VIII
prepare aircraft for nuclear cloud sampling.

This section also removed

the cloud samples from the aircraft and prepared them for shipment to
. appropriate laboratories for analyses,

In addition, the Nuclear Applica-

tions Section operated aircraft decontamination and personal dosimetry
facilities,

The squadron operated independently on temporary duty for

extended periods of time, to provide the personnel to fill out the Test
Aircraft Unit, and furnish limited support to the austerely manned elements
participating in nuclear test operations,

These extended periods of

temporary duty made it imperative that the squadron operated independently

of any consolidated base function, particularly that of maintenance,
Under the command of Colonel A, Ousley during Operation REDWING, the
L926th Test Squadron (Sampling) was fully operational and worked closely

with eight separate operational elements,

The Sampling Decontamination

Element conducted nuclear cloud sampling operations with ten F-8)G and six

B-57B aircraft.

These aircraft met the sampling requirements of nuclear

clouds which consisted of five samples per detonation ranging in altitudes
up to 55,000 feet.

They procured samples through use of exposed filter

papers during flight through the nuclear clouds or in gas bottles filled
under similar conditions,

Its members removed bottles or filter papers

through specific techniques and stored and shipped these samples to the
Atomic Energy Comission in the States,

It also functioned as an adminis-

trative group headquarters for the Test Aircraft Unit.

The Indirect Bomb Damage Assessment Element, a detachment of the 30lst
Bombardment Wing, Strategic Air Command, Farksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana,

268

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Select target paragraph3