Navy recognizes newest Gray Dragon

WILLIAMSBURG — The Navy Nuclear Weapons Association has a new Gray Dragon, and he’s living in Williamsburg.

Bob Mowry became the Gray Dragon in December and was recognized by Kris Hobbs, of the Navy Nuclear Weapons Association, during a celebration of Mowry’s 90th birthday April 27 in Williamsburg.

Mowry also received a Quilt of Valor from Iowa County Heartland Quilters during the birthday party. Mowry is the 107th veteran to receive a Quilt of Valor from Heartland Quilters.

Established in 2009, the Order of the Gray Dragon recognizes the member of the Special Weapons/Nuclear Weapons Program who has the earliest date of entry. The Gray Dragon holds the distinction for life.

The atomic bomb, with its fire and smoke and destructive power, is like a dragon, said Hobbs. The Navy Nuclear Weapons Association is the Keeper of the Dragon.

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“We’ve never had to use one since World War II and hope we never have to do it again,” said Hobbs.

In the Navy

In a video of an interview with his granddaughter, Mowry said he joined the navy in the fall of 1952 to avoid the draft.

“The Korean War was on, and I knew if I didn’t go to college or didn’t get married, within a year I’d be drafted,” said the Tipton native.

Following boot camp in San Diego, California, Mowry was sent to Sandia Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico where he was assigned to the Naval Special Weapons Unit 1233.

“I was there a short time before I got my top-secret clearance,” Mowery said. “After I got my top-secret clearance, I went into training to learn how to work on atomic bombs.”

Julius and Ethel Rosenburg had just been convicted of treason and sentenced to death for giving atomic secrets to Russia, said Mowry. They were hanged in June 1953.

“So that put the fear of God in you. You don’t talk about what you see or what you do here.

“From Sandia Base I was sent to Skiffes Creek Annex Naval Mine Depot in Yorktown, Virginia. … That’s what it was, an annex to the mine depot.

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“The annex was a storage site for atom bombs, and I worked in the mechanical bay,” said Mowry. “And we took atomic bombs out of storage, disassembled them, inspected them, put them back together and put them back in storage. I did that for 2 ½ years.”

Operation Redwing

Mowry was assigned to Joint Task Force 7 headquarters during Operation Redwing in the Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The first hydrogen bomb dropped from a plane was developed during Operation Redwing, he said.

Mowry and two other seamen were assigned to run the barge of the rear admiral who was in command of the task force. “And it was not because of our seamanship,” Mowry said. “It was because we had top secret clearance.”

Enewetak Island was about 2 ½ miles long, said Mowry. “I actually lived on the next island, which was called Parry Island,” said Mowry. It was about ½ mile long and ¼ mile wide.

“The admiral’s barge, which was a small boat, was anchored out in the lagoon,” Mowry said.

Mowry took the admiral and his staff from headquarters on Parry Island to Enewetak Island or to the command ship when tests were conducted at Bikini Atoll.

Nuclear tests were always done before dawn, said Mowry. Officials would run a firetruck through the tent area, blowing a siren.

The men lived in wood-frame tents. “We had to roll the sides of our tent up so if the blast wave came across the island it wouldn’t take the tents down,” Mowry said.

“We mustered down on the beach, on the lagoon side,” As the countdown approached zero, seamen who had goggles put them on. They could look at ground zero.

Seamen who didn’t have goggles had to cover their faces and turn away from the blast.

The night was pitch black before the bombs were detonated, Mowery said, but when the blast went off, the sky lit up as if it were noon. Mowry remembers the big flash and the mushroom cloud “rising up into the sky.”

The men weren’t afraid, Mowry said. They didn’t know much about radiation then.

“I did have a film badge that I wore,” Mowry said. “We knew it was for radiation.” That didn’t mean much to him at that time.

“Ionized radiation causes a lot of cancers. I know that,” Mowry said. “But at that time we didn’t really know anything about it.”

“I witnessed or participated in 17 atomic or hydrogen bomb tests in 1956,” said Mowry.

Back to Tipton

“After Operation Redwing was over, I went back to Kwajalein Island,” He got a troop ship and went to Treasure Island in San Franscisco for discharge.

“Then I came back to Tipton, Iowa.”

Mowry enjoyed his time in the Navy, he told his granddaughter during the interview. “I just liked the people. I liked the work I did. I just had so many good friends. … It was different.”

Mowry said he feels a little odd when he tells people he was in the Navy for four years but never served on a ship as most Navy personnel do.

What Mowry did was not normal. “Very few people did what I did,” he said.

Gray Dragon

“You’ve truly honored me,” Mowry told Hobbs after receiving the Gray Dragon award last month in front of a crowd of more than 100 people. “And I’m so proud to have so many people here.”

“It was a long time ago,” Mowry said — more than 70 years.

“I was very proud of the job I did have and the job I did.”

Mowry is the fourth Gray Dragon, following Ed Doss (2009-2012), John Cummings (2012-2022) and Frederick Wacha (2022-2023).