IX
the scale,
As he completed the pass through the cloud,
he banked so sharply for a second pass that the blood
rushed from my head. We had pulled several times the
force of gravity and my hands were frozen against my
knees, but the right tum was a requirement to get
back. into the rapidly dissipating cloud,
Our second reading was five roentgens, the third
was 21/2, In all we made about a dozen passes through
the mass before. Dr, Edward Flemming (University of
California Radiation Laboratory sampler controller
aboard the sample control B-57 airplane) told us to
return to the base,
As we left the shot area, I threw a switch to
close the butterfly valves on the wing tanks, We
had obtained oar samples of radioactive dust for the
laboratories. The sleek jets touched down om the runway,
and radiological safety officers prepared to remove us
from the plane, without touching the "hot" sides of the
craft, The samples from the wing tip tanks were also
removed remotely,
and I were both given a thorough going
over with a geiger counter, I was prenounced safe, but
the pilot's hands were radioactive.
A little soap and water removedthat hazard and we
adjourned to the officers! club to collect our reward for
beating the other two planes back to the base,
Pilots from the 4926th counted 88 cloud sampling sorties on 29 shots,
with a total of 97 hours with B-57B samplers,
squadron stood by only,
On a number of shots, the
During Phase II, the 926th added a number of
"firsts" to its record, Pilots sampled 29 shots within the short span of
49 days.
On 22 October, the Squadron flew four missions on four different
shots, three of which were full-scaled nuclear blasts,
On 21 October,
pilots performed the first night cloud sampling operation for the SANFORD
Shot, making use of the clear sky and light from a full moon,
Finally,
for the first time, they flew through a cloud with three nationally-known
newsmen,
21
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