Enewetak Atoll (; also spelled Eniwetok Atoll or sometimes Eniewetok; mh, Ānewetak, , or , ; known to the Japanese as Brown Atoll or Brown Island; ja, ブラウン環礁) is a large

coral atoll Corals are marine invertebrates within the class (biology), class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important C ...

of 40 islands in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

and with its 664 people (as of 2011) forms a legislative district of the

Ralik Chain The Ralik Chain ( Marshallese: , ) is a chain of islands within the island nation of the Marshall Islands. Ralik means "sunset". It is west of the Ratak Chain. In 1999 the total population of the Ralik islands was 19,915. Christopher Loeak, who b ...

of the

Marshall Islands The Marshall Islands ( mh, Ṃajeḷ), officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands ( mh, Aolepān Aorōkin Ṃajeḷ),'' () is an independent island country and microstate near the Equator in the Pacific Ocean, slightly west of the Internati ...

. With a

land area This is a list of the world's countries and their dependent territories by land, water and total area, ranked by total area. Entries in this list include, but are not limited to, those in the ISO 3166-1 standard, which includes sovereign ...

total less than , it is no higher than and surrounds a deep central

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') a ...

, in

circumference In geometry, the circumference (from Latin ''circumferens'', meaning "carrying around") is the perimeter of a circle or ellipse. That is, the circumference would be the arc length of the circle, as if it were opened up and straightened out to ...

. It is the second-westernmost atoll of the Ralik Chain and is west from

Bikini Atoll Bikini Atoll ( or ; Marshallese: , , meaning "coconut place"), sometimes known as Eschscholtz Atoll between the 1800s and 1946 is a coral reef in the Marshall Islands consisting of 23 islands surrounding a central lagoon. After the Second ...

. It was held by the Japanese from 1914 until its capture by the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in February 1944, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, then became

Naval Base Eniwetok Marshall Islands on the globe in the Pacific Ocean Naval Base Eniwetok was major United States Navy base at the Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands in the western Pacific Ocean, just to west of the International Date Line, during World Wa ...

Nuclear testing Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine nuclear weapons' effectiveness, yield, and explosive capability. Testing nuclear weapons offers practical information about how the weapons function, how detonations are affected by ...

by the US totaling the equivalent of over 30 megatons of

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...

took place during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

; in 1977–1980, a concrete dome (the Runit Dome) was built on

Runit Island Runit Island () is one of 40 islands of the Enewetak Atoll of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The island is the site of a radioactive waste repository left by the United States after it conducted a series of nuclear tests on Enewetak A ...

to deposit

radioactive Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A material containing unstable nuclei is consid ...

soil and debris. The Runit Dome is deteriorating and could be breached by a typhoon, though the sediments in the lagoon are even more radioactive than those which are contained.

Etymology

The U.S. government referred to the atoll as "Eniwetok" until 1974, when it changed its official spelling to "Enewetak" (along with many other Marshall Islands

place name Place may refer to: Geography * Place (United States Census Bureau), defined as any concentration of population ** Census-designated place, a populated area lacking its own municipal government * "Place", a type of street or road name ** Often ...

s, to more properly reflect their

pronunciation Pronunciation is the way in which a word or a language is spoken. This may refer to generally agreed-upon sequences of sounds used in speaking a given word or language in a specific dialect ("correct pronunciation") or simply the way a particular ...

by the Marshall Islanders).

Geography

Enewetak Atoll formed atop a

seamount A seamount is a large geologic landform that rises from the ocean floor that does not reach to the water's surface (sea level), and thus is not an island, islet or cliff-rock. Seamounts are typically formed from extinct volcanoes that rise abru ...

. The seamount was formed in the late

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

. This seamount is now about below sea level. It is made of

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

, and its depth is due to a general

subsidence Subsidence is a general term for downward vertical movement of the Earth's surface, which can be caused by both natural processes and human activities. Subsidence involves little or no horizontal movement, which distinguishes it from slope move ...

of the entire region and not because of

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...

