and barreled the resultant liquid for analysis by radio chemistry
scientists.
15
During Operation IVY, a pilot recorded these sensations as he
penetrated the MIKE cloud,
_,
sampler Element
Commander, led the first flight of four samplers, code name
RED flight, and was first to enter the towering MIKE cloud.
The bottom of the flat part of the mushroom-shaped cloud
was estimated at 55,000 feet by the "Sniffers." So, RED
flight could only enter the stem of the mushroom, The
first penetration was made at near maximum altitude of
12,000 feet.
_ was vectored from directly
over the B-36 Controlaircraft to enter a small segment
extending from the stem of the cloud at approximately H
plus one hour forty minutes. He and his wing man turned
and flew toward the cloud for 15 minutes before making
contact with it.
Apparently the°cloud was so massive
that, although the controller aircraft seemed ‘to be quite
close to it, it was approximately 100 miles away. Upon ~
entering the cloud, each pilot was going to be well
occupied, First he had to fly the airplane on instruments,
Then he had three radiatio instruments to watch, remembering
critical informatio so that he could report it to the
we
scientists in the control ship and jot it down on his‘report
sheet.
And he had a stop watch so that he could time his'-
stay in the radiation over.one roentgen in intensity.
~~
Immediately upon entering the cloud, RED EZeader was struck by
the. redness of the cloud,
cockrit.
It cast a red glow all over the
His rad-instruments "hit the peg."
There was no
way of knowing how much hotter it actually was than the
capacity of his instruments. The hand on the integron
which showed the rate at which radioactivity was being
accumlated, “went around like the sweep second hand
on a watch . . . And I had thought it would barely movej"
Seeing “everything on the peg" and the red glow like the
inside of a red hot furnace was staggering and
quickly made a 90° turn to leave the cloud.
When
he came out, his stop watch showed that he had spent five
minutes in radiation over one roentgen,
He reported to
"D0G-2," the Control B-36, collected his wing men and then
it was time for RED-3 and *RED-b to enter the cloud.
RED
Leader cautioned them not to go in too far and they
disappeared into the cloud. Apparently fromsubsequent
events, RED-l,
’
"21h
apwlHo
spun out
SWEH -2 -003);
a
4
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