.,
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the paper would specifically cover the estimated overall cost of the project over the normal
operating expenditures of the Services concerned. The selection of a suitable test site and
the question of relationship and responsibility as between the Task Force Commander and
the directors of AEC activities also had to be determined before the paper could be presented to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Eniwetok Atoll was agreed on by the Joint Proof-Test Committee as the site which
more nearly met the specifications of availability as a permanent proving ground-not normally exposed to storms and with favorable prevailing winds and ocean currents with respect to inhabited land masses so as to minimize the deposit of radioactive particles.’
As to the relationship between the Commander, Joint Task Force Seven, and the AEC
Test and Scientific Directors, it was decided that the latter should be within the command
of Joint Task Force, but with a direct channel to the Commander and not subject to direction of the Joint Staff.
This latter question had been raised by Chairman Lilienthal of the AEC in a letter
dated 7 October.
The various Appendices to the paper were prepared by the respective general and
special staff sections, while the Chief of Staff and J-3 drafted the basic paper. The completed draft was gone over in detail on 10 October by the Joint Proof-Test Committee and
by Dr. Darol K. Froman, who had been named Scientific Director for the tests by the
Atomic Energy Commissions’s Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. General Hull approved
the paper on 13 October, and presented it to the Joint Planners on the following day, As
previously stated, formal approval of the paper by the Joint Chiefs of Staff on 18 October
1947 marked the activation date of Joint Task l$orce Seven.
‘ DailyRecord,Joint Task ForceSeven.
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