. Enewetak has a

mean There are several kinds of mean in mathematics, especially in statistics. Each mean serves to summarize a given group of data, often to better understand the overall value (magnitude and sign) of a given data set. For a data set, the ''arithme ...

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

above sea level of .

History

Humans have inhabited the atoll since about 1,000 B.C. The islands were first settled by Austronesian islanders. The first European colonizers to Enewetak, Spanish explorer

Álvaro de Saavedra Cerón Álvaro de Saavedra Cerón (often written as Álvaro de Saavedra) (d. 1529) was one of the Spanish explorers in the Pacific Ocean. The exact date and place of his birth are unknown, but he was born in the late 15th century or early 16th century in ...

, arrived on 10 October 1529. He called the island "''Los Jardines''" (The Gardens). In 1794, sailors aboard the British merchant

sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...

''Walpole'' called the islands "Brown's Range" (thus, the Japanese name "Brown Atoll"). It was visited by about a dozen ships before the establishment of the German colony of the

in 1885. With the rest of the Marshalls, Enewetak was captured by the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...

in 1914, during World War I and mandated to the

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent fo ...

by the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

in 1920. The Japanese administered the island under the South Seas Mandate, but mostly left affairs in hands of traditional local leaders until the start of World War II. The atoll, together with other parts of Marshall Islands located to the west of 164°E, was placed under the governance of Pohnpei district during the Japanese administration period, and is different from the rest of the Marshall Islands. In November 1942, the Japanese built an airfield on Engebi Island. As they used it only for refueling planes between Truk and islands to the east, no aviation personnel were stationed there and the island had only token defenses. When the

Gilberts The Gilbert Islands ( gil, Tungaru;Reilly Ridgell. ''Pacific Nations and Territories: The Islands of Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia.'' 3rd. Ed. Honolulu: Bess Press, 1995. p. 95. formerly Kingsmill or King's-Mill IslandsVery often, this n ...

fell to the United States, the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

assigned defense of the atoll to the 1st Amphibious Brigade, formed from the 3rd Independent Garrison, which had previously been stationed in

Manchukuo Manchukuo, officially the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of (Great) Manchuria after 1934, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China, Manchuria from 1932 until 1945. It was founded as a republic in 1932 afte ...

. The 1st Amphibious Brigade arrived on January 4, 1944. Some 2,586 of its 3,940 men were left to defend Eniwetok Atoll, supplemented by aviation personnel, civilian employees, and laborers. However, they were unable to finish the fortifications before the American attack came in February. During the ensuing

Battle of Eniwetok The Battle of Eniwetok was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought between 17 February 1944 and 23 February 1944, on Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The invasion of Eniwetok followed the American success in the Battle ...

, the Americans captured Enewetak in a five-day amphibious operation. Fighting mainly took place on Engebi Islet, site of the most important Japanese installation, although some combat occurred on the main islet of Enewetak itself and on Parry Island, where there was a Japanese seaplane base. Following its capture, the anchorage at Enewetok became a major

US Naval Advance Base US Naval Advance Bases were built globally by the United States Navy during World War II to support and project U.S. naval operations world-wide. A few were built on allied soil, but most were captured enemy facilities or completely new. Advanc ...

with Service Squadron 4 and Service Squadron 10 stationed in the lagoon. The daily average of ships present during the first half of July 1944 was 488; during the second half of July, the daily average number of ships at Enewetak was 283. Naval Base Eniwetok was part of the vast

Naval Base Marshall Islands Naval Base Marshall Islands were United States Navy advance bases built on the Marshall Islands during World War II to support the Pacific War efforts. The bases were built by US Navy after the Marshall Islands campaign that captured the islan ...

