Expeditionary
Nuclear Testing Support 1948-1953
Through the late 1940s and early 1950s, Marines supported the United States' atmospheric nuclear test series in the Pacific Proving Ground, the atolls of Eniwetok and Bikini in the Marshall Islands.
Marine detachments provided security for the test sites, guarded weapons components and classified facilities, and supported the joint task forces that conducted the detonations during this formative period of the American nuclear arsenal. The work spanned several test series across these years, as the United States developed and refined both fission and, by 1952, thermonuclear weapons. For the Marines involved it was specialized duty in support of a strategic program rather than an operational deployment, but it placed the Corps within the machinery of Cold War deterrence at its outset. The role was one of guardianship and logistical support for tests whose results would shape national defense policy for decades.
Engagements in this conflict (1)
Record no. 660