XTII
Some seventeen of the officer personnel made a field
trip to the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory and received
a tour of the facilities, as well as a comprehensive
briefing on the projects and the future sampling requirements
of the Laboratory. We followed a myriad of steps in processing
the information derived from the samples collected by the 926th
Test Squadron (Sampling).
To a man, those in attendance felt
that the trip was extremely interesting and worthwhile in that
we had never known just what value our efforts were to the
overall program,:
The Radiation Safety Officer, Lieutenant D, R, Shields,
was sent TDY to the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory to
determine the effect of the neutron field on personnel
exposed in sampling Project KIWE A PRIME, Neutron radiation
is a phenomenon which occurs only at the time of the detonation
(sic) of fissionable material and only shortly thereafter,
Consequently, sampling aircraft and crews were not previously
exposed to it,
In the KIWI tests; however, detonation (isic)
is taking place within the reactor continuously and neutron
radiation is continually produced, and the aircraft and crews
are required to fly in neutron field, New measuring equip-~
ment and procedures are being devised to reduce the hazard -
encountered during the last test, In conjunction with this,
appointments were made for those personnel participating in
KIWI A THREE to go through the Human Body Counter at Los
Alamos prior to and after the projected tests, All aircraft
were given a complete radioactivity check on 19 September
(1960) and all readings were below the minimum radioactive
levels.
Deployment to accomplish its sampling missions for Project MUSIC MAN
became routine with the squadron, and although the first mission to East
Sale, Australia, was accomplished promptly and efficiently, subsequent
deployments showed improvement.
included:
Preparation necessary for such a deployment
The five B-57B aircraft for the Australian deployment, one of
which was to be aspare, modified for one UHF, on VHF and the new Single
Side Band HF (communications) equipment.
The aircraft were outfitted with
tip fuel tanks and were test flown at least twice,
After each flight,
personnel adjusted and rechecked all the equipment and the single side
band equipment,
Modification of the antenna loading configuration of
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AFWUHO
SWEH-2-0034
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