Following the war Swancutt was selected as a pilot to drop the nuclear weapon during Operation Crossroads.
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In March 1946, three B-29s of the 59th had a variety of weather instruments installed at Tinker Field, and then departed for the Pacific and "Operation Crossroads".
After the war, the United States used Kwajalein as a main command center and preparation base for Operation Crossroads and an extensive series of nuclear tests (comprising a total of 67 blasts) at the Marshalls' atolls of Bikini and Enewetak.
It was the third series of American tests, following Trinity in 1945 and Crossroads in 1946, and preceding Ranger.
Target ships are vessels, typically obsolete or captured warships, used for naval gunnery practice or for weapons testing – perhaps most spectacularly in Operation Crossroads (1946), where 95 ships were sunk in a U.S. nuclear weapons test at Bikini Atoll.