No Regrets

Another trip we took involved a cruise through the Greek Islands.  On this trip, we spent about a week basing ourselves in Athens while we did some land touring in a rental car.  Following the land touring, we boarded a small Greek cruise ship that visited the Greek Islands, the west coast of Turkey, the Bosporus, and Istanbul.

For the land portion of the trip, we chose to stay in a Marriott Hotel a bit outside of the center of Athens.  I was seriously into running at this time.  I had noticed that the Parthenon was only two or three miles from our hotel.  While staying there, I initiated a routine where I would awaken before dawn, don my running clothes, and run to the base of the Acropolis.  From there, I ran up the acropolis to the Parthenon and waited for the sun to rise.

As I stood there surrounded by the beautiful ancient structure, I was awed by the spectacle as the sun began to light up my surroundings.  Those daily morning runs were clearly the most impressive of any that I have ever experienced. 

The third outstanding trip that I have taken was one to Christmas Island.  In the fall of 1961, the Soviets broke the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty that both the Soviets and the U. S. had been honoring since 1958.  The Russian atmospheric tests were carried out at a rapid rate.  Their series included some at very high yield.  In fact, one of their tests had a yield far higher (~50 MT) than any test ever conducted by the U. S.  It was clear that the Russian test series had been planned for some time.

The breaking of the treaty caught the U. S. by surprise.  The U. S. followed suit as soon as possible, by conducting its own series of high-yield tests at Christmas Island (owned by the British).  As part of our test series, some people involved with nuclear design work were invited to take tours at Christmas Island in order to witness the test activities and a full-scale nuclear test, if it occurred while you were there.  I was selected to take one of these tours.

We first flew to Honolulu, Hawaii, staying overnight in the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.  The following day we boarded a military aircraft for our trip to Christmas Island.  We arrived in the evening and were housed temporarily in some old British barracks that may have been there since World War II.  The next day we were moved to our quarters, which consisted of a series of large tents with wooden floors.

The next day several of us were given a jeep with which to explore the island.  We were warned to be careful about the intensity of the sun because Christmas Island is very close to the equator.  Many of the roads were unimproved.  Some were just trails in the sand.  As we drove through the sandy trails, we got our jeep stuck.  We pushed and shoved for an hour or more before finally getting free.  It was hot so I was dressed only in shorts and shoes.  With no sun protection, I got terrible sunburn.  I could hardly get off my cot as the pain and throbbing in my swollen, burned, legs made it an agonizing effort to stand up.

After several days, I got better and looked forward to witnessing the test of a high-yield thermonuclear device that was to take place the next day.  The planned yield for the device to be tested was eight megatons.  The device was to be loaded into a B52 bomber at Barber’s Point on the Island of Oahu.  From there, it would be flown to Christmas Island and dropped.  The planned drop would be from about thirty thousand feet, with the bomb fusing set for detonation at eight thousand feet.  The distance to the island beach from the detonation point was to be twenty-two miles.

On the morning of the planned test, we were awakened while it was still dark.  As we left our tents, we wrapped ourselves in white