. US Navy

Seabees United States Naval Construction Battalions, better known as the Navy Seabees, form the U.S. Naval Construction Force (NCF). The Seabee nickname is a heterograph of the initial letters "CB" from the words "Construction Battalion". Depending upon ...

of the 110th Naval Construction Battalion arrived on February 21 and 27 to begin construction of Stickell Field. It had two taxiways and a runway.Chapter XXVII Bases in the Central Pacific, Building the Navy's Bases in World War II, History of the Bureau of Yards and Docks and the Civil Engineer Corps, 1940-1946, Volume II, UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON, 1947, p.3

/ref> In June 1945, the 67th CB arrived to build a 35,000 man recreation center to be turned over to CBMU 608. In 1950,

John C. Woods John Clarence Woods (June 5, 1911 – July 21, 1950) was a United States Army master sergeant who, with Joseph Malta, carried out the Nuremberg executions of ten former top leaders of the Third Reich on October 16, 1946, after they were sentenc ...

, who executed the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

war criminals convicted at the

Nuremberg Trials The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies of World War II, Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II. Between 1939 and 1945 ...

, was accidentally electrocuted there. After the end of World War II, Enewetak came under the control of the United States as part of the

Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands The Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) was a United Nations trust territory in Micronesia administered by the United States from 1947 to 1994. History Spain initially claimed the islands that later composed the territory of the Trus ...

, until the independence of the Marshall Islands in 1986. During its tenure, the United States evacuated the local residents many times, often involuntarily. The atoll was used for

nuclear testing Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine nuclear weapons' effectiveness, yield, and explosive capability. Testing nuclear weapons offers practical information about how the weapons function, how detonations are affected by ...

, as part of the

Pacific Proving Grounds The Pacific Proving Grounds was the name given by the United States government to a number of sites in the Marshall Islands and a few other sites in the Pacific Ocean at which it conducted nuclear testing between 1946 and 1962. The U.S. tested a ...

. Before testing commenced, the U.S. exhumed the bodies of United States servicemen killed in the Battle of Enewetak and returned them to the United States to be re-buried by their families. 43 nuclear tests were fired at Enewetak from 1948 to 1958. The first

hydrogen bomb A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon design. Its greater sophistication affords it vastly greater destructive power than first-generation nuclear bombs, a more compact size, a lowe ...

test, code-named

Ivy Mike Ivy Mike was the codename given to the first full-scale test of a thermonuclear device, in which part of the explosive yield comes from nuclear fusion. Ivy Mike was detonated on November 1, 1952, by the United States on the island of Elugelab in ...

, occurred in late 1952 as part of Operation Ivy; it vaporized the islet of

Elugelab Elugelab, or Elugelap ( mh, Āllokļap, ), was an island, part of the Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands. It was destroyed by the world's first true hydrogen bomb test on 1 November 1952, a test which was codenamed shot "Mike" of Operation ...

. This test included

B-17 Flying Fortress The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...

drones to fly through the

radioactive cloud Nuclear fallout is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and the shock wave has passed. It commonly refers to the radioac ...

to test onboard samples. B-17 mother ships controlled the drones while flying within visual distance of them. In all, 16 to 20 B-17s took part in this operation, of which half were controlling aircraft and half were drones. To examine the explosion clouds of the nuclear bombs in 1957/58, several rockets (mostly from

rockoon A rockoon (from ''rocket'' and ''balloon'') is a solid fuel sounding rocket that, rather than being immediately lit while on the ground, is first carried into the upper atmosphere by a gas-filled balloon, then separated from the balloon and i ...

s) were launched. One USAF airman Jimmy Robinson was lost at sea during the tests. Robinson's

F-84 Thunderjet The Republic F-84 Thunderjet was an American turbojet fighter-bomber aircraft. Originating as a 1944 United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) proposal for a "day fighter", the F-84 first flew in 1946. Although it entered service in 1947, the Thu ...

crashed and sank short of the island. Robinson's body was never recovered. Runit Dome 001

