Show newsmen admit apprehension of A bomb miss mission 0 n by WALTER A SHEAD correspondent ABOARD appalachian via navy radio civil and military welcoming committees out of the way with the beauty and color of the paradise of the pacific a pleasant memory interlude in the midst of tills serious military experiment peri ment the big apple today has her nose pointed westward on the second d leg of our hop toward bikini at atoll 0 il a and n d the atomic bomb test the results of which may revolutionize naval tactics the waters of the marshall islands are not new to the appalachian and the members of her crew who first t took ook her into combat duty in these very waters the conquest and capture of which Is our next port of call she Is a sturdy ship and bears few scars of her tour of duty in the war in the pacific in the marshalls marchalls Mar the Admiral tys the solo mons ons at leyte the marianas mariakas Mari anas at gua guam and other action since pearl harbor on this tour she Is the press ship of adm W H P elan dys dy s task force and aboard are N V X V M 4 1 TO DROP BOMB major harold harwood wood rood age 30 of bordentown Borden town N J responsible for bullseye picked newspaper men and representatives senta tives ot of the other media such as news reels radio technical magazines television and others although most of them are on other ships of the group such as the panamint and the blue ridge there is a sprinkling of scientists aboard and a sort of 0 friendly ribbing going on constantly between the lay or mine min run m members embers of the press and these scientific writers many of whom m are members of the 1 I am a frightened man club and predict dire results and dangers to personnel of this task force when the bomb burst scheduled july 1 takes place in spite of their fun poking the newspaper men generally privately admit they feel some apprehension and beneath the raillery there Is a feeling of 0 tenseness among many of us which increases dally daily the trip thus far from navy pier in oakland to Ilono honolulu lalu where our two day stay was too short has been like a pleasure asp cruise but now we are gettins getling down to the serious part of this most stupendous military experiment in history the information officers aboard ship offer every fael facility lity and we are scheduled for or a series of 0 roundtable conferences to orientate us to the main objectives of operations erat ions crossroads one of 0 the most inte interesting g ph phases ases of this operation Is the time element F fourteen 0 arteen different time zones are involved in the operation by virtue of the location of bikini west of the international date line for instance if the first atomic bomb Is dropped at 10 a m monday july 1 it will be 5 p m sunday june 30 in chicago As this is written out of pearl harbor we still have some 2 2200 miles of trackless blue water to t 0 traverse ira at a speed of approximately 11 knots or about 13 miles an hour before we reach where we will spend a day viewing the elaborate installations which have been set up in quarters laboratories air facilities as a base for the army air corps which will drop the bomb and the men of the joint task force the logis logistics acs ics and the planning will which C h have gone into this operation will rival those in the invasion of normandy and scientists in and out of the navy have ready fur for installation the most elaborate measuring devices to meter actual effects of the explosion on the target array of combat abat and other ships army and navy material live animals tethered aboard some ships and ordnance for army navy and air of all descriptions in addition recording devices specially constructed cameras tor for television radar controlled drone planes which will fly through the atomic cloud at varying heights will bring back samples of the radio active m materials ate rials and vapor to tie be rushed to the laboratories for test it is this radio activity for the exploded atoms which may be used for the benefit of mankind to in peacetime pursuits As a matter of 0 fact act the manhattan district Is now releasing or has released small portions of radio activated substances to universities and lab laboratories iora |