Commercial airline operators in the Pacific say they are no longer concerned by the closure of an emergency runway on the remote Johnston Atoll. The runway, to be closed by the US military
on December 26, satisfied aviation regulations requiring twin-engine planes in the Pacific to be within range of an emergency airstrip at all times.
Commercial airlines say they have reached an agreement with the Government of Kiribati, under which a small airstrip on Christmas Island will be upgraded by next January.
"Very little activity goes on there, it's a matter of just clearing airstrip itself, fix some of the lights that have not been working, because the operations on Christmas Island have been restricted to daylight," he said. "We need some back-up generators, as well as a replacement fire truck."
Christmas Island, Kiribati. 2.0° N 157.5° W
Christmas Island .... December 26, are we going for an early Christmas story?
Why am I talking of this Island?
Do the Gilbert and Ellice Islands (now Kiribati and Tuvalu) say something to you? Do teh code names 'GRAPPLE' and 'DOMINIC'
In March of that year, a request was received for the clearing of the runways at the airport and early in April information was received that the British Government was to establish an "Air Base" at Christmas Island and the code name 'GRAPPLE' was born.
The official announcement that the real purpose was the testing of nuclear weapons followed and on 19th June, 1956 the advance party for the operation arrived.
Three bombs in the megaton range were successfully dropped by "Valiant" bombers and exploded at about 18,000 feet some thirty miles south of the island between 15th May and 19th June 1956.
In November of 1957 there were two further H-Bomb explosion and between April and September of 1958 a further series.
The Geneva talks broke down and American Defence Chiefs were pressing for a resumption of tests.
President Kennedy finally approved and Britain accepted that they should be staged at Christmas Island, which now was given yet another code name - 'DOMINIC'. On 15th February, 1962 fifty men from the American firm of Holmes and Narver arrived to reactivate the Main Camp and within two weeks there were more than 800 American servicemen and civilians on the island. Numbers rose rapidly, until by the time of the first "shot" on 25th April there were
3,500 British and American personnel engaged. Between then and 11th July there was
a total of twenty-four "shots" in the series. Other tests were going on at Johnston Island 1,200 miles to the north-west and on 8th July it was recorded that the midnight high-altitude explosion there was clearly visible on Christmas Island.
At the beginning of 1963 there was talk of the establishment of a permanent American satellite tracking station on Christmas Island, but interest waned and by the end of September the last of the American servicemen had departed. In Britain, too, strategic imperatives were changing and the Christmas Island base was an early casualty of the withdrawal of British Forces from the Pacific theatre. In June the last inventories were made, [b[obsolete and dangerous materials were dumped
at sea[/b], the offices were locked and at sunset on Monday 19th June, 1964 the White Ensign was lowered at the Royal Navy shore station, H.M.S. Resolution.
American service personnel reappeared very briefly in April, 1970 to stand by on Christmas Island for the "splash-down", two hundred miles to the south, of the Apollo 13 crew returning from the moon.
After the departure of the Forces, Operation "Hard Look" had carried out a full investigation into the possibilities of radio-active contamination, but had found none. In 1975 a further examination of Christmas Island was undertaken by American experts as part of the preparation for the establishment of a Japanese tracking station. They reported that
radioactivity levels were lower than those found in most American cities and that there was nothing
on the island which could lead an investigator to deduce that there had ever been an atomic detonation in the vicinity.
See for yourselves
Midway Island, Elevation: 13 ft. / 4 m (estimated)
Johnston Atoll, Elevation: 7 ft. / 2 m (estimated)