A radiological survey of Enewetak was conducted from 1972 to 1973. In 1977, the United States military began

decontamination Decontamination (sometimes abbreviated as decon, dcon, or decontam) is the process of removing contaminants on an object or area, including chemicals, micro-organisms or radioactive substances. This may be achieved by chemical reaction, disinfecti ...

of Enewetak and other islands. During the three-year, US$100 million cleanup process, the military mixed more than of contaminated soil and debrisSchwartz, Stephen I. ''Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Since 1940.'' Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 1998, p. 380. from the islands with

Portland cement Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world as a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar, stucco, and non-specialty grout. It was developed from other types of hydraulic lime in England in the early 19th c ...

and buried it in an atomic blast crater on the northern end of the atoll's

. The material was placed in the deep, wide crater created by the May 5, 1958, "

Cactus A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Greek ...

" nuclear weapons test. A dome composed of 358 concrete panels, each thick, was constructed over the material. The final cost of the cleanup project was US$239 million. The United States government declared the southern and western islands in the atoll safe for habitation in 1980, and residents of Enewetak returned that same year. The military members who participated in that cleanup mission are suffering from many health issues, but the U.S. Government is refusing to provide health coverage. Section 177 of the 1983 Compact of Free Association between the governments of the United States and the Marshall Islands establishes a process for Marshallese to make a claim against the United States government as a result of damage and injury caused by nuclear testing. That same year, an agreement was signed to implement Section 177, which established a US$150 million trust fund. The fund was intended to generate US$18 million a year, which would be payable to claimants on an agreed-upon schedule. If the US$18 million a year generated by the fund was not enough to cover claims, the principal of the fund could be used.Graham, Bill. "Written Testimony of Bill Graham, Public Advocate (retired), Marshall Islands Nuclear Claims Tribunal." Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and the Global Environment. Committee on Foreign Affairs. United States House of Representatives. May 20, 2010.
Accessed 2012-11-01. A

Nuclear Claims Tribunal Marshall Islands Nuclear Claims Tribunal is an international arbitral tribunal established pursuant to the Agreement Between the Government of the United States and the Government of the Marshall Islands for the Implementation of Section 177 of the ...

was established to adjudicate claims. In 2000, the tribunal made a compensation award to the people of Enewetak consisting of US$107.8 million for environmental restoration; US$244 million in damages to cover economic losses caused by loss of access and use of the atoll; and US$34 million for hardship and suffering. In addition, as of the end of 2008, another US$96.658 million in individual damage awards were made. Only US$73.526 million of the individual claims award has been paid, however, and no new awards were made between the end of 2008 and May 2010. Due to stock market losses, payments rates that have outstripped fund income, and other issues, the fund was nearly exhausted, as of May 2010, and unable to make any additional awards or payments. A lawsuit by Marshallese arguing that "changed circumstances" made Nuclear Claims Tribunal unable to make just compensation was dismissed by the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

in April 2010. The 2000 environmental restoration award included funds for additional cleanup of radioactivity on Enewetak. Rather than scrape the topsoil off, replace it with clean topsoil, and create another radioactive waste repository dome at some site on the atoll (a project estimated to cost US$947 million), most areas still contaminated on Enewetak were treated with

potassium Potassium is the chemical element with the symbol K (from Neo-Latin ''kalium'') and atomic number19. Potassium is a silvery-white metal that is soft enough to be cut with a knife with little force. Potassium metal reacts rapidly with atmosphe ...

. Soil that could not be effectively treated for human use was removed and used as fill for a

causeway A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet Tra ...

connecting the two main islands of the atoll (Enewetak and Parry). The cost of the potassium decontamination project was US$103.3 million. A report by the US

Congressional Research Service The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a public policy research institute of the United States Congress. Operating within the Library of Congress, it works primarily and directly for members of Congress and their committees and staff on a c ...

projects that the majority of the atoll will be fit for human habitation by 2026–2027, after nuclear decay, de-contamination and

environmental remediation Environmental remediation deals with the removal of pollution or contaminants from environmental media such as soil, groundwater, sediment, or surface water. Remedial action is generally subject to an array of regulatory requirements, and may al ...

efforts create sufficient dose reductions. However, in November 2017, the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

reported that rising sea levels caused by climate change are seeping inside the dome, causing radioactive material to leak out.

