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Daylight Reentry
Photo Credit: Bechtel 2010
earlier from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Photo Credit: Unknown - December 2014
warhead in a Mk.21 reentry vehicle (RV) Photo Credit: Unknown - Date Unknown Night Time Reentry Mark Nelson
July 10 at 3:27 PM The video linked to below describes the testing of atomic devices on Enewetak Atoll in 1954. Staging area for that event was Kwajalein Atoll some 350 or so miles to the south east of Enewetak. This video is all the more interesting to me because in 1968 I worked there for a civilian contractor and in 1998 I went back on a vacation with my girlfriend, later and still my wife. Kwajalein island has a very interesting history. It was the first territory taken from the Japanese in WWII for instance. More here: VIDEO LINK Zorgon: Do you have the unsanatized version? Have you seen this one? A Time-Lapse Map of Every Nuclear Explosion Since 1945 - by Isao Hashimoto VIDEO LINK Mark Nelson: Actually I found that site kind of by accident so I don't know how sanitized or not it is. However the video that you posted a link to is very interesting. I didn't realize how many bombs had been set off over time. Following that video was this interesting one: 10 MOST TOXIC Places On Earth VIDEO LINK Zorgon: How many times do you need to test an atomic bomb to know it works? The problem is you can only use them ONCE... Mark Nelson: They are always refining the design is one reason, or they are changing the conditions/situation under which it is fired is another reason(s). On the 1968 trip to Kwajalein the prop plane made a stop at Johnston Atoll to refuel there as there was no jet service to Kwaj at the time. They would let no one off of the plane except those who worked there. I asked someone why that was so and he referred to some nuclear accident in the past and they were trying to limit exposure to the radiation. I had no idea about the real story until much later. Because jet service had been established a few months after my arrival at Kwaj in '68, my next visit in 1998 totally bypassed Johnston Island. Today that island is deserted and there is nothing there. But then I am not telling you anything new as you have a piece on it under "Secret Basess" :-) Zorgon: John Lear flew into Johnston Atoll several times... tells me that if he got out and looked around they would shoot him... We need to talk about those glowing things you told me watched those early launches from Kwajalien. I also suspect that it isn't as deserted as they say. I saw some interesting satelite images not that long ago. Mark Nelson: I didn’t have the same experience as John, glad I didn’t push anything 😊 And you were friends with John Lear, THE John Lear? Cool. The glowing things, at least the ones that I saw, were reentry vehicles. Launches from Vandenburg was announced via the islands PA system. If I was on an outer island we would hear the reentry count down on the radio that they gave us to use. So, I doubt it was anything other than what they said it was, at least then. Once while waiting for an announced reentry on top of the 3 story barracks in which we lived. While there, I got into a conversation with some of the other people there about some of the lights in the sky that I could not identify which were moving slowly. I was told that they were radar planes that would follow the missile through reentry (example: Airborne early warning and control...). As the conversation progressed the subject of UFOs came up and one of the people who had been there for some time described a twinkling light low to the horizon that caught his attention. As he watched it it, it suddenly crossed something like 100 degrees of arc, then made a 90 degree turn, then another turn ending up back where it started. We were all amazed at the story but as I didn’t know him, I have no way to know how truthful he was. I never saw anything that I would call a UFO while there, unfortunately ☹ Johnston Island is supposed to be closed and deserted since 2004 and you are not allowed to land there without special permission, or so I have read. Mark Nelson: During the late fifties I had a book that had a one page articles about various subjects. On each page was a place for a color picture in the form of a stamp that the books owner was to separate from the sheet of stamps that accompanied the book. One of them was when the island of Hawaii was turned into broad daylight at midnight from a nuclear test explosion. Years later I found out that the missile was launched from Johnston Island/Atoll. Here are some interesting links:
Here is a picture of a nighttime reentry in Kwaj. I didn't take this one, but I think you will like it. [Below] is the one that I did take. I was extremely lucky. The date, well the year anyway on the second picture is 1968. The first one is some years prior to that.
Photo Credit: Mark Nelson - 1965-66
Photo Credit: Mark Nelson - 1968 Zorgon: John Lear is still alive and doing better 😊 so 'were' is a tad premature 😊 Thanks, I will add those two to the collection Nighttime reentry at Kwaj don't have the date on this but Williamson labs is long gone...
A preview of apocalypse: The
Peacekeeper missile system being tested at the Kwajalein Atoll in the
Marshall Islands. The lines shown are the re-entry vehicles -- one
Peacekeeper can hold up to 10 nuclear warheads. Each line, were its
warhead live, represents the explosive power of twenty-five
Hiroshima-sized (Little Boy) weapons. Photo Credit: Unknown
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Image
21 - Test of Multiple Independently Retargetable Re-entry Vehicles -
"Six unarmed Minuteman III Mark 12 reentry vehicles are shown
approaching targets near Kwajalein Atoll in the Western Pacific Ocean.
The [photo was] taken during an operational test of two Minuteman III
ICBMs launched from Vandenberg AFB, Ca., on July 10, 1979 as part of
the Strategic Air Command exercise Global Shield '79." (Box 967) Photo Credit: Williamson
Labs
Mark Nelson:
I am a little dubious about those being launches from Kwaj. This is because Kwaj had only one launch facility and none on the other islands in 1968. When I was back in 1998 I had heard that there was another launch facility on the next island to the west called Enubuj. This is where the German battleship called the Prinz Eugen sunk during a typhoon.
Sitting on the Prince Eugen propeller - Enubuj, Kwajalien Atoll 1968. Photo Credit: Mark Nelson
Prince Eugen propeller - Enubuj, Kwajalien Atoll 1968. Photo Credit: Mark Nelson
Snorkelling on the Prince Eugen - Enubuj, Kwajalien Atoll 1968. Photo Credit: Mark Nelson
There was a total eclipse on Kwajalein on April 12–13 1968. I tried a time lapse photo on the same frame which would give me several moon's on the same frame at different phases, but I can't find it now. One thing that I did find is the following picture that I took while on Okinawa. It is the SR-71 which was secret at the time. I got lucky with this shot.
SR-71 over Okinawa 1965-67 Photo Credit: Mark Nelson
Mark Nelson: One last thing: What follows is a picture that I was asked to take while on Okinawa and in the Air Force. It is a Mace missile pointed at China. I understand that they are no longer on Okinawa. Here is an article about that site with one of my pictures: LINK
MACE missile on Okinawa 1965-67 Photo Credit: Mark Nelson
The
main purpose behind the US Army presence in the Marshall Islands is to
support missile tests. These tests typically involve the launch of a
booster from Vandenberg AFB in California. Boosters take about 26
minutes to reach the atoll, where they deploy their reentry vehicles
(RV's). The white traces above indicate the path of two RV's as they
crashed into the lagoon. Thankfully, they don't contain warheads. (6
Aug 03 / Mission GT-183) Photo Credit: Kevin M. McGrath, McGrath Images
This is a MIRV, or Multiple Independent Re-entry Vehicle, warhead. Courtesy of the US Ballistic Missile Submarine Force.I think the Navy should have named at least one of the Ohio class boats The Pale Horse. September 22, 2012 Photo Credit: US NAVY
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