XT
that this experience covers eight operations in which
the sampling mission was accomplished by the USAF in an
outstanding manner with no knowinjuries,
f.

That, specifically, routine decontamination

of sampling aircraft is required to permit the
instrumentation and sample support technicians to work

on and in the aircraft, to prevent the build-up of
long-lived activity, and increases in the relative

background acquired by the airplane on cloud penetration
from an otherwise sticky traffic filn,

Dr. T. L. Shipman, Health Division Leader for tests, added a few

to-the-point remarks on 29 March 1957.

12

"Vie have always gone on the

theory that the only good exposure is zero, . . I could not disagree
more violently.

Perhaps this means that the Air Force is so superior

that exposure which might hurt other people do (sic) not damage them and that
rules necessary for other people not apply to Air Force personnel,

In

any event, I feel that this was a most unfortunate statement, . . E can
think of no finer argument to justify the decontamination procedures
which have been used in the past,

This sentence, in effect, says that

we may be able to permit sloppy methods and still squeak by.
philosophy I take a strong exception,"

To this

Dr. Shipman concluded, * It is

my recommendation that the philosophy expressed in this letter should be
firmly rejected as it applies to test operations in Nevada and Eniwetok,
and most particularly as it applies to sampling planes,

What the Air

Force wishes to doat their own bases and in their own tactical operations
is, of course, no concern of ours,"
An early report, "Radioactivity in the Cloud Produced by an Atomic Bomb
Explosion-Operation SANDSTONE," published on 30 June 1948, long served

238

ARALKO

SWEH-2-003),

45"

Wh

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