John Hird
New Zealand Nuclear Test Veterans’ Association
-Operation Grapple
April 28, 2023. Palmerston North.
[Hird is 85 years old.]
Shimasaki:
You were at Operation Grapple, correct?
Hird:
Yes, I was at Operation Grapple.
Shimasaki:
Can you share your experience of your time there? What did you do? Why were you there?
Hird:
I was a steward on board looking after the Officers.
Shimasaki:
Ok.
Hird:
Yeah, and well we didn’t even know where we were going to start with- we left the port in Auckland and halfway to Fiji we got told we were going up for this hydrogen bomb testing.
Shimasaki:
So, you didn’t even know until halfway?
Hird:
We didn’t even know until then. And going up there as a weather ship but, yeah, but we were the closest ship to the bombs and I can always remember, the most important thing, I could remember the first bomb; it was a beautiful day and the bomb went and up it went and we could see it but before, we got the countdown three times before they let it go. Now, we were allowed on the upper deck, fully clothed, goggles, and when I put my hands over my eyes and the flash went off, I could see the bones in my fingers. Now I told my son that quite a few years later because he wasn’t even around then, we were only thinking about it. And I just can’t believe that that had happened- until a film came out, and I filmed the whole thing… the biggest problem we’ve got it that we didn’t know what was going to happen to us until 30 or 40 years later when things start to go wrong. And especially the things like my eyes, and I used to get terrible headaches, and they put that down to the bombs. But I’d go on the upper deck, and I’d have these terrible headaches and I would whack my head against the steel bulkhead; try and knock myself out because they were so severe. I can’t remember many of the other bombs going off, they all went off because I was on the ship for 2 years. I mean, we came back home, and I think we might have even done a New Zealand cruise, they used to call them in those days. But now, you know since things started to go wrong with myself and that’s when I was allowed to get new glasses every six years, I went onboard the ship with no fillings or anything in my teeth- I had a perfect set of teeth- I came back two years later and I had no teeth. They just rotted away, and that was the biggest shock because as I was saying, I had good teeth. But I’ve got, I’ve ended up with hiatus hernia, food would go down, but if I lay down, that would probably run out of me. It affected whatever it is in there. While I was onboard the ship, I did a tapestry about that size, and that was the day of the first bomb, and one of the guys in our mess was a bit of a shit and he threw it out the porthole. Since then, I made another one while I was on the ship, I got another one when I got home, I think, and that’s finished, it’s hanging up in our sitting room. But we didn’t have much trouble like that, only one person was [laughs]. I got a good laugh, but it hurt me. He gave me a tot; you get your tot of rum every day, and you always give it to the guy that’s in charge of the mess- a sip. He took his sip, and I threw it straight out the porthole. Oooh, did he go mad… That sort of thing.
Shimasaki:
[Nods] Those kinds of relationships.
Hird:
Yeah, otherwise everybody was good. The Officers were good because that’s who I was looking after, and a couple of those Officers, one of them was Sub-lieutenant who became a Rear Admiral, [thinking of the name of the man] he was just a little ‘subby’. Yeah, we had a couple of them like that. But we had a padre on board, my golly, you certainly found out that you don’t tell him anything because he’d spread it around the boardroom with all the other Officers because you would never be able to confide in this guy, [name omitted], that was his name. Other than that, my body is still holding up, I mean as I say, I’ll be 86 in July. So, I’ve not done too bad.
I’ve already died once. They found me dead in a heart ward, and they revived me, you know, I’m now Jesus Christ number 2, I rose from the dead…
But no, the English didn’t give a damn about us, the people themselves. They wanted to find out what was going to happen to us, and a lot of them [inaudible]. But yeah.
Shimasaki:
How would you describe your life pre-bombing. What did you do before you went to Operation Grapple?
Hird:
I was on the Lochner for two months up I the Pacific Islands doing depth charging and all sorts of things, that was my first ship, and then the Pukaki, then I went to England and picked up the Otago and that was a wonderful ship. There again, we had a Lieutenant then, he became an Admiral [Hird disliked him]. The other Officers would tell him, “Lay off.” While you are in there you’ve got to go with the flow [Shimasaki- yes] and look after each other. But this Lieutenant, [name omitted] was his name, he’s dead too, he was trying to be a real [inaudible, and then another veteran comes to speak with him before we continue].
Now, what was I talking about?
Shimasaki:
Oh, your life beforehand. So, you went to England.
Hird:
I joined the Navy on the 25th of May 1955. Now before that I was two and a half years on a farm, and the years before that I was in a children’s home. My mother died when she was 20, I think or 23, and I’ve since then found my father and I’ve now got two brothers and a sister. I’ve known them now for about the last seven or eight years. The old man didn’t want anything to do with me, but I’ve got all his medals, he was a Lieutenant flying Officer in the Second World War bombing Germany and France, and he got given the French’s distinguished medal, I can’t even think of the name of it. French is hard for me.
But yeah, and then when we came out of there, this was all done in Napier. When I got out of the Navy I went back to a farm and only lasted 11 months, it nearly killed me. I was driving bulldozers and all sorts of things. And then we built a makeshift, and we were there for 35 years.
Shimasaki:
35 years, wow!
Hird:
Yeah, and then we came up to the North Shore, not Auckland, the North Shore in 1999.
Shimasaki:
Have you been there since?
Hird:
Straight into a brand-new house, only 300 metres from the mall and we’ve got everything there except for ten-pin bowling. We are ten pin bowlers: we’ve been doing that for 22 years. We love it.
Shimasaki:
It’s great.
Hird:
So, that’s basically what my life’s been like… We’ve been married for 64 years… I hope I’ve given you enough.
Shimasaki:
You’ve been amazing. And what are your thoughts on nuclear weapons and the threat today?
Hird:
Oh look, I’m absolutely stoked that so many people are going to be here [at the event for New Zealand Nuclear Test Veterans Association], 35 I understand. No, I’m absolutely stoked.
Shimasaki:
Thanks for sharing.