CAP and the Nuclear Tests

[Orville_third]

OK. CAP's role in the nuclear tests has been mentioned by some people at various times. (I believe both Burnham's "the Hero Next Door" and Colby's "This is your Civil Air Patrol" have mentioned it.) However, has anyone gone into any details regarding CAP's work with the nuclear tests?

I have found a report on a series of nuclear tests (Operation Cue) that contains a section on CAP's role (Written by Maj. Gen. Lucas Beau, former National Commander of CAP). You can read it here:
http://www.survivalring.org/pdf/OperationCue1955.pdf
(Pages 88-92 of the PDF)

Anyone else know of any other materials available?

[heliodoc]

Great story of the CAP before ORM!!

I am sure today's CAP's FECA FTCA and ORM would keep that mission at bay

That is the true "hot zone" the legal types may question when and if we get cleared for those DHS missions we hjave been dreaming about

This article seems to have been BITD when CAP wasn't too worried about showroom new aircraft, especially landing the the desert near Yucca Mtn....think we could be flying off lake beds today??   Maybe NV OR and CA Wing already are....... but that is a REAL mission when CAP could fly in areas without 5000 ft asphalt and concrete runways and imagine the real scrapes and scratches of the Nevada desert

[♠SARKID♠]

Our squadron houses an old CAP Piper Cub named Lil' Poof that they used to fly through the mushroom clouds to take readings.  Its still a bit radioactive, but at a safe level.

[BrandonKea]

lmao, "lil poof" that's an awesome name. Great photos!

[RRLE]

If you are doing research on this, the official name of the Operation Cue test was Apple-2. It was one of the 14 'shots' of the Operation Teapot series. You may info under either name.

[Nomex Maximus]

This might explain why some of our cadets have six toes...

[BillB]

I wonder how many Squadrons have a Geiger counter stored away somewhere?

[Smithsonia]

Not directly on the subject but CAP Courier Service ran a flight every two days Wichita, Omaha, Denver, Colorado Springs, Wendover, Seattle. The primary purpose was to shuttle people and paper to hurry up the development of the B29 by 8months to a year. This was the delivery system of the bomb. This work is mostly ignored in the Neprud book, probably due to secrecy in 1947-48 when the book was written. I've picked it up by accident while working on another project about Boeing.

I'm still doing a bunch of research in connection with my Maj. Gen. John Curry bio. That said, he was in Denver as Commander of the Technical and Training Command. CAP flew the C-46 Curtis Commando in '43-'45 on this route. It was part of the Courier Service. It is one of the great untold (or under-told) stories of the CAP. It was a significant service to the country. AND, that's about all I know at the moment.

[Nomex Maximus]

Reading the report, it seems like back in the 1950's, the Air Force had a much higher regard for what CAP could be used for.

[NC Hokie]

I wonder how many Squadrons have a Geiger counter stored away somewhere?

We have several in my squadron. Don't know if they work, but they look as new as the day they were made.

[Orville_third]

We have the ARM kit at our squadron too. I was one of the people who found it when reorganizing our new meeting place. (One of the coolest finds, along with the original copies (sort of) of the Apollo 11 photo pack.) It does look and smell rather new. It is technically USAF property and does need to be reported to the state/wing sometime, at least down here. I'm not sure if it need to be completely demilitarized, but from what I have heard, it may have some radioactive material to calibrate the counters still there. (Perhaps on the bottom?)
I'd like to make a historical display of the ARM kit and do a paper for my Senior or Master Historian Rating. (I may also try and see if CONELRAD will publish it.)
Take good care of the plane. It belongs in a CAP (or USAF or Atomic) museum!

[Major Carrales]

Reading the report, it seems like back in the 1950's, the Air Force had a much higher regard for what CAP could be used for.

Different objectives and different times.  Now a days in our litigious society the amount one could sue for possible RADIATION SICKNESS would mean the end of CAP.

[sardak]

Info on Geiger counters (radiation survey meters):
http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/civildefense/civildefense.htm

http://www.civildefensemuseum.com/cdmuseum2/radkits/cdv700.html

ARM kits
http://www.civildefensemuseum.com/cdmuseum2/radkits/cdv781.html
http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/civildefense/cdv781.htm

From the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) Annual Report for FY 1964: "To supplement radiological monitoring by fixed stations and their mobile surface teams, OCD plans call for establishing aerial monitoring at approximately 5,000 airports and landing strips...According to arrangements coordinated with the U.S. Air Force and the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA), the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) is expected to perform a major portion of aerial monitoring, and all States have made arrangements with the CAP for this service."

Manuals
http://www.orau.org/ptp/museumlibrary.htm#civildefensemanuals

The parent links to the above:
Civil Defense Museum

Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) Health Physics Historical Instrumentation Museum Collection

Mike

[Nomex Maximus]

I got a kick out of the part that said that in 1954 CAP was flying blood in and out of a 900 foot long stadium in Washington DC... or the transport mission of a field hospital with 16 beds, two doctors and four nurses, generator and operating room equipment... those must have been the days.

[RiverAux]

It is technically USAF property and does need to be reported to the state/wing sometime, at least down here.

It must have dropped off your official inventory years ago or else Wing and the AF would have been hounding you for it in terms of your supply reports. 

[tarheel gumby]

I can just see the legal types "having a kitten or two over that"

I wonder how the NLO would rule that type of mission?

[Major Carrales]

PLEASE STAY TUNED to 640 kilocycles for more CONELRAD broadcasts on this subject. 

[Nomex Maximus]

PLEASE STAY TUNED to 640 kilocycles for more CONELRAD broadcasts on this subject. 

The older I get, it amazes me to think of how many things a young cadet (or other teenager) has no idea what we are talking about... in that sentence alone imagine the confused look upon a cadet's face... "stay tuned" (what do you mean, tuned?) AM radio (what's that?)  kilocycles (huh?) CONELRAD (is that some CAP colonel's CAP TALK screen name?)

[tarheel gumby]

PLEASE STAY TUNED to 640 kilocycles for more CONELRAD broadcasts on this subject. 

The older I get, it amazes me to think of how many things a young cadet (or other teenager) has no idea what we are talking about... in that sentence alone imagine the confused look upon a cadet's face... "stay tuned" (what do you mean, tuned?) AM radio (what's that?)  kilocycles (huh?) CONELRAD (is that some CAP colonel's CAP TALK screen name?)

Not saying that we are OLD now are you?
I do remember taking a lot of that training. I was my squadron's RADEF Officer when I was in FLWG

[Nomex Maximus]

A sixteen year old doesn't remember:

1) the first Gulf War
2) the Vietnam War
3) the Cold War
4) the space shuttle Challenger blowing up
5) the Mir space station
6) Skylab
7) man walking on the moon
8 ) vinyl records, tape cassettes, betamax
9) Bush the first, Reagan, Ford, Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy
10) telephones with wires
11) telephones with dials
12) what it was like before the internet
13) CB radio
14) Black and White TVs
15) TVs with only three channels that couldn't be recorded
16) ...