships cleared the lagoon, they proceeded to assigned operating areas in a sector generally southeast of the lagoon. 123