Saluting Those Who Served! Happy Veterans Day!
The Weekender Saturday, November 11, 2017
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Atomic test: ‘Sure something to see’ By RICK DANLEY The Iola Register
On July 25, 1946, at 8:34 a.m., 95 unmanned warships floated idly atop the aquablue waters of the Bikini Atoll, a secluded lagoon at the far reaches of the South Pacific. These were the target ships. Just beyond this flotilla, a ring of 150 support vessels, containing nearly 40,000 members of the United States Navy, created a perimeter line surrounding the group of vacant ships. A mix of submarines, battleships, aircraft carriers, drydocks, yard oilers, cruisers, destroyers, and high-powered dreadnaughts — these target ships were made up, primarily, of obsolete U.S. Navy ships and surrendered German and Japanese vessels. Viewed from the air, the pattern in the lagoon resembled a giant school of fish idling in the crystal waters, except, in this case, each vessel’s attention seemed trained on a single amphibious assault ship, the LSM-60, anchored at the very center of the armada. And for good reason: suspended directly below this ship, at a silent depth of 90 feet, the American military had positioned an atomic bomb. It was humid that July morning in 1946, but otherwise conditions were clear. The breeze was light, the water calm. It was for these temperate conditions, and of course for its utter remoteness, that the Navy had selected this section of the Marshall Islands as a prime nuclear test site. High-powered cameras were trained on the target fleet that morning. Newspaper reporters stood with pads in hand on the decks of the perimeter ships. It would be the first atomic test open to the news media. At 8:34 and 59-seconds, less than a year after the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, the U.S. detonated a plutonium
Celebrating our veterans
When the Register put out the word it wanted to recognize area veterans by way of individual submissions, the response was overwhelming. In fact, forms and photos continued to arrive past the point we could include them in today’s paper. From all across Allen County, more than 180 families chose to honor their veterans. Some listed their medals and various recognitions. Others dug up priceless photos. The brevity of what we could include is only a hint of the stories many shared with us as they brought in their keepsakes. For us, it was an exercise in humility to recognize the many in our midst who have served their country through the armed forces. We think you’ll agree as you take the time to view their names, photos, and tours of duty. — Susan Lynn
Clarence Henderson, 89, Neosho Falls, was a member of the U.S. naval team overseeing the 1946 detonation of an atomic bomb in Bikini Atoll. The explosion was part of Operation Crossroads, a military experiment designed to test the durability of naval warships, and was the first subaqueous nuclear detonation ever conducted. The test resulted in badly contaminated waters, and was dubbed “the world’s first nuclear disaster.” This photo was taken from a tower on Bikini Island, 3.5 miles away. device, which exploded with a yield of 23 kilotons, instantly vaporizing the ship from which it was suspended and destroying, either by its blast or through radioactive contamination, nearly every other ship in its vicinity. Dubbed “Helen of Bikini” by the men on the ground, the bomb was the first detonation of its kind in the post-war era. EIGHT MONTHS earlier, on the streets of Neosho Falls, 17-year-old Clarence Henderson, decided, at the urging of his three friends — Austin Dennis, Leslie Weiland and Loy John West — to take a break from high school and enlist in the U.S. Navy. It was Thanksgiving of 1945. The four boys said their goodbyes
to their families and boarded a train bound for the Naval Training Center in San Diego. After a term in boot camp, the young men were sent in their separate directions. Henderson was first assigned to an attack transport, the USS Renville, before taking assignment on an amphibious force flagship called the USS Blue Ridge. And it was aboard Blue Ridge, on the morning of July 25, that Henderson — who at that point lacked a high school diploma because his rural school pointed out that he hadn’t yet completed his coursework in U.S. History — became a first-hand witness to the detonation of America’s fifth nuclear weapon.
IT WAS CALLED Operation Crossroads. Its purpose was to test the effects of nuclear weapons on naval warships. The operation proved controversial from the start. On one side, a number of military and scientific advisors considered the test wasteful and impractical. The U.S., the world’s sole nuclear power at that time, had fewer than 10 weapons remaining in its stockpile, and it wasn’t clear that the data retrieved from exploding a near-replica of the fission bomb that had already been used in Nagasaki would justify the multimillion dollar expense. But the most urgent concerns centered on the potential consequences that could follow from detonating a ra-
dioactive bomb underwater. The results, scientists warned, could be catastrophic. And they weren’t far off. The immediate blast sank eight of the target ships and contaminated beyond rescue all of the others. Nearly all of the test animals on board the ships, pigs and rats mostly, perished. Native islanders, who were relocated during the runup to detonation, were forbidden from returning to their homes. The mission quickly shifted from intelligencegathering to clean-up. Glenn Seaborg, the long-serving chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, called Operation Crossroads “the world’s first nuclear disaster.” “The ship that I was on was considered what they called a ‘down-winder,’” explained Henderson. “And what happened was that some of it actually drifted over us, you know.” The commanding officers See HENDERSON | Page A3
Wildlife photographer to share tales
Weekend concerts ahead A pair of concerts are on tap today and Sunday at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center. The Kansas Army National Guard’s 35th Infantry Division Band will offer a free Veterans Day Concert tonight at 6:30 p.m. The Iola Area Symphony Orchestra will perform its fall concert at 3 p.m. Sunday. Tickets for Sunday’s concert are $5
Vol. 120, No. 13 Iola, KS 75 Cents
As one of the world’s foremost wildlife photographers, Joel Sartore has some stories to tell. He’ll share details Tuesday about his decade-long effort to create a photo archive of more than 12,000 species of birds, fish, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates in the world’s zoos and wildlife sanctuaries through the National Geographic Photo Ark. “Joel Sartore’s Photo Ark” will be presented at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the auditorium of the Bowlus Fine Arts Center. The show is offered free of charge. Sartore, who is roughly halfway through his project, See PHOTO ARK | Page A3
After a photo shoot at the Columbus Zoo in Ohio, a clouded leopard cub climbs on Joel Sartore’s head. The leopards, which live in Asian tropical forests, are illegally hunted for their spotted pelts. COLUMBUS ZOO AND AQUARIUM/GRAHM S. JONES/COPYRIGHT NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PHOTO ARK
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