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 As the Chief of the Radiological Safety Section and his staff continued work on the radsafe plan, they realized that a much larger group of monitors and other experts would be required than would be available from the Manhattan Engineer District. To fill this gap, the section chief called on a number of scientists who had already returned to civilian life from wartime service with the government. Few were eager for another extended period of government service, and they and the universities or laboratories employing them demanded, and received, promises of strict limits on the duration of their CROSSROADS service. Apparently, all were to be back in the United States by late August or early September (Reference C.9.206, p. VII-(C)-4).

On 23 March 1946, efforts to staff the Radiological Safety Section were dealt a major setback when the President announced that the first test was to be postponed from 15 May to 1 July (Reference B.12.1, p. 1), with the result that the second test also was delayed. This change raised the prospect that personnel from colleges and universities would not be back on campus for the start of the fall semester. The Chief of the Radiological Safety Section struggled to hold his civilian recruits, but many resigned and he was forced to search for replacements. He asked for more military officers and was supplied with 55 from the Navy and 15 from the Army, almost all of whom were reservists. He also was able to obtain some additional civilians (Reference C.9.206, p. VII-(C)-5; Reference B.0.5).

Bikini Activities

Most of the Radiological Safety Section reached Bikini on 12 June aboard Haven (Reference A.2, p. 11). Some personnel, however, did not arrive until after the ABLE shot or the BAKER rehearsal, and some civilians left Bikini before the BAKER detonation. The Radiological Safety Section was able to muster over 300 personnel for ABLE. Over 225 monitors were available for each of the two shots, but they were stretched thin. During ABLE there were more monitors than during BAKER (Reference A.1, p. 31; Reference C.9.206, p. VII-(C)-5).

Training of Radiological Safety Section personnel had three phases. First, intensive training for the original group of military and public health personnel at Oak Ridge and other locations beginning in mid-January; second, training of the entire section aboard Haven on the way to Bikini; and, third, additional training for the section and for later arrivals once at Bikini.

One of the monitors, a medical doctor drafted into the Army late in the war and assigned to CROSSROADS, characterized the group aboard Haven as follows (Reference A.2, p. 5):


 * Most are older men, some are well-known scientists. Some have worked with radiation in the Manhattan District, but the majority come with little more than a scientific background. Test ABLE is only one month away. Since this group is to have the responsibility for protecting task force personnel from the invisible dangers of radioactivity, the problem of briefing them on the fundamentals and the practical aspects of radiation is acute.

Training for the entire section began aboard Haven on 31 May as the ship steamed for Bikini. It consisted of lectures and work with radiation detection

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