Histories Compiled by Ewa Historian John Bond
1962 NAS Barbers Point Operation Dominic
B-52 Atomic Bomb Drop Tests
Naval Air Station Barbers Point Played A Major Supporting Nuke Test Role
Photo shows runway “hotpad” at NAS Barbers Point for loading and unloading of bombs and missiles which were taken over to a nearby storage facility for quick access. This also included nuclear weapons. For longer term storage and later access they were taken over to West Loch and Waikele by armed Marine Corp convoys.
Considering the new post Cold War era of a potential missile war with China or North Korea, Hawaii’s new concern with incoming nuclear missiles (which became a political disaster,) threats by China to invade Taiwan, threats by Kim Jong Un to test H-Bombs in the Pacific, it is interesting that Hawaii also was a onetime major player in nuclear warfare bomb tests.
Naval Air Station Barbers Point was once a major Pacific nuclear weapons hub for testing, storage and deployment of a variety of nuclear bombs. Today the “few” unknown that remain after the closure of NASBP in 1999 are stored at West Loch NAD, Pearl Harbor, but the later operational “nukes” used to be stored around the former navy airbase, West Loch and Lualualei naval ammunition depots.
The massive nuclear bomb testing begun rapidly in response to the sudden Soviet Union announcement on 30 August 1961 that they were ending a three-year moratorium on nuclear testing. The US response was JTF 8 Operation Dominic which was a huge scale project comparable to a NASA space program or the WW-II Manhattan Project, but moved at very high speed by order of President John Kennedy.
NAS Barbers Point shares a very close historical relationship with early atomic bomb tests and nuclear waste disposal issues such as washing down bomb test aircraft, disposing of ship test materials, radiation dosimeter badges, and artifacts from the many decommissioned ships that were involved in the tests. Many of the test ships and materials were also sunk off shore of Barbers Point. Other materials were reportedly buried in local landfills around the base.
Atomic bomb clouds were flown through by B-57 and the planes later washed off on Barbers Point taxiways that were part of the weapons testing area.
Also the hulls of numerous Pearl Harbor ships involved in the tests were later sand blasted and that residue was dumped in places around the former Barbers Point NAS base because they thought it was safe for land fill. Some of the sand blast materials were used by the Barbers point Riding Club for horse arenas and general fill. There were reportedly at least one death that may have been associated with the toxicity of the materials but it was all kept quiet.
Several years ago Navy trucks came over to scoop up the sand blast material and take it all away, likely to the Navy Barbers Point toxic material and land fill site operated by a private contractor. The same processing land fill processing facility is directly next to the former NASBP nuclear test program and weapons storage facilities. Today there are still reportedly classified environmental base closure issues still pending.
I was told a story by a Navy veteran of an A4 SkyHawk landing (1970’s-80’s) with a tactical nuclear bomb which came lose and rolled down the runway “on a base in Hawaii,” giving everyone watching a near heart attack. Fortunately the “Failsafe” mechanism, as designed, kept the bomb exploding. If it had it would have most likely been a conventional primer explosion but the risk was spreading materials all around the airfield and shutting down operations for a long time.
The 1969 Barbers Point Assembly Bldg for later bomb tests. Barbers Point was involved in all of the nuclear tests in the Pacific. Numerous declassified DoD documents, some only recently detail the use of building 278 to assemble the "device" (actually more than one) for the 1962 Dominic tests flown by B-52's from Kirkland AFB. Building 1682 was built a few years later.
B-57 recon jets were flown through the blast zone areas and then back to NAS Barbers Point
President Kennedy ordered this project at the height of the Cold War. They only had months to assemble everything as it was done on a wartime basis. There were many logistical problems. A lot of changes happened at NAS Barbers Point and West Loch, Lualualei, Waikele, as a result of this project. The Cuban Missile Crisis was a tense, 13-day political and military standoff in October 1962 over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba.
