Sounds: These soundscapes are based on recordings made by employees of the US Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory (NRDL), originally based at the 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. Restricted by secrecy rules, 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.

During Operation Redwing in 1956, the U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory (NRDL) served as the primary technical lead for radiological safety and monitoring across the 17-test series at the Bikini and Enewetak Atolls. Their roles were divided between ensuring the immediate safety of thousands of personnel and conducting high-level scientific research on the effects of nuclear fallout. 

The operation was considered a technical success but caused significant environmental damage to the Pacific Proving Ground.  Operation Redwing (1956) caused “near-irreversible environmental contamination” across the Marshall Islands with radioactive fallout poisoning the land, water, and marine ecosystems. While intended to be “cleaner” than previous series, the 17 detonations still released the explosive equivalent of roughly 3,200 Hiroshima-sized bombs, leaving a legacy of long-lived radionuclides like Cesium-137 and Strontium-90.