In 1946, Arthur Beaumont was appointed the U.S. Navy’s Official Task Force Artist for Operation Crossroads Mr. Beaumont was assigned to the USS Fall River (CA-131), Target Vessel Control Ship, in charge of positioning the 95 target vessels in the Bikini Lagoon for the Able and Baker tests in July 1946 at Operation Crossroads. The…
Between 1945 and 1963, the United States conducted 235 atmospheric nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific Ocean and the Southwestern U.S. In appreciation of the approximately 250,000 American service men and women who witnessed and participated in these tests, President Ronald Reagan designated July 16, 1983 as National Atomic Veterans Day. Read the full text…
July 1, 2017 – Seventy-one years to the day after the Test Able atomic bomb test at the Bikini Atoll, former USS Fall River shipmates Bill McGee and Paul Dowling reconnected by telephone, thanks to Paul Dowling’s daughter, Paula. “My dad was at Operation CROSSROADS in 1946,” wrote Paula in an email to Bill in…
Just in from KTVU Fox 2 (the broadcast station) … The atomic veterans story, which Bill was interviewed for in May, will air on Thursday, June 29, on KTVU Fox 2, in the 5-6 pm news hour. Set your DVRs… (Note: We have not seen the edited version.)
April 5, 2017 – Bill had a nice visit with former Fall River shipmate, Bob “Chris” Chrisman. In 1946, Chris and Bill did duty on the heavy cruiser USS Fall River (CA-131) at Operation Crossroads, the first postwar atomic bomb tests at Bikini in July 1946. Chris had just celebrated his 94th and his son, Rob,…
January 25, 2017 Dear Bill, I read your book, Operation Crossroads – Lest We Forget! stem to stern the same day it arrived. It sure brought back memories and some I didn’t know about, like the beer shack and the warm beer. I have a grandson who did a lot of homework on the…
January 2, 2017 Dear Mr. McGee: I had been following with keen interest your five-part series in the U.S. Navy Cruiser Sailors Association magazine about the USS Fall River (CA-131) and its participation in Operation CROSSROADS in 1946. We both came aboard the new heavy cruiser in January 1946 in Norfolk, Virginia—I was a Quartermaster,…
A big thank-you across the Atlantic to Mr. Mark Barnes for his review of Operation Crossroads – Lest We Forget! Read the full review here WAR HISTORY ONLINE … Available on Amazon
Just in … Review by PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Las Vegas, Nevada, September 14, 2016 – The National Association of Atomic Veterans (NAAV) held their annual convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. NAAV was founded in 1979 for the purpose of assisting America’s atomic veterans secure proof of their exposure to ionizing radiation while on active duty. The convention hotel was located within walking distance…
A big thank-you to Diane Smith of the Belvedere-Tiburon The Ark for today’s front page story … Read the full story at The Ark, July 27, 2016
A big thank-you to Zach Morris, Editor in Chief of Scuttlebutt, the Official Newsletter of the United States LST (Landing Ship, Tank) Association, for the following publicity in the June 2016 issue …
National publicity for Operation Crossroads – Lest We Forget! officially launched online at 3 a.m. today … Read the press release at PRWeb 6-20-2016
A big thank-you to Giff Johnson, editor, The Marshall Islands Journal … Click to read the review as a PDF file
Author and atomic veteran Bill McGee (left) delivers the first, hot-off-the-press print edition of Operation Crossroads, Lest We Forget! to Mel Owen, San Francisco attorney and yachtsman. Available on Amazon in Print and Kindle eBook editions.
“ATOMIC VETS” produced by RetroReports… an informative 13-minute video released May 29, 2016. Dr. F. Lincoln Grahlfs, who wrote the Foreword to Bill McGee’s Operation Crossroads – Lest We Forget! and was at Crossroads, gives on-camera commentary. Thank you to the producers at RetroReport for permission to post.
COMING JUNE 2016 IN TIME FOR THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY
Using his visual aids (Bill McGee became legally blind from macular degeneration in 2003), Bill is reviewing his upcoming memoir, Operation Crossroads, Lest We Forget! using a CCTV (a desktop magnifier that enlarges text and images) to view the pages, and an Eye-Pal Solo (the text-to-speech device on his left) to listen to the text.…
With a publishing goal of June 2016 to mark the 70th anniversary of Operation CROSSROADS, Bill McGee and his co-author/wife Sandra are immersed in the writing of his memoir dedicated to his participation at Crossroads, the first postwar atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll in 1946. Pictured is a working front cover and title.
The year 2016 is off to a good start. Part 1 of Bill’s two-part series about his participation at Operation CROSSROADS in 1946 was published in the Winter 2016 edition of the national quarterly magazine of the U.S. Navy Cruiser Sailors Association (USNCSA) … Click on the link to read Operation Crossroads, Part 1, USNCSA…