 is Bikini. It is here that the military and scientific personnel of Joint Task Force One will conduct the tests with the atomic bomb, only by unleashing the destructive force of atomic energy against an array of ships could the Navy determine the future ship design of modern naval seapower. The target orientation for test table was based on the directive of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It required that the 90 ships anchored in Bikini Lagoon be so disposed as to secure graded ship damage ranging from maximum to minimum. The battleship USS Nevada, Bomb Aiming Point, has been anchored at the exact center of the target array. Here to witness the completion of preparations is the President's Evaluation Commission. They will report the tests to the Commander-in-Chief. Lashed to the decks of ships are samples of military supplies and equipment, airplanes, jeeps, trucks and tanks, themselves, targets on target ships. Animals were placed aboard some of the ships to substitute for military personnel. A study of their future life history will provide invaluable information. Steel towers 75 feet high have been erected on Bikini Atoll. Within these structures will be housed the remotely controlled cameras and specially designed scientific instruments that will record the data resulting from the blast. Many types of special motion picture and steel cameras were encased in huge lead bolts. These unusual enclosures, built of reinforced concrete, to withstand the primary blast action were lined with thick sheets of lead to protect film from the effects of radioactivity which would otherwise fog the sensitive material. To further protect film from the effects of radiation, sliding lead panels built over the camera ports and designed to close automatically will seal the vaults, making radioactive penetration impossible. The immense task of transferring personnel and the vast quantities of supplies, instruments and special equipment from Quagalline to Bikini was relieved by PBMs of the Naval Air Transport Service. Secretary of the Navy James Forrestall comes aboard the USS Mount McKinley and is greeted by Vice Admiral Blandy, Commander of Task Force One. The Navy Secretary will be among observers witnessing the experiments. Preparations are now complete and crews abandon their ships. Shown here is Captain Low H. Bibby, commanding officer of the venerable old battleship USS New York. Everything is in readiness for the test table experiment and military and scientific personnel leave the target area. On Able Day minus one, command ships proceed to an area approximately 14 miles from the lagoon where the blast can be safely observed. Dawn on Quagalline, July 1st, 1946. This was Able Day. Army Air Force camera, observation and weather and instrument planes prepare to take off. The V-29 and C-54 photographic planes wrestle with cameras of every type and description. With almost 500 cameras trained on the blast, the test will be photographed from every possible angle. Poised on the loading ramp is the V-29 Dave's Dream, bomb-carrying aircraft. Army engineers of the Manhattan Engineer District have assembled and loaded into the huge plane the bomb that will be dropped on the target fleet anchored in Bikini Lagoon. With her escort to photographic and weather and instrument planes, Dave's Dream proceeds to the Bikini target. On E.B. Island, Navy camera planes, huge PBM flying boats, are loaded with still and motion picture cameras. Accompanied by Air Force photo planes, these ships will circle the target photographing the atomic explosion. In a wheatock, Army Air Force drones are preparing to take off. These pilotless planes will be guided through the center of the cloud column to record scientific data, as well as to provide valuable information concerning the effects of the blast upon military air. On board, USS Shangri-La at sea. Navy F-6F mother control planes are catapulted from the carrier's flight deck. When the monitoring planes are properly located over the ship, the drone aircraft are launched and temporarily guided from the carrier until control is picked up by the planes in the air. Everything is in readiness now and history is in the making. Observers at sea impatiently await the blast. Zero hour rapidly approaches and cameras start to grind. Just before the explosion, blast gauges are parachuted into the target area from weather and instrument planes. The bomber is over the target. The bomb is away and one second to go. In the following view, the blast will be seen as it was photographed in slow motion. In this view of the blast recorded from a camera tower on bikini, the suction caused by the explosion can be seen pulling the soot from the ship's stacks into the center of the rising column. The towering cloud column rose to a height of almost eight miles. The dropping the atomic bomb, the B-29 Dave's drink, returns to her base at Kwajalein. Not far behind are the Air Force photographic planes with a film record of one of the most amazing and spectacular events in the annals of history. Cameras are removed from the planes and the exposed film forwarded to photographic centers for processing and distribution. B-17 Air Force drones land at Anauitoc. These planes guided through the center, the cloud column, gathered radioactive dust particles in large filter bags suspended from bomb racks. The deadly radioactive dust bags are removed and carried to laboratories for testing and analyzing. Navy F-6F drones, flown back from bikini by mother control planes, prepared