CHAPTER
IV
SAMPLING OPERATION UPSHOT/KNOTHOLE
Late in 1951, the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project recommended
a series of mclear tests to be conducted at the Nevada Test Site to
-
determine the effects of nuclear detonations on military equipment and
some types of structures,
This series of tests, called KNOTHOLE, was
approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff in December 1951, and scheduled
for April 1953, While Operation TUMBLER/SNAPPER was being conducted,
the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory proposed a development test: operation,
Operation UPSHOT, to be conducted in Nevada in the fall of 1952, These tests
received approval also and became combined with the KNOTHOLE tests » but
delayed until 1953. Intensive planning for Operation UPSHOT/KNOTHOLE
was under way by December 1952, as soon as Operation Ivy ended inthe
Pacific.
‘
Sampling Planning
Colonel Daniel E. Hooks, Chief of Staff at the Air Force Special
Weapons Center, wrote the commander of the 925th Test Group (Atomic ,
outlining functions which would be required during the test series.
Among these duties were provisions for sampling aircraft, control aircraft,
and crews ? in all about nine sampling aircraft,-
In return, Colmel
Osmond J. Ritland, commanding the test group, asked that nine F-8hG
aircraft, modified for cloud sampling, be assigned to his group,
In
addition, Colonel Ritland asked for one T-33 aircraft with which to train
personnel in sampling techniques.
80
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The 925th also needed 18 qualified
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