Education

Marshall Islands Public School System Republic of Marshall Islands Public School System (PSS) is the public school system of the Marshall Islands, headquartered in Majuro. It was established in November 2013 by Public Law 2013-23. It is a part of the Ministry of Education, Sports and ...

operates Enewetak Elementary School.

Marshall Islands High School Marshall Islands High School (also known as Majol Island or MIHS) is the main public high school located in Rita,McMurray, Christine and Roy Smith. ''Diseases of Globalization: Socioeconomic Transition and Health''. Routledge, October 11, 2013. ...

Majuro Majuro (; Marshallese: ' ) is the capital and largest city of the Marshall Islands. It is also a large coral atoll of 64 islands in the Pacific Ocean. It forms a legislative district of the Ratak (Sunrise) Chain of the Marshall Islands. The ato ...

serves the community.

Eniwetok Airfield

Men from the 110th Naval Construction Battalion arrived on Eniwetok between 21 and 27 February 1944 and began clearing the island for construction of a bomber airfield. A by runway with taxiways and supporting facilities was built. The first plane landed on 11 March. By 5 April the first operational bombing mission was conducted. The base was later named for Lieutenant

John H. Stickell John Harlan Stickell (July 31, 1913 – December 19, 1943) was an American aviator in the Royal Canadian Air Force and United States Navy during World War II. Biography Stickell was born in Gilson, Illinois, on July 31, 1913. He attended B ...

. In mid-September 1944 operations at Wrigley Airfield on Engebi Island were transferred to Eniwetok. US Navy and Marine units based at Eniwetok included: * VB-102 operating PB4Y-1s from 12–27 August 1944 * VB-108 operating PB4Y-1s from 11 April-10 July 1944 * VB-109 operating PB4Y-1s from 5 April-14 August 1944 * VB-116 operating PB4Y-1s from 7 July-27 August 1944 *

VPB-121 VPB-121 was a Patrol Bombing Squadron of the U.S. Navy. The squadron was established as Patrol Squadron 19 (VP-19) on 1 October 1937, redesignated Patrol Squadron 43 (VP-43) on 1 July 1939, redesignated Patrol Squadron 81 (VP-81) on 1 July 1941, r ...

operating PB4Y-1s from 1 March-3 July 1945 *VPB-144 operating PV-2s from 27 June 1945 until September 1946 The airstrip is now abandoned and its surface partially covered by sand.

Parry Island seaplane base

The

had developed a seaplane base on Parry Island. Following its capture on 22 February, Seebees from the 110th Naval Construction Battalion expanded the base, building a coral-surfaced parking area and shops for minor aircraft and engine overhaul. A marine ways was installed on a Japanese pier and boat-repair shops were also erected. US Navy and Marine units based at Parry Island included: * VP-13 operating PB2Y-3s from 26 February-22 June 1944 *

VP-16 VP-16, nicknamed the ''War Eagles'', is an active Patrol Squadron of the U.S. Navy. It has been based at NAS Jacksonville, Florida since its founding in 1946. The squadron's mission is to operate Maritime patrol aircraft to the fleet in support ...

operating PBM-3Ds from 7 June-1 August 1944 *

VP-21 VP-21 was a Patrol Squadron of the U.S. Navy. The squadron was established as Patrol Squadron 7-B (VP-7B) on 23 July 1929, redesignated Patrol Squadron 7-F (VP-7F) on 1 July 1931, redesignated Patrol Squadron 7 (VP-7) on 1 October 1937, redesigna ...