Everywhere, including NAS Barbers Point was on full wartime standby alert with nuclear weapons loaded and ready to fire. On November 22, 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Again all military bases including NAS Barbers Point went on full standby alert in case this was part of a Soviet Union nuclear strike on the United State.
Navy Chemical Dump Located Next To Atomic Bomb Facilities - Threatens Ewa Leeward Shores
http://kanehili.blogspot.com/2017/06/wetlands-navy-chemical-dump.html
Thermal Desorption Treatment of PCB-Contaminated Soil. Former Naval Air Station Barbers Point. Oahu, Hawaii. Department of the Navy.
https://triadcentral.clu-in.org/user/doc/TPP-BarbersPt-Thermal_Trmt.pdf
The original project EIS had the EPA expressing strong concerns but it was ignored.
NAS Barbers was the main link between the Pacific Island test facilities and the Treasure Island Naval Base. All these things in the Treasure Island story happened at NAS Barbers Point as well.
Bulletin of Atomic Scientists about the
Treasure Island cleanup issues
Treasure Island cleanup exposes Navy’s mishandling of its nuclear past
A California Naval base shutters, and contamination lingers decades later
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-military-legacy/
US Hydrogen Bomb Tests - Operation Dominic – B-52 Bomb Drop - Barbers Point Nuke Facilities - Restored Color
Shows B-52B 0013 at NAS Barbers Point being loaded with nuclear bomb, Flight code “Cowslip” dropping test weapon. This is the only time US bombers took off from US territory to intentionally drop nuclear bombs.
Operation Dominic 1962, Nuclear test - 1080p ᴴᴰ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gcJvNpgM8M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qruKqExXTc&list=PUFbzthhT2eRcBpEPc5FPGtQ&index=10
Our B-52B was briefly renamed Deterrent I for the Dominic series of nuclear tests in the Pacific in 1962. Shown here with a SAC crew from Sheppard Air Force Base, it had flown to the Pacific for the test series with a crew from Kirtland Air Force Base, which also participated in the tests, as did scientists from Sandia Corporation, the name at that time for Sandia National Laboratories.
JTF 8 Operation Dominic – B-52 Bomb Drop Task Force
Joint Task Unit 8.4.4 was organized 18 March 1962 at the Naval Air Station, Barbers Point, Hawaii to support the arrival of the advance party from Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico. Two B-52 aircraft instrumented specifically for research, development and test work plus two C-130 aircraft instrumented for gathering diagnostic data arrived in the NAS Barbers Point forward area on 2 April 1962.
The test on 30 October named Housatonic was the largest nuclear warhead detonated (8,300 kt) in the Johnston Island area when HMM-364 was present. It was not launched aboard a THOR but rather air delivered by a B-52 and was detonated at an altitude of 12,130 feet. The device was a MK-36 which had a diameter of 56.2 inches, a length of 147.9 inches and weighed 7,139.55 pounds. It was the last air dropped weapon of the U.S. atmospheric test series and was spectacularly successful. It is believed the photograph attached to this paragraph is the detonation of Housatonic.
On April 1962 the first of nine practice missions was flown to the Christmas Island drop site. Four missions were flown with 750 pound practice bombs and three with the dry run mission (DRX) shapes. All missions exactly simulated the actual drop for aircraft crews and ground instrumentation. On 25 April 1962 the first nuclear device was dropped from the B-52 aircraft. The last of 24 devices dropped by the B-52 aircraft was detonated on 11 July 1962.
AIR FORCE Magazine / December 2012
http://www.airforcemag.com/MagazineArchive/Documents/2012/December%202012/1212bang.pdf
Smithsonian affiliated, non-profit Museum located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is restoring its B-52B Stratofortress, serial number 52-0013. She is one of only four B-models in the world on display for public viewing, the first to air drop a hydrogen bomb and the only B-52B left in existence that has dropped atomic weapons - all during testing.
