These recordings were made by employees of the US Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory (NRDL), originally based at Hunters Point Shipyard in San Francisco. While deployed to the Marshall Islands for Operation Redwing—a series of 17 nuclear tests conducted by the United States in 1956—these workers were tasked with monitoring and assessing radiological hazards and contamination. Instead of writing letters home, some men recorded audio messages, offering an intimate, unscripted glimpse into daily life at a Cold War nuclear test site and linking back to the Navy’s radiological operations at Hunters Point.
About the CRANE project
CRANE is a public art project illuminating the Hunters Point Shipyard Gantry Crane through projection, sound, and community stories to celebrate the site’s layered cultural, historical and environmental legacy.
Lead artists are Ian Winters (video), Elaine Buckholtz (light), Evelyn Ficarra (sound), Stacey Carter (history) and William Rhodes (community engagement). CRANE is a project of Shipyard Trust for the Arts and is supported by the Kenneth Rainin Foundation and other generous donors.