message stating that heavy contamination
pected on an 86° bearing,

238 nmi

(0.5 to 1.0 R/hr)

(441 km)

should be ex-

from Enewetak.

The message

did not reach the JTF 7 Radsafe Center until 5 days later, although no explanation of this delay is given by the source documents

(Reference 16,

p. K-4).
The question of how far east the P2V was when it left its track and
returned to Kwajalein is of considerable interest.
radsafe compendium
that Cit]

-

»

.

(Reference 16)

The account in the

says that "From the logs,

it appears

reached a position approximately 65 nmi due east of GZ

“the burst point} by 0950M only to abort"

(p. K-4).

The CTG 7.3 memo

(Reference 79) states that "a relief aircraft was ordered... [to] a
position 180 miles bearing 065° true from ground zero".
position where the previous search had terminated.)

(The approximate

If the first account

is correct, then the search broke off just before the Daigo Fukuryu Maru
would have come into view, whereas the second has the P2V flying right by
the fishing boat.

Figure 53 shows the track of the Daigo Fukuryu Maru and

the P2V abort point from the first account.

Figure 60 shows a plot of the

reconstructed fallout pattern at the approximate time the P2V aborted.
Cloud sampling began 2 hours after the detonation and continued for
5 hours, with aircraft working from 30,000 to 45,000 feet
on the south and southeast edge of the cloud

(9.1 to 13.7 km)

(Reference 16, p. K-47).

This sampling was performed close to the burst point and, although the

sampler aircraft were in contact with radsafe personnel on the Estes, little concerning the picture of the cloud's overall movement was learned.
Twelve or fourteen F-84s and two B-36s were used in this sampling, with

one B-36 acting as controller.
Fallout reached some elements of the fleet later, depending on their
positions.

The USS Gypsy did not receive fallout until 1400 and some

units were less contaminated.

213

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