The destroyer was subsequently ordered to start evacuation the follow‘ag morning, 4 March. Between 1100 and 1300, 157 people were removed, anderwent decontamination procedures on the destroyer en route to Kwaja“ain, and debarked on 5 March. Questioning of Utirik inhabitants dis- closed that all had been evacuated. The destroyers evacuating Rongelap and Utirik were also directed to obtain drinking water samples from these atolls. A check of these samples indicated the drinking water contained from 2 to 28 times the task force standard allowance of radioactive con- taminants (for full-time usage) (Reference 65). The status of Ailuk Atoll, with a reported population of 401, came under consideration at approximately 2000 on 2 March. The expected dose without evacuation was determined to be less than 20 R, i.e., less than the standard used by the task force for its sampling aircraft crews. was the major factor in the decision not to evacuate Ailuk. 'i This All other populated atolls on the flight Able pattern received less contamination than Ailuk (Reference 26). During the afternoon of 2 March, a directive was issued to execute the offsite monitoring flights Baker and Charlie on 3 March. These flights covered all Marshall Islands south of Kwajalein and were conducted to de-~ S wR, termine whether winds at the 20,000-foot (6.1-km) level could have carried debris to the southand west and contaminated some of the southern Marshalls. The flights were executed on 3 March, but no significant ground contamination was found. An additional flight (designated King) covered the Gilbert Islands on 6 March for the same reasons. At the request of the task force, CINCPAC obtained advance clearance from the British for the Gilberts flight. A maximum of 0.00008 R/hr on 6 March was reported through CINCPAC to the U.S. Naval Attache in London (Reference 16, p. K-10). Throughout the actions involving evacuation of island inhabitants, the standard reference used to determine whether an atoll was populated was OpNav 122-100-M, June 1951, Trust Territoryof the Pacific Islands. 229