The Philip B. Petersen Collection Broadcast August 8, 1990

     I (Phil Petersen, W2DME) remember the South Amboy explosion when our home was jolted by a severe shock wave at 7:30 on the evening of May 19, 1950.  It was five years after the Hiroshima A-bomb and that memory was fresh in our minds.
     I turned on the radio and quickly heard that a severe explosion occurred in South Amboy.  As a member of the Civil Defense Amateur Radio Emergency Service, I took my homebrew high frequency portable transmitter and converted war surplus receiver, picked up Roy Tyack, W2BAT; Mike Krause, W2HKY; and Lou Longstreet, W2SWL, and headed for South Amboy, 20 miles away.
     We were stopped several times by police roadblocks.  Showing our credentials we were allowed to continue.  Approaching the outskirts of South Amboy, there were many broken windows.  In town, shattered glass and debris were everywhere.  We stopped at the school building and set up radio communication on the top floor, about two blocks from the location of the explosion.
     There was much confusion.  Many were still in a state of shock and others had injuries, mostly from flying glass.  On the air we were overloaded with requests for detail information from the National Red Cross, military and government officials wanting more details.  How many dead?  How many injured? What do you need?  Can we be of help?  Radio amateurs out of the area were very helpful relaying messages for us.  Even though we were a few blocks from the explosion, it was difficult and sometimes impossible to get official answers.  As best we could, we described the devastation.  Several days later the count was 31 dead and over 300 injured.
     We sent and received over 30 priority messages and many more from those inquiring about relatives and loved ones.  The Red Cross and the Salvation Army were very much in evidence helping the people.  Salvation Army Brigadier Henry Dries (retired) recalls how they provided shelter for a detachment of military explosive specialists who were searching the area for unexploded munitions.
     Across the river in Perth Amboy, Bill Hass, W2GMY; George Miller, K2FD; and Julius Kardos, W2VO, were using emergency communications.  They were particularly hard hit.  Miller saw a large 500-pound anchor that was blown one and a half miles and landed on the street near the high school.
     The explosion occurred when over 420 tons of military explosives blew up under mysterious circumstances, killing 31 dockworkers and injuring over 300 others.  The dock workers were transferring military explosives and dynamite from the rail cars to a barge at the "powder pier."  The pier was destroyed and never rebuilt, and munitions through the port ended after the explosion.

August 8, 1990

** Broadcasts recordings preserved and presented here by Mr. Robert Buss and Mr. Bernie Ricciardi, Phil's friends and fellow Marconi Chapter 138 QCWA members **

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