to land at Royal Island. When the drones near the ground, air control is switched to the ground control officer at the edge of the flight strip who lands the pilotless aircraft. Like the Air Force drones, the Navy fighters carried air scoops containing special filter papers for determining the concentration of radioactivity in the cloud column. Removing the dangerously radioactive materials were carefully indoctrinated in the procedure of handling such objects in order to avoid lethal burns from the fission products, deadly gamma and beta rays. At bikini, inspection parties make a preliminary appraisal of the damage to the target fleet. Burning from fires started by the low order detonation of torpedo warheads is the aircraft carrier independence. The light carrier was heavily damaged. The blast struck the ship on the port quarter, warped, buckled and carried away light plating and pushed up the flight deck so that it looked like a rooftop. The independence class carriers are built on lightly constructed cruiser type hulls which accounts in part for the heavy damage. Craft carrier Saratoga was undamaged except for a small fire in supply stores. Battleship Nevada, target ship of the array, suffered moderate superstructure damage and the deck aft was buckled. The paint on one side was scorched but did not burn. Period between the test Able and test Baker experiments was an extremely busy one. The immense task of making detailed and comprehensive inspections, recording data and reorienting the entire target fleet for the underwater test was completed. During this time Vice Admiral Blandi flew to Ranjurek to see King Judah, ruler of Bikini. During friendly visit the Admiral presented King Judah with several gifts. At sea aboard the aircraft carrier Sador, a naval photographic officer briefs the photographic plane pilots and lens experts who will photograph the Baker Day blasts. Taking off from the carrier are control planes that will guide the radio control drone boats. In Bikini Lagoon radiological reconnaissance boats directed from low-flying aircraft will be used as safety patrol vessels. Immediately after the blast these drone boats equipped with special instruments to record radio activity will be guided through the target area to capture samples of water and air. Determining the concentration of deadly radioactive particles is of the utmost importance since invisible gamma and beta rays kill without warning. Aboard the firing ship USS Cumberland Sound the Los Alamos Group of the Manhattan Engineer District enter the timing laboratory where the radio transmitters and specially constructed instruments for detonating the bomb are located. The timing laboratory scientists pass into the master control room. Dr. Marshall Holloway, leader of the Los Alamos Group unlocks and personally throws one of the master transmitter switches. The timing laboratory is a complex interlocking system of radio transmitters, timing recorders and scientific apparatus. As each hour approaches generators are started, transmitters warmed up, graph cards and time recorders changed and everything made ready for the blast. Each hour minus two minutes is broadcast from the ship and all hands stand by. Sitting at the central console switchboard with a microphone is Dr. Ernest Titterton assistant to Dr. Holloway. As he announces each hour minus 30 seconds Dr. Holloway throws the 30 second switch. Dr. Titterton at the automatic firing panel board prepares to broadcast the last 15 seconds. Three, two, one, fire. These pictures of the descending water column show the expanding cloud of spray and fog at the base of the column moving outward and covering the ships in the target array. Great quantities of radioactive water from the column descended upon the decks of the nearby vessels and ship hulls a mile away were drenched by the wall of foaming water. This wall of lethal spray and fog eventually covered the entire target fleet. The next scene is a spectacular aerial view taken from directly over the blast. Here is one of the drone airplanes flying over the target fleet after the blast. Photographic planes return from Bikini and land on their floating bases at sea. Cameras are removed and the exposed film forwarded to the Naval Photographic Center in Washington DC for processing. Despite the presence of radioactivity, safety patrols immediately enter the lagoon for a preliminary appraisal of the damage. In an effort to reduce dangerous contamination ships were sprayed with water and special chemicals so that inspection parties could board them. Fire hues, her hull ruptured by the blast action, was beached on Ennu Island in sinking condition. Admiral Blandy, General Kepner and Admiral Parsons survey the damage in the target array. Shown here is the Japanese battleship Nagato, which flooded and capsized five days after the blast. Seven and a half hours after the explosion, the aircraft carrier Saratoga Grand Old Fighting Lady sank as a result of heavy underwater hull damage. It must be remembered that the primary purpose of the Bikini experiments was to secure precise technical information which will be used to determine necessary changes in the design and construction of all military equipment and especially Navy vessels required to maintain your Navy at maximum effectiveness. We must be fully prepared to protect our national security promptly and effectively in the event that we are attacked. We must defend ourselves against this new and elemental force or be destroyed by it. This is Crossroads.