Operation Castle (1954)

0800013 - Operation Castle - 1954 - 20:20 - Color, Sanitized -

Operation Castle was a six-detonation test series held at the Atomic Energy Commission's (AEC) Pacific Proving Ground in the Spring of 1954. This test series, principally conducted at the Enewetak and Bikini Atolls in the northwestern Marshall Islands, provided proof tests of large-yield thermonuclear, or hydrogen, devices.

Castle represented the end of a drive for a workable thermonuclear weapon and the beginning of the refinement of large-H-bombs into smaller and more efficient weapons. After Castle, the U.S. could choose in a range of small tactical weapons to large strategic weapons. From this point, weapons development programs concentrated on producing bombs of specific nuclear weapons effects -- heat, blast, and radiation.

The Bravo event of the Castle series yielded 15 megatons, the most ever exploded in atmospheric testing by the U.S. A scientific miscalculation caused the yield to be about double what was expected. Also, reports indicate that Bravo was the single worst incident of fallout exposure in all of the U.S. atmospheric testing program. Fallout was scattered over more than 7,000 square miles of ocean and islands, resulting in the contamination and exposure of military, civilian U.S. personnel working on the shot, and people of the islands who were earlier moved to a supposedly "safe" island but received large amounts of radiation. Acute radiation effects were observed among some of these people.

The shots in the Castle series were:

Bravo, February 28, Bikini, 15 megatons
Romeo, March 26, Bikini, 11 megatons
Koon, April 6, Bikini, 110 kilotons
Union, April 25, Bikini, 6.9 megatons
Yankee, May 4, Bikini, 13.5 megatons
Nectar, May 13, Enewetak, 1.69 megatons

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[outdoorpainter]

My father was at six tests. Each sailor was supposedly to be at only one. Given sunglasses, or tuck head beneath arm. My father passed away from cancer...the Navy and government won't own up to the Atomic veteran families, so he signed off on Meslothelioma, as the old ships had asbestos. That way my mother would be taken care of...after he was gone. He said that after one test, the sailors held up their hands and could see the bones, like an Xray. I myself am a Navy DAV...100%...miss U dad

[alanjay35]

My dad was in bikini in 1946 when he died he had mental issues they found all these little fissures and tumors in his brain i wonder

[Jim1971a]

The video is so nonchalant about the native population getting bombed and relocated.

[HamTheDog]

my dad was part of operation castle..he told me the scientist expected a 5 megaton explosion but they got a 8 megaton explosion putting the task force he was in too close to the bomb..he told me the USS Bairoko listed 45 degrees away from the bomb and stayed there for 15 secs..Bairoko is an escort carrier that was the flag shit of the operation..people got radiated really bad but you never here about it..

[codybebz]

this is intresting cuz im learnin bout this in history XD

[hans1066]

@xDJCRUZZZx

yes it would have been quite impressive...

[swizzletik]

Thanks very much for posting this and other related videos! There's an large amount of useful historical info in these vids. But this is being quickly forgotten in today's world. You're helping to keep history alive!

[xDJCRUZZZx]

imagine if they had astronauts watching this in space back then, then we could really see how big this was..

[hibypass]

It's a big world, it handled a lil' bit of radiation, with no prob...

[johnbarleycornmd]

thank you, as always for posting this rare material.

It is frightening to think that we performed so many atmospheric tests, as did the Soviet Union, France, the United Kingdom, and China.

To think that tons of radioactive fallout that have been released into our planet from 1945 to 1961 is frightening. Our biology is so fragile-something to think about.

I really feel for our atomic veterans. They really got the shaft.