helter monitor and military police set up a post where the
North Shelter Road ran into Broadway. The west shelter monitor and a
military policeman blocked Vatican Road where it intersected Broadway.
The south shelter monitor and military police set up a roadblock where
Broadway intersected Pennsylvania Avenue (1).
The monitor assigned to Guard Post 4 surveyed the Mockingbird Gap area
to ensure that it was safe for the guards to return to their post.
This position controlled access to the McDonald Ranch Road, which led
directly to ground zero (1).
At 0540 hours, the chief monitor departed from the Base Camp with a
military policeman to monitor the entire length of Broadway. They
first checked the roadblock at Pennsylvania Avenue and Broadway. Next
they drove to the roadblock at Vatican Road and Broadway. Upon the
chief monitor's arrival, the west shelter monitor traveled about nine
kilometers west on Vatican Road to monitor Guard Post 1 so that the
military police could reoccupy the post. The monitoring excursion to
Guard Post 1 continued until the chief monitor had returned from Guard
Post 2, located 17 kilometers northwest of the Vatican Road roadblock
on Broadway (1; 18).
The chief monitor arrived at Guard Post 2 at about 0550 hours and
found the post empty. He then continued five kilometers north along
Broadway to the foxholes from which the military police had watched
the detonation. There he found the guards, the five radiological
safety monitors assigned to the evacuation detachment, and the
Commanding Officer of the evacuation detachment (1; 18).
The military policemen refused to return to Guard Post 2, insisting
that they had received orders over their two-way radio from the Base
Commander to evacuate their post and head for San Antonio, New Mexico,
a town 28 kilometers northwest of the Guard Post. The Base Commander
had noted that portions of the cloud were heading northwestward and,
fearing that fallout from the cloud would contaminate Guard Post 2,
had ordered the military police to evacuate. The chief monitor,
however, had found no significant radiation levels anywhere along the
northern part of Broadway nor around Guard Post 2. The Base Commander,
after being contacted by the chief monitor, drove to the foxholes and
ordered the guards to return to their post. This was the only
unplanned incident during the onsite monitoring (1).
After Guard Post 2 was reoccupied, the chief monitor return
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