Operation Upshot-Knothole - Staff Reports (March - June 1953)

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T his document co n sists of 57 pages No. 1 5 1 of 180 copies, S e rie s A Los Alamos Scientific Latieratory Los Alamos, New Mexico This m aterial contains information affecting the national defense of the United States within the meaning of the espionage laws Title 18. U. S. C., Secs. 793 and 794, the transm ission or revelation of which in any manner to an unauthorized person is pro hibited by law. Revieweo ana aetarmineu to oe UNCLASSIFIED. This review does not constitute clearance for public Derivative Classifier Name: This document is

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This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency Thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof.

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Portions of this document may be illegible in electronic image products. Images are produced from the best available original document.

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Part I—P ers on nel and Administration 1.2 Popu la t io n ....................................................................................................................................... 10 1.3 P erso n n el Process in g ................................................................................................................... 10 2 HOUSING AND MESSING FA C IL IT IE S................................................................................................10 3 OFFICE AND LABORATORY SPACE AND EQUIPMENT ........................................................12 3.1 Office ^ ace and Equipment ............................................................................................... 12 4.1 A rea A ccess Lists ................................................................................................................... 13 4.3 Tower A ccess Lists ................................................................................................................... 14 4.4 A ccess to C ontrol Point and Buildings 4, 10, and 11 . . . . 1 4 5 MAIL AND RECORD S.............................................................................................................................. 14 Part II—P lans and Operations 2 ORGANIZATION OF THE SECTION ............................................................................................... 20 3 DETERMINATION OF PARTICIPATION IN OPERATION UPSHOT-KNOTHOLE . 20

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6.3 Special P lan s and Orders ......................................................................................................... 25 Part III—E ng in ee ring and Construction 1.2 P reo p eratio n Procedures .........................................................................................................31 1.3 Field O peration Procedures ............................................................................................... 32 1.4 D is cuss io n ....................................................................................................................................... 33 2.5 Roads, Signals, Pow er, and Communications ................................................................. 43 3 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................... 46

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M arch, A pril, and May 1953 53 1 P erso n n el Strength ..............................................................................................................................10

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w as concerned with the following m ajo r a c tiv ities during O peration Upshot-Knothole: (1) gen e ra l personnel adm inistration, (2) housing and m essing fa c ilitie s, (3) office and laboratory space and equipm ent, (4) check-point personnel control, and (5) m ail and re c o rd s. T his re p o rt will b riefly d iscu ss these ac tiv ities and the significant p ro b lem s encountered and will m ake recom m endations fo r im proving these functions on future operations. The J -1 Section re p re se n te d the T e st D ire cto r in a ll m a tte rs of personnel adm inistration. However, since p artic ip a n ts in O peration Upshot-Knothole w ere governed by the personnel po licies of p a re n t organizations, m ost of which had ad m in istrativ e rep resen ta tio n p re se n t, J-1 w as larg e ly concerned with the adm inistration of Los Alam os Scientific L ab o rato ry (LASL) personnel, both m ilita ry and civilian, and in e3q>ressing the view s of the T est D ire cto r on p e r sonnel m a tte rs to the Atomic Energy Com m ission (AEG) Office of T est O perations (OTO) and (a) M ilitary P ersonnel. Upon com pletion of O peration Ivy, a num ber of L aboratory T ask Group 7.1 m ilita ry personnel w ere designated fo r duty on O peration Upshot-Knothole. In addi tion, the J-1 M ilitary Executive p ro cu red two enlisted m en from A rm ed F o rc e s l^ e c ia l Weapons P ro je c t (AFSWP), Sandia Base, Albuquerque, N. Mex., and two enlisted m en from fec i al Weap and 17 enlisted m en w ere placed on tem p o rary duty a t the Nevada Proving Grounds (NPG). All ad m in istrativ e m a tte rs p ertin e n t to th ese personnel including pay and paym ent of p e r diem w ere coordinated by the J-1 M ilitary Executive. (b) A rriv a l and D eparture N otification. From e ^ e r ie nce gained on p a st operations a new p ro ced u re fo r the notification of a r riv a l and d ep artu re of LASL civilian personnel at NPG was instituted. The p ro ced u re utilized the use of NPG A rriv al and D eparture F o rm s filled out by the em ployee and a daily A rriv al and D eparture R eport com piled by the J-1 office on site. The system proved to work satisfac to rily and was an im provem ent over p a st operations. The p ro cedure w as se t up p rim a rily fo r LASL pay purposes; however, the daily re p o rt proved to be useful inform ation fo r the AEG, the camp co n tracto r, and p ro g ram and p ro je c t d ire c to rs. (c) Other J-1 Functions. M iscellaneous a c tiv ities of J-1 included m aintaining an u p -to - date T e st D ire c to r’s organization ch a rt (Fig. 1) and a weekly personnel ro s te r; liaiso n with the Santa Fe O perations Office (SFOO) Finance Division concerning p ro g ram changes a s they affected the C hart of Accoimts (a document published by them fo r budgetary reasons); coordinat ing, in conjunction with J -3 , the com m ents and proposed m a te ria l of the T est D ire cto r and h is