Historic USAF 0013 B-52B Stratofortress Restoration
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xss27xKJLus
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/b52-restoration#/
B-52B Stratofortress Restoration Project Launch - Jerry Hanks Restoration Project Coordinator
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrYboSjq4kA
B-52B Stratofortress Restoration Project Launch - Jim Walther, Museum Director
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=12&v=CwKcxcGKKyE
Marine Corps Operation Dominic HMM-364 support element
http://www.hmm-364.org/1962/dominic.html
Observers saw a brilliant white flash and noticeable heat pulse on bare skin.
The fireball was seen in Hawaii also. Brilliant streamers (beta particle auroras) were seen going north and south from Maui
Bluegill Triple Prime, on 26 Oct '62, was the fourth and finally successful launch of this high altitude test using the W-50 warhead in a Mk 4 RV. The 1000 kt warhead detonated at an altitude of 31 miles, approximately 19 miles south-southwest of Johnston Island. This burst occurred low enough in the atmosphere for fireball formation to occur, and observers saw a brilliant white flash and noticeable heat pulse on bare skin. A slightly distorted bright moon-like sphere was seen, yellow at first, then gradually showing green, pink, and violet hues. Blue-purple streamers were formed. A bright glow persisted for 30 minutes, at times bright enough to read a watch face in the dark. The fireball was seen in Hawaii also.
Kingfish was the last THOR launched device which was detonated on 1 November. The detonation occurred at an altitude of 60 miles. The dramatic visual (and other) effects were observed over much of the central Pacific. The explosion appeared as a bright yellow glow, at first circular, but elongating along a south-to-northwest axis. The long axis reached 125 miles after 30 minutes, and eventually reached 185 miles.
UNIQUE MISSIONS FLOWN BY THE 552ND AEW&C WING
http://www.dean-boys.com/dominic/unique-missions.htm
Blue straw Pictures A1C Billy Reynolds
http://www.dean-boys.com/dominic/blue%20straw.htm
OPERATION DOMINIC (BLUE STRAW) - Sometime during the last part of 1961, the 53-0542 takeoff.jpg (17694 bytes)552nd Wing was tasked with assisting the Department of Energy (Atomic Energy Commission) in testing of the Hydrogen Bomb at a little island called Christmas. Crews were picked and started training for this mission. We had approximately eight weapons directors, two surveillance operators and flight crews to man the three aircraft assigned. By February 1962, all training had been accomplished (survival training and tactical evaluations also had been accomplished). No one knew what this mission pertained to, due to the fact it was highly classified. In the first part of April 1962 the three aircraft were deployed to Hickam AFB, Hawaii.
The Wing had the designation of JTF 8.1.4. Everyone had to go through a records check and be issued a badge. Of course, the flight crews had a blue badge and in that badge was a dosimeter which would turn a different color if exposed to radiation. One of our aircraft would be the control aircraft and one would be on stand-by until the primary one got airborne. The EC-121 would be the first aircraft airborne and would be on station prior to the other aircraft participating in the testing being released for take off. There were various types of aircraft used in the testing. The main aircraft was the B-52 that carried the nuclear weapon. The B-52 would take off from Barbers Point, Hawaii. We also had the Canberra B-57F with the extended wing so it could fly through the nuclear cloud somewhere around 80,000 feet.
Disruption of radio communications over the central Pacific
lasted at least three hours and several communications satellites knocked out
The glow persisted for at least 1.5 hours. On Johnston Island a yellow-white luminous circle with intense purple streamers was visible for the first minute. Brilliant streamers (beta particle auroras) were seen going north and south from Maui. At Oahu a bright flash was seen, and after about ten seconds a great white ball was seen rising slowly out of the sea and remained visible for several minutes. Another major effect of this shot was the widespread disturbance of the ionosphere and the consequent disruption of radio communications over the central Pacific, which lasted at least three hours.
