Bombs

In September 1950 the Korean War had been going about three months, and I was stationed at North Island Naval Air Base in San Diego, California. I was an unskilled ordinance-man in a fighter squadron with F4U4's. The plane has a single engine and inverted gull wings. The machine guns were fifty caliber and bombs or rockets were sometimes carried under the body or wings. Our pilots would soon learn to land jet planes on a carrier deck at sea. They were going to fight the Korean War and some were destined to perish. Sailor airmen like me who were new to the Navy were often used to guard the airplanes at night. We were given a rifle without bullets or we carried a night stick and we had no training on how to use either weapon. I was twenty one and had no idea why we were in a war. My parents had taught me patriotism, and I was willing to shoot anybody our government leaders told me to kill. I admit I had fear for my own personal safety, but I was young and brave. I had hunted rabbits in my teens, so I knew how to kill with small rifles or shot guns.

Being on guard duty was boring. I was usually stationed two or three hundred yards from our long, corrugated metal roof hanger where the mechanics serviced the airplanes. My job was to walk around the tied down aircraft outside on the black pavement to make sure there were no North Koreans sneaking around trying to blow up our airplanes. Sometimes, to pass the time at four in the morning, I sang and tap danced on the pavement. Once the officer in charge sent an airman out to see if I was alright.

On several occasions before sunrise while it was still dark the sky lit up in the distance. I noticed the lights as I looked toward Las Vegas from the Navy Airfield near Coronado Island, San Diego. I saw sudden huge bright light fill the sky. I guessed we were testing atom bombs three hundred miles away on the desert. It filled me with apprehension to see man made light from so far away.

In 1957 before we were wed, my wife Barbara and her friend drove fifty miles out on the desert from Las Vegas to watch a test bomb. The idea was to get away from city lights in order to see better in the dark. They didn't know about the danger of radio-active fallout. "It was about five A.M. and still dark that morning. Suddenly, in the silence, a brilliant light of many colors filled the sky where we were looking. Then, there was a loud boom and the light faded as a pillar of smoke rose high and formed a mushroom on top. The light was a shock to see and it was beautiful. The pillar of smoke and the mushroom was frightening."