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staff fo r the Upshot-Knothole A dm inistrative O rder p re p a re d by the OTO; and p rocessing the T est D ire cto r’s recom m endations fo r approval of tim e worked in excess of the established 54-hr work week by LASL personnel and other AEG c o n tra cto rs under the operational control F igure 1 shows the T e st D ire c to r’s organization, and Table 1 gives a sum m ary of p e rso n nel strength. This tabulation is based on housing office re c o rd s and does not include AEG p e r sonnel o r AEG camp m aintenance and construction co n tracto r personnel. staff, and support * The peak number In each column has been underscored. t Includes Radiological Safety, D irectorate of Weapons Effects T ests program s and support. Lookout Mountain Laboratory, and Special Unit. t Includes Edgerton, Germeshausen & G rier support and program s, Sandia Corpo ration support and program s. University of California Radiation Laboratory support .and program s. Air Weather Service, and Air Operations. 1.3 P ersonnel P ro ce ssin g The J-1 Section, in coordination with the J-3 m otor officer, arran g e d fo r tran sp o rta tio n to Gamp M ercury from Indian Springs A ir F orce Base (ISAFB) and L as Vegas and re tu rn fo r a r riving and departing personnel. A rriving personnel w ere assigned billeting, p ro c essed through AEG Security asn ec essary , and d irected to the p ro p e r group o r organization. The J-1 Section acted a s an inform ation cen te r fo r te s t personnel, especially for those individuals who had not been to NPG before. D eparting personnel w ere aided in checking out, and arran gemen ts w ere m ade fo r tr ans portation if needed. J-1 made re se rv a tio n s and p ro c essed re q u ests fo r o rd e rs for T est D ire c to r personnel excluding D ire cto rate of Weapons Effects T ests (DWET), on the m ilita ry a ir shuttle between ISAFB and KAFB. In a few c a se s o rd e rs fo r civilians w ere p ro c essed fo r special flights such asae ria lsur veys and planes departing NPG from Yucca Flat. 2 HOUSING AND MESSING FAGILITIES The following b a rra cks at NPG w ere allocated to the T est D ire cto r based on space r e one-half of M w ere occupied by the T est D irecto r and h is staff and support units. Weapons Development, Givil Effects, New York O perations Office personnel, and approxim ately 20 to 25

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staff m em bers of DWET. The rem aining 4 V2 b a rra c k s, E, F, G, H, and one-half of M, w ere occupied by M ilitary Effects (DWET) personnel. The T est D irecto r was allotted the e n tire south hutm ent a re a of 960 beds for billeting p u r p o ses and 292 beds in the north hutm ent a re a , m aking a total bed capacity of 1252. The e n tire south a re a and the northern four row s of the assigned north hutm ent a re a w ere occupied by DWET personnel, a total of 1080 bed spaces. The rem aining spaces w ere occupied by Civil Effects, Weapons Development, and other te s t personnel. From the req u irem en ts subm itted on the monthly statu s re p o rts and from inform ation r e ceived from the p ro g ram and p ro je c t lead e rs, J-1 com piled a housing plan and allocated the housing space to p articipating units. This included the T est D ire c to r’s office and staff. Weapons Development, and Civil E ffects. The DWET housing officer adm inistered the M ilitary E ffects At an e a rly stage in the planning, it was decided that J-1 would not have a rep resen tativ e in the camp co n tra cto r’s housing office, the theory being that with a com plete housing plan the housing office would be able to b illet the m ajority of te st personnel with a minimum of su p e r vision by J -1 . The J-1 re p resen ta tiv e would be available for une ^ e c te d a rriv a ls , etc. J-1 furnished the camp co n tracto r with the housing plan p rio r to the m ain personnel build-up. The housing plan included nam es of p artic ip a n ts, organization, and a rriv a l and d ep artu re dates. U nfortunately the plan was classified and, of course, not 100 p e r cent c o rre c t because of last-m in u te changes in plans by personnel and unexpected a rriv a ls . Since the camp co n tracto r did not have a sufficient num ber of c lea red personnel to use the c lassifie d housing plan o r e x tra ct the n ec essary inform ation and since co n tracto r personnel w ere new a t the NPG and not fully acquainted with the T est D ire c to r’s organization, the J-1 housing office had to w ork very closely with the co n tracto r during the c ru cial operational build-up. The eiqpected plan of m inim al liaiso n with the co n tracto r housing office did not m a te ria liz e until well tow ard the end of the operation. It is recom m ended that on future NPG operations J-1 e ith e r have personnel stationed in the housing office who will be able to take over the housing of te s t personnel during the o p era tion o r that J-1 should spend considerable tim e with housing personnel p rio r to the operational build-up, explaining the T est D ire c to r’s organization. It is suggested that perhaps AEG could p erfo rm th is la tte r altern ativ e. It is believed that knowledge of the T est D ire c to r’s o rganiza tion is vital to housing office personnel because of the la rg e num bers of people who a rriv e authorized and expected, but unannounced. In o rd e r to avoid separating groups who wished to be q u arte red together, it was n ec essary during O peration Upshot-Knothole to plan on billeting eight m en p e r room in all the T est D i r e c to r’s dorm itory space except five room s of six men p e r room . These five room s w ere in N, the T est D ire c to r’s dorm itory. T est personnel p re fe rre d th is arrangem ent, although crowded, to sleeping in the hutm ents which they considered inadequate. The J-1 housing plan provided that in so fa r a s possible personnel re q u ired to spend the m ost tim e at the NPG would be assigned dorm itory housing. Also, in o rd e r to be consistent with DWET housing procedure, m ilitary enlisted m en w ere housed in the hutm ent a re a . Through personnel phasing, J-1 was able to move te s t personnel from the hutm ent a re a s into the d o rm ito ries a s openings o ccurred. Around the m iddle of the operation, a fte r the popu lation peak had passed, the J-1 housing office had, on the average, 30 to 40 spaces in the hut a re a . These spaces w ere periodically utilized by DWET …