VII
of aircraft areas, proper marking and lighting of obstructions, safe
positioning of test array aircraft, and specific instructions for each

element of all test operations,

A task group operations officer coordinated

with tower personnel all instructions from the air operations center,
Determining Aircraft Positioning Responsibility
Immediately rumors started circulating about a subsequent overseas

series, officials of CASTEE began to advise possible successors for REDWING
on better arrangements for aircraft positioning,

Apparently few officials

were satisfied with the split-résponsibility for controlling aircraft as
practiced in Operation CASTEE,

An outspoken advocate for assiening the

control responsibility in a military mannér was Colonel Herschel D. Mahon,
of the Air Force Special Weapons Center, who recommended to Colonel David
O. Byars, Jr., Joint Task Force Seven, that

the commander responsible for

aircraft control should also be responsible for safe positioning.

He

recommended that the commander, Task Croup 7.4, be held responsible for

positioning, -” On 27 May 1955, Brigadier General HowellM. Estes wrote
to Brigadier General William M, Canterbury, Commander, Air Force Special
Weapons Center:

‘Although it is none of my business . . . The second

problem involves the interrelationships between the commander, Task Group

7.4 and the commander. Task Group 7.1 in their mtual responsibility to
the Commander, Joint Task Force for positioning of aircraft andparticularly for positioning of the weapons effects test aircraft,"

He

introduced some of the difficulties encountered in previous tests.

20

"However, it had one big difficulty in that the one individual was

152

SWEH-2-003)

1
AFWL/HO

Select target paragraph3