NAVY
1951 - 1953

Winfield Hughes served as a Machinist Mate aboard the USS Oakhill.  The Oakhill was LSD 7 (Landing Ship Dock). He participated in operation "Blue Jay" in Arctic waters in the late summer months of 1951 supplying equipment and supplies to build a top secret (at the time) military base in Greenland.  This base was originally called Thule Air Base which is now Pituffik Space Base. The Oakhill participated in operation “Ivy Mike” and “Ivy King” between May and December 1952 at Enewetak Atoll in the Pacific.  “Ivy Mike” was the testing of the world’s first full-scale thermonuclear bomb test (H Bomb).  It was 10.4 megatons which was 500 times larger than the Nagasaki bomb.  “Ivy King” was a secondary 500 kiloton atomic bomb test. The USS Oakhill was the closes ship to the detonation site.  Not many humans have witnessed two nuclear mushroom clouds and lived to tell about it.  Following that duty he was transferred to the Atlantic Fleet and homeported at Norfolk. My father was very proud of his service in the US Navy.

Honored by: Hughes Family