James Austin Rich

ames A. Rich, Jr., ‘Uncle Jimmy,’ was a sailor during World War II, from 1943 to 1948, and again from 1951 to 1952 during the Korean war. He served aboard a destroyer escort, the USS Lough (DE-586) during the war. During post war tests of nuclear weapons at Bikini Atoll he served aboard the USS Kenneth Whiting (AV-14), a seaplane tender for Operation Crossroads, 1946. He was assigned to Joint Task Force One, Technical Group 1.1, the unit responsible for instrumenting all target ships and target areas for the test, including Bikini lagoon for test Baker.