How the U.S. Accidentally Nuked Its Own Communications Satellite
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-us-accidentally-nuked-own-communications-satellite/
The day before launch, the U.S. had set off a nuclear explosion at an altitude of 400 kilometers just southwest of Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean. The test, known as Starfish Prime, released the energy equivalent of 1.4 megatons (million tons) of TNT—creating a huge electromagnetic pulse that produced spectacular aurora over the Pacific.
"The people who set off the nuclear explosion were totally surprised by the huge number of high energy electrons that were released," Brown says. "They had no idea this would be the case until we started seeing this huge flux, a hundred times what was predicted."
In February 1963 accumulating radiation damage finally caused Telstar 1's transistors to fail irreparably. Fortunately, the energized electrons had dissipated when NASA launched Telstar 2 a year later. By that time both the U.S. and Soviet Union had ceased high-altitude nuclear testing.
The electromagnetic pulse (EMP) from the test sent power line surges throughout Oahu (800 miles away)
At 0900Z the THOR lifted off Johnston Island and roared to an altitude of 248 miles where the W-49 warhead/MK-4RV were released and detonated. The test was quite spectacular with impressive light displays from an artificial aurora lasting up to seven minutes. The electromagnetic pulse (EMP) from the test sent power line surges throughout Oahu (800 miles away) knocking out street lighting, blowing fuzes and circuit breakers, and triggering burglar alarms. This was the highest altitude test and second largest warhead detonated during the Johnston Island portion of Operation Dominic and was probably the one that lead to newspaper headlines which read, "It Was High Noon at 11:00 PM Today."
Unpredictable Nike Missiles Launched With Recording Pods Rained Down But Where? None Were Ever Found
Soon after it was determined the THOR was launched in a successful manner a barrage of NIKE missiles were launched to gather additional data. The trajectory and splash down points of these rockets and associated recording pods could not be predicted as precisely as the pods from the THOR rockets.
One atomic veteran who was stationed on board another ship wrote. "The major danger, we were told, would not be from the nuclear explosion, but from the barrage of instrumented Nike missiles which would be launched to take readings on the detonation. The impact points for these missiles were unpredictable (I shot a Nike in the air, and where it fell…). Heavy steel I-beams were stacked on top of the instrumented vans to minimize damage should one or more of these unguided missiles land on us." This observation was reinforced by the fact that none of the recording devices of the NIKES were ever located by squadron flight crews pilots even though extensive search patterns were flown attempting to recover them.
Information provided by:
Donald L. "Crook" Crooker, former Cpl. USMC
James T. "Jim" Shepherd, 1stSgt. USMC (Ret)
Dennis T. "Denny" McKee, Maj. USMC (Ret)
Warren R. Smith, former Cpl. USMC
El Toro Flight Jacket, Dec. '62
Los Angeles Times, 26 July '62
Los Angeles Times, 11 Sep. '62
Warren R. Smith's Memories of Operation Dominic
http://www.hmm-364.org/1962/dominic4.html
https://bntva.com/2017/07/operation-dominic/
Researchers Locate Wreck of Battleship That Survived Pearl Harbor and Nuclear Bomb Tests
The wreck of the USS Nevada—a 27,500-ton battleship that survived both world wars and a brief stint as a target in nuclear bomb testing—has been found off the coast of Hawaii, reports Kristin Romey for National Geographic.
Researchers from cultural resource management firm SEARCH Inc. and marine robotics company Ocean Infinity located the Nevada more than 15,400 feet, or nearly three miles, below the surface of the Pacific Ocean. Per a statement, the wreck—found by Ocean Infinity vessel Pacific Constructor, which left port in early 2020 and has “remained at sea on a range of taskings” amid the COVID-19 pandemic—is situated 65 nautical miles southwest of Pearl Harbor.
In 1946, a slightly off-target, 23-kiloton aerial detonation and an underwater atomic blast left the ship damaged and radioactive—but still afloat. The Nevada ultimately met its end in July 1948, when it was scuttled during a more pedestrian training exercise. As Wyatt Olson reports for Military.com, a four-day shellacking by trainee ship gunners failed to sink the ship, but a single aerial torpedo finally sent her to the seafloor.
