SeeRET oH Concurrent with the build-up of men and materiel for CASTLE, Air Task Group staff officers were faced with numerous problems, some of them typical of any Air Force organization. Some of their problems, however, were peculiar to an organization assigned to such a mission. . A. THE HIGH ALTITUDE SAMPLING PROBLEM The experimental use of a B~57 to determine its desirability for future operations and for Long-range sempling and photography missions in event of an atomic war, was first discussed by General Estes and re- presentatives of Task Groups 7.1 and 7.4 at Los Alamos on 13 August. The following day in Baltimore, Lt General Donald L. Putt, Commander of ARDC, stated that the availebility of a B-57 for CASTLE would be announced at the earliest possible date. By October, the Air Task Group had decided that a B-57 would be used if at all possible. LASL had al- ready forwarded requirements and specifications for B-57 sampling wing tanks (LAWT-7) to Tracerlab, Inc., of Berkeley, California, In early October 1953, however, production of these tanks wes at a complete standstill because complete specifications requested from the Glenn L. Martin Company had not been received. In addition, all of the Tracerleb engi- neers were tied up on the B-36 sampling device (LABB-6) until the first of November. Tracerlab's chief engineer stated that their initial de- sign for airflow was not compatible with the B-57 tank then in production. BEST AVAILABL E copy ‘Phy a .os