operating PBM-3Ds from 19 August-17 October 1944 and from 15 July-11 September 1945 *

VP-23 VP-23, Patrol Squadron 23, known as the ''Seahawks'', was a U.S. Navy fixed-wing, anti-submarine and maritime Patrol Squadron based at Brunswick Naval Air Station, Brunswick, Maine, United States. It was established as Weather Reconnaissance Squa ...

operating PBY-5As from 20 August 1944 – 9 April 1945 * VP-MS-6 operating PBM-5Es from 1 February 1948 in support of Operation Sandstone *

VP-102 VP-102 was a Patrol Squadron of the U.S. Navy. It was established as VP-18 on 1 September 1937, redesignated as VP-13 on 1 July 1939, redesignated as VP-26 on 11 December 1939, redesignated as VP-102 on 16 December 1940 and disestablished on 18 Ap ...

operating PB2Y-3s from 3 February-30 August 1944 * VP-202 operating PBM-3Ds from 24 February-1 March 1944 * VPB-19 operating PBM-3Ds from 2 November 1944 – 12 February 1945 and 6 March 1945-January 1946 * VPB-22 operating PBM-3Ds from 10 October-30 November 1944 and from 25 June-7 August 1945

List of nuclear tests at Eniwetok

Summary

Operation Sandstone Operation Sandstone was a series of nuclear weapon tests in 1948. It was the third series of American tests, following Trinity in 1945 and Crossroads in 1946, and preceding Ranger. Like the Crossroads tests, the Sandstone tests were carried ou ...

Operation Greenhouse Operation Greenhouse was the fifth American nuclear test series, the second conducted in 1951 and the first to test principles that would lead to developing thermonuclear weapons (''hydrogen bombs''). Conducted at the new Pacific Proving Grou ...

Operation Ivy

Operation Castle Operation Castle was a United States series of high-yield (high-energy) nuclear tests by Joint Task Force 7 (JTF-7) at Bikini Atoll beginning in March 1954. It followed ''Operation Upshot–Knothole'' and preceded ''Operation Teapot''. Condu ...

Operation Redwing Operation Redwing was a United States series of 17 nuclear test detonations from May to July 1956. They were conducted at Bikini and Enewetak atolls by Joint Task Force 7 (JTF7).Blumenson, Martin and Hugh D. Hexamer (1956). ''A History of ...

Operation Hardtack I Operation Hardtack I was a series of 35 nuclear tests conducted by the United States from April 28 to August 18 in 1958 at the Pacific Proving Grounds. At the time of testing, the Operation Hardtack I test series included more nuclear detonation ...

Gallery

File:Eroberung von Eniwetok.jpg, Battle of Eniwetok File:Boeing B-17 drone at Eniwetok 1948.jpg, B-17 drone at Eniwetok Airfield in 1948 for Operation Sandstone File:AbombOperationSandstoneApril1948.png, Operation Sandstone File:Ivy Mike (Eniwetok-Atoll - 31. Oktober 1952).jpg, Ivy Mike test, October 31, 1952 File:Atombombentest Greenhouse-George.jpg, Operation Greenhouse test File:Ivy King - mushroom cloud.jpg, Ivy King test, November 1952 File:Atombombentest Redwing-Seminole 01.jpg, Test shot Seminole of

Operation Redwing Operation Redwing was a United States series of 17 nuclear test detonations from May to July 1956. They were conducted at Bikini and Enewetak atolls by Joint Task Force 7 (JTF7).Blumenson, Martin and Hugh D. Hexamer (1956). ''A History of ...

