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A transcript of an article written by Charles Hugh Grimes for submission
to an unknown magazine.
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Dear Sirs;

     I am sending you a little story that you can use in your magazine
if you wish pertaining to operation crossroads, 1946 Bikini Atoll.

     I am a 100% service connected veteran, and was aboard the Navy Hospital 
ship Benevolence, AH-13. Recuperating from extensive combat injuries and on a 
light duty status as a radio operator /out patient.

     There were 3 hospital ships present with the fleet, the Benevolence, the 
Bountiful and the haven which carried the scientist, newspaper reporters 
and top military brass.

     These hospital ships were the pride of the Navy, staffed by crack
medical personnel, equipped with the best equipment known at the time and I owe 
those doctors and nurses on the benevolence my life, and consider it an honor to 
have served with them.

     Immediately after each bomb was detonated, a destroyer standing by on the 
outer perimeter of the target ships, made a high speed run through these target 
vessels and scooped up water samples, then made a dash for Kwajalin island in 
the Marshalls where delivery was made to a scientific group laboratory.

     The second bomb (Baker) was detonated under water and was the most 
spectacular of the two, and then things started to happen.

     A sailor aboard the destroyer dropped unconscious with a burst appendix, 
and they began to encounter an ever-increasing amount of submerged objects, 
sunken small ships, debris, etc., which slowed hem down to almost a stand still.

     The time factor regarding the patient's condition was considered critical, 
so the decision was made for the Benevolence to go into the target area and 
intersect the destroyer somewhere in between if possible.

     All the crew that were off duty were lined up along the top deck and we got 
a first hand look at the after effects.

     It as like going into Dante's Inferno, with huge fires raging out
of control on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier Saratoga and surrounding 
vessels.

     As we passed close inboard and slowed almost to a stop due to submerged 
objects, which were becoming more numerous as the minutes ticked by.

     You could see the animals in their cages; some were tied, on deck 
jumping up and down in frenzy in the intense hear emanating from the fires.

     The Battleship Arkansas anchored nearby was also afire from stem to stern 
with small explosions popping off like firecrackers, it's huge bulk a black 
charred mass of metal.

     The Japanese Battleship Negato was like a huge elongated black 
smoldering cigar, low in the water devoid of its large pagoda like 
superstructure which had vaporized in the explosion.

     The water in the lagoon was literally boiling resulting in astronomically 
high temperature and as an absolute necessity it was decided to pick our way 
back to the outer perimeter and rendezvous with the destroyer when it came out.

     If you can imagine sitting in a bathtub floating in a lake of boiling water 
surrounded by fire you've got the picture.

     The patient survived, the Benevolence departed for San Francisco soon 
afterward and the evaporator system was found to be highly contaminated and 
traces of radioactivity were found in the drinking water.

     The evaporator system was decontaminated and the ship was subsequently put 
back into service.

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Transcribed from original handwritten draft.  November 07, 2001