The Smithsonian Affiliated National Atomic Testing Museum
“Using lessons of the past to better understand the present.”
The USS Nevada at Bikini
The National Atomic Testing Museum recently enjoyed a very informative Breakfast
Question and Answer session with five
former crewmen of the historic battleship
USS Nevada. We thank those brave
veterans for their service to our country
and others from the audience who joined
the program. We are also very grateful to
Ms. Kim Pool, District Representative of
Congresswoman Dina Titus’s office, who
presented the panelists with certificates of
recognition for their service. We thank the
support of Keith Hughes and Matt Taylor from Congressman Joe Heck’s office as well for
joining us. The Nevada veterans honored were as follow: Ansel Tupper, Les Putman,
Byron McGinty, Richard Ramsey and Cliff Burks.
The USS Nevada and her crew represent a true American story. Participating in the first
nuclear test following World War Two, the Nevada served as a target ship along with
ninety-four other vessels of all shapes and sizes. These even included the surrendered
Japanese battleship Nagato which had served as Admiral Yamamoto’s flagship and the
German cruiser Prinz Eugen that had coordinated with the Bismarck in the sinking of the
HMS Hood.
Operation Crossroads
took place in June and
July, 1946 at Bikini
Atoll in the Marshall
Islands. It involved two
tests,
an
airborne
detonation and the first
ever
underwater
explosion. A third was
planned
but
not
completed. A number of
fascinating books have
been written about Crossroads detailing all the events and controversy surrounding that
series of tests. These works take many hundreds of pages just to do the story justice.
A photo panel in the Museum documents Crossroads, and it is my hope we may be able to
give that historic nuclear test operation more exposure as we get into the new Master Plan.
Certainly, Operation Crossroads provided invaluable data on the effects of a nuclear
explosion on surface ships. This came at a time in which the armed forces were considering
how to adapt to the nuclear age. The year 1946 became a time of intense interservice rivalry
as the Army Air Force worked toward autonomy as an independent branch of the armed
services, becoming the United States Air Force in 1947.
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This was also a time when the air
and naval factions were
competing for funds in a
postwar budget. All the while
the United Nations and
President Truman were trying to
address the whole issue of how
to control and regulate atomic
energy. This, while hundreds of
reporters and live radio feeds
covered the dramatic nuclear
tests that summer from Bikini
lagoon. International attention
became very focused. As an
amusing footnote, the media
sensation
surrounding
the
atomic tests inspired Parisian swim suit designer Louis Réard to coin his latest summer
creation the bikini.
Not all was as lighthearted, and significant criticism arose in Congress that these numerous
target ships, although mostly obsolete, were still worth tremendous dollars in scrap value
at a time when the nation needed to recover from war debt. Over the years some of these
historic ships could have generated tens of millions of dollars in tourist revenue if preserved
as museums.
The USS Nevada is just one of many
amazing maritime legends associated
with the tests. The ship, in fact,
literally served at the center stage of
Operation
Crossroads.
Painted
orange and red with white on top of
the turrets, and affectionately
nicknamed “Scarlet Fever,” the
Nevada was the key target ship for
the first twenty-one kiloton “Able”
test which would be an airdrop.
The Nevada was in the crosshairs of a
veteran B-29 bombardier from the 509th Bomb Group’s “Dave’s Dream.” For better or
worse the skilled bombardier of twenty-four WWII missions was off somewhere. After
dropping the bomb, the air detonation occurred a half mile away from the Nevada.
Bulkheads were buckled, but the ship remained remarkably serviceable. The USS Nevada
easily survived that nuclear blast and a later underwater explosion of equal force known as
the “Baker” test.
Our veteran panelists told us at our recent Breakfast Question and Answer session that after
the tests they were sent to re-board the ship for up to eight hours. Their accounts told of
the ship remaining sea worthy, but they described a blackened interior apparently from the
paint being scorched from the intense heat generated during the tests. Our veteran panelists
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did not suffer ill effects, but they fervently told of buddies
of theirs who unwisely sneaked off souvenirs from the ship
which caused those individuals long-lasting health effects
and eventually death because those artifacts were
radioactive. The underwater Baker explosion had infused so
much radioactivity into the ocean water and sand drawn up
from the sea floor that it made the target ships like Nevada
highly contaminated, being so thoroughly drenched with
this toxic mixture of fallout. The Navy at that stage simply
did not know how to adequately contend with
contamination. The Baker test, however, illustrated critical
lessons to formulate proper procedures.
