VII responsible to the Commander of each of these two task groups and consequently was never completely controlled by either," He also commented on the ineffectiveness of the officer responsible for positioning stating that he believed that the relative ineffectiveness of the man resulted from the fact that he was a Strategic Air Command officer and therefore "did not necessarily hold the full confidence of the positioning people fn Task Group 7.1." General Estes intended to show that the arbitrary assignment of a Strategic Air Command officer resulted in the assignment of an officer to that responsibility who did not have the level of test experience enjoyed by officers of other available units. He also mentioned the everlasting changes in plans made by the"scientific element" and the difficulties created by those last minute changes, "The basic difficulty in determining the optimum organization lies in the fact that the Commander, Joint Task Force, has in the past held the Commander of the Scientific and Air Task Groups jointly responsible for the positioning of the aircraft," General Estes advised. “He has required the Commanders of the Scientific Task Group to assure him that each aircraft will be in a position at the time ofdetonation which is safe from a scientific standpoint, and at the same time, has required the Commander of the Air Task Group to assure him that from an operational > and aircrew standpoint these positions are safe,n2l General Estes submitted two methods for solving the situation, Plan A assigned the entire responsibility for positioning of aircraft and the maintenance and operation all to the commander of the air task group. Plan B assigned joint responsibility through employment of a positioning 153 AFWU/KO SWEH -2~003h ar