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231ST ENGINEER COMBAT BATTALION Camp Desert Rock Las Vegas, Nevada
5 November 1951 SUBJECT: Operational Report of OPERATION DESERT ROCK TO: Commanding Officer continued About this same time orders were received to prepare EGG Road. EGG Road at the time was little more than a trail across the desert. Utilizing the graders which had been assigned to this company, the road was widened, straightened, and finally water and compacted. Water for the operation was hauled from a well in the vicinity of Frenchman's Flat. Most of the emplacements were dug using machines: dozers, graters and jack hammers were required to dig the hard, mineralized ground of the desert floor. I drove a dump truck much of the time helping with the road building from the company area, to and from the emplacements at ground zero and back to the troop observer areas. We hauled water from Desert Rock using a deuce-and-a-half with a big rubber bladder in the back to hold the water. At the time this company moved forward, the only orders we had was to prepare four (4) areas for test purposes. These areas, formally known as A, B, C and D, were changed to 1, 2, 3, and 4. Area 2 was the first area to be constructed. However, for the most part, construction of the concrete emplacements was the only delayed operation as the areas were prepared almost simultaneously. There was some difficulty in obtaining the necessary cement and reinforcing rods for the construction of concrete emplacements. Areas 1, 2 and 3 were exactly the same in layout. See Annex 1A as to the composition of all area layouts. They were going to a lot of trouble to put concrete and steel into the ground. They must have wanted to know what the blast would do with the concrete and steel. One Platoon would be in one place and another platoon would be in another, but we'd have to share the equipment, so there was a lot of back and forth with the machinery.
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