After Operation Crossroads, the Nevada returned to its base at Pearl Harbor, notably
radioactive, and was officially decommissioned. Two years later consensus thought it best
to sink Nevada in deep water because of her levels of contamination. They chose to send
the great ship out in style in conventional tests, so the Navy towed her sixty-five miles
southwest of Hawaii where many types of ordinance trained on her for a final target
practice. She still remained afloat, so heavy explosives were placed aboard and detonated.
The ship refused to sink, so the Navy tested guided-missile “Bat Bombs” with no result.
Sixteen-inch battleship fire from the USS Iowa commenced, but the Nevada remained
determined as ever. Cruiser fire followed and air attacks also were launched. It was only
after taking numerous aerial torpedo hits did the thirty-four-year-old battleship slip beneath
the waves.
Ironically, the Nevada had been sunk before. One of our veteran guests at our Breakfast
Questions and Answers
session actually served
on the Nevada the day
she was attacked at
Pearl Harbor.
He
recounted how on
December 7th, 1941 the
mighty ship managed
to get underway, but
after numerous torpedo
and bomb hits, Navy
tugs
intentionally
grounded
her
to
prevent the ship from blocking one of the narrow channels into Pearl. The ship burned for
almost twelve hours as its hull filled with water and fuel oil. Salvaging the ship began as
they refloated her and eventually sailed the Nevada under her own power to Puget Sound
Naval Shipyard in Washington State. Here she received her new twin five-inch anti-aircraft
gun turrets where most of our veteran panelists served. Extensively modernized by the end
of 1942, the Nevada went on to support many operations of war including the Normandy
landings. Nevada brought the fight back to
the Japanese at Iwo Jima and Okinawa
where she was hit by a Kamikaze. Nevada
did finally get to Japan, supporting
occupation duty in Tokyo Bay.
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The age of the battleship probably ended with the early stages of World War Two.
Although many an old Navy man will argue that even though aircraft carriers became the
dominant capital ship after Pearl Harbor, the battleship
continued to provide valuable contributions to the war effort.
Frankly, the big sixteen-inch-gunned battleships of the Iowa
class continued to provide services that no other type of ship
could in Korea, Vietnam and even Desert Storm.
The USS Nevada was actually the first modern American
battleship (then called dreadnoughts) in the United States
Navy. She was actually part of a world-wide arms race at the
time that has many analogies to an arms race in the Cold War
period. That latter arms race involved nuclear weapons that
became as important in strategic deterrence as battleships did
a half century earlier.
When launched in 1914 she had a radical new concept incorporated into her eleven-inchthick armor protection along with oil-fired steam
turbines and triple turrets supporting large caliber
fourteen-inch guns. All these engineering features
became the centerpiece of every American battleship
and cruiser to follow. Many a naval enthusiast
considered the Nevada a modern marvel of the day as
well as an object of industrial beauty. An Assistant
Secretary of the Navy, Franklin D. Roosevelt,
watched Nevada’s christening with great emotion as
she slid down her slipway on July 12th, 1914.
President Woodrow Wilson sent Nevada to assist with America’s entry into World War
One in 1917, and then had her return to Europe when accompanying his ship the SS George
Washington as he sailed for the Versailles Conference. Following the next Great War, it is
fitting that Nevada once again played such a key part in post-World War Two issues of
deterrence.
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We welcome an exciting and amazing new display to our Museum, a handmade
professionally constructed 1/200 scale replica of the Battleship USS Nevada
BB36, 1914 to 1948.
As
executive director of this
museum, I was stunned to learn
after hosting a group of USS
Nevada veterans this past Spring
that there is not more recognition
paid to this historic ship, nor has
its long history of distinguished
service
been
documented
thoroughly enough.
Accordingly, we made plans to honor the many veterans of the USS Nevada by
establishing a memorial here at our museum in the form of a museum-quality
model. This iconic dreadnought was central to the first postwar nuclear test in
Operation Crossroads, so it will be appropriately displayed near our Bikini
exhibit.
In preparation for this project I took a bid from one of the nation’s top military
model builders who contracts with the Pentagon, US Capital and White
House. We thank the many donors which helped underwrite the cost of this
project and especially Dr. Linda Miller who made a substantial donation to see
the exhibit to completion. This fantastic new display is now in place after six
months of tedious and intensive hand-crafted work by a team of skilled artisans.
We dedicate this exhibit to those who served on the USS Nevada and the great
contributions that the famous ship made in war and peace.
Michael Hall
Executive Director
Smithsonian Affiliated
National Atomic Testing Museum
755 E Flamingo Rd
Las Vegas, NV 89119
Work Phone: 702-794-5140
Cell Phone: 305-505-5405
[email protected]
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