Bikini Atoll Nuclear Target Fleet - The final resting places of historic vessels used as targets in Operation Crossroads sunk off Pearl harbor
https://www.scubadoctor.com.au/article-bikini-atoll-nuclear-target-fleet.htm
Operation Crossroads: Pictorial Record
For an official pictorial record of Operation Crossroads at Bikini Atoll please view/download: Operation Crossroads: The Official Pictorial Record (Adobe PDF | 10.58 MB)
https://www.scubadoctor.com.au/downloads/operation_crossroads_pictorial_history.pdf
A series of two atom bomb weapon tests were conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946. The follow listings provide details of most of the naval vessels in the Operation Crossroads nuclear test target arrays, plus what happened to them. Listed below are two sunk off Pearl Harbor. Many others were sunk off Washington State and California:
USS Nevada (BB-36) Nevada-class battleship — Designated aim point for Test Able air-dropped atomic bomb, she was painted an "ugly" reddish-orange to help the bombardier's aim. However, even with the high visibility color scheme, the bomb fell about 1,600 metres (1,700 yd) off-target. Nevada was then towed to Kwajalein Atoll by USS Preserver (ARS-8), decommissioned on 29 August 1946, and then towed to Pearl Harbor. After she was thoroughly examined at Pearl Harbor, her final sortie came on 31 July 1948 when Iowa and two other vessels used Nevada as a gunnery target for practice. The three ships did not sink Nevada, so she was given a coup de grace with an aerial torpedo hit amidships.
USS New York (BB-34) New York-class battleship — Surviving the Test Able surface blast on 1 July 1946 and the underwater Test Baker explosion on 25 July 1946, she was taken into Kwajalein Atoll and decommissioned there on 29 August 1946. Later towed to Pearl Harbor, she was studied during the next two years, and on 8 July 1948 was towed out to sea some 40 mi (35 nmi; 64 km) and there sunk after an 8-hour pounding by ships and planes carrying out full-scale battle maneuvers with new weapons.
More Operation Dominic and Pacific Nuclear Bomb Tests
These included the detonation of the largest atomic device ever seen.
http://www.ufosnw.com/documents/projectdominic1962/projectdominicreport.pdf
The last atmospheric nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States
http://www.dtra.mil/Portals/61/Documents/NTPR/2-Hist_Rpt_Atm/1962_DNA_6040F.pdf
Operation DOMINIC Nuclear Tests 1962
https://archive.org/details/OperationDOMINICNuclearTests1962
OPERATION DOMINIC 1--1962
http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a136820.pdf
Operation DOMINIC I was a series of 36 atmospheric nuclear detonations
http://www.dtra.mil/Portals/61/Documents/NTPR/1-Fact_Sheets/23_DOMINIC_I.pdf
Operation Fishbowl
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Fishbowl
BOMBS IN THE BACKYARD
The U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project was completed in August 1998 and resulted in the book Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Since 1940 edited by Stephen I. Schwartz. These project pages should be considered historical.
https://www.brookings.edu/bombs-in-the-backyard/
A look back in history ... Operation Dominic was a series of 31 nuclear test explosions with a 38.1 Mt total yield conducted in 1962 by the United States in the Pacific.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Operation_Dominic
http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Dominic.html
http://www.sonicbomb.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=19
http://14mev.blogspot.com/2014/01/blog-post.html
http://archive.org/details/OperationDOMINICNuclearTests1962
http://www.dean-boys.com/dominic/dominic_pictures-1.htm
http://usafhpa.org/experiences/christmasisland/christmasIsland1962.html
https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/tag/operation-dominic-fishbowl-starfish-prime/
Declassified Documents
https://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKNSF-301a-002.aspx
Pacific Bomb tests in 1962