, conducted on the coast of the island of Bogon File:Atombombentest Redwing-Seminole 02.jpg, Red-wing Seminole test File:Hardtack Umbrella nuke.jpg, Hardtack Umbrella test File:Enewetak atomic detonations.ogg, Video clips of three test nuclear explosions in Eniwetok, Marshall Islands File:Operation Castle - Nectar - Detonation.ogv, Test shot ''Nectar'' of

Operation Castle Operation Castle was a United States series of high-yield (high-energy) nuclear tests by Joint Task Force 7 (JTF-7) at Bikini Atoll beginning in March 1954. It followed ''Operation Upshot–Knothole'' and preceded ''Operation Teapot''. Condu ...

produced a yield of 1.69

megaton Megaton may refer to: * A million tons * Megaton TNT equivalent, explosive energy equal to 4.184 petajoules * megatonne, a million tonnes, SI unit of mass Other uses * Olivier Megaton (born 1965), French film director, writer and editor * ''Me ...

s and was detonated just north east of Ivy Mike's

crater. The Island of Bogon is the spearhead shaped object at the bottom right of the screen, as it was before the Redwing Seminole test was conducted on that island.

Missile Impact Location System

From 1958 through 1960 the United States installed the

Missile Impact Location System The Missile Impact Location System or Missile Impact Locating System (MILS)Both full names are found in references. is an ocean acoustic system designed to locate the impact position of test missile nose cones at the ocean's surface and then the pos ...

(MILS) in the Navy managed Pacific Missile Range, later the Air Force managed Western Range, to localize the splash downs of test missile nose cones. MILS was developed and installed by the same entities that had completed the first phase of the Atlantic and U.S. West Coast

SOSUS The Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) was a submarine detection system based on passive sonar developed by the United States Navy to track Soviet submarines. The system's true nature was classified with the name and acronym SOSUS themselves classi ...

systems. A MILS installation, consisting of both a target array for precision location and a broad ocean area system for good positions outside the target area, was installed at Eniwetok as part of the system supporting

Intercontinental Ballistic Missile An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with a range greater than , primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery (delivering one or more thermonuclear warheads). Conventional, chemical, and biological weapons c ...

(ICBM) tests. Other Pacific MILS shore terminals were at the

Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay or MCAS Kaneohe Bay is a United States Marine Corps (USMC) airfield located within the Marine Corps Base Hawaii complex, formerly known as Marine Corps Air Facility (MCAF) Kaneohe Bay or Naval Air Station (NAS) ...

supporting

Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile An intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) is a ballistic missile with a range of 3,000–5,500 km (1,864–3,418 miles), between a medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) and an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Classifying ba ...

(IRBM) tests with impact areas northeast of Hawaii and the other ICBM test support systems at

Midway Island Midway Atoll (colloquial: Midway Islands; haw, Kauihelani, translation=the backbone of heaven; haw, Pihemanu, translation=the loud din of birds, label=none) is a atoll in the North Pacific Ocean. Midway Atoll is an insular area of the Unit ...

and

Wake Island Wake Island ( mh, Ānen Kio, translation=island of the kio flower; also known as Wake Atoll) is a coral atoll in the western Pacific Ocean in the northeastern area of the Micronesia subregion, east of Guam, west of Honolulu, southeast of To ...

In popular culture

*The short story "

The Terminal Beach ''The Terminal Beach'' is a collection of science fiction short stories by British author J. G. Ballard, published in 1964. Contents British edition * "The Terminal Beach": A man who does not come to terms with the premature death of his wife ...

" by

J. G. Ballard James Graham Ballard (15 November 193019 April 2009) was an English novelist, short story writer, satirist, and essayist known for provocative works of fiction which explored the relations between human psychology, technology, sex, and mass medi ...

is set on an island of Eniwetok in the aftermath of the nuclear tests.

Notes

References

* * * *

External links

Marshall Islands site
*
Annotated bibliography for Eniwetok Atoll from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues

Information on legal judgements to the people of Enewetak

(www.watoday.com.au report on Runit Dome, August 18, 2008)
Enewetak Atoll Atomic Debris Cleanup Mission Survivors
* {{Authority control Atolls of the Marshall Islands Ralik Chain American nuclear test sites Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands Articles containing video clips