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At a harbor, several animal crates are carried by a crane and loaded onto USS Burleson. Close up shots of various animals are shown, including a goat, rats and pigs, Later, U.S. Navy men are seen using microscopes. This was taken during Operation Crossroads in Bikini Atoll, 1946. USS Burleson (APA-67), a Gilliam-class attack transport, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for Burleson County, Texas. Her keel was laid down on 22 April 1944 at Wilmington, California, by the Consolidated Steel Corporation under a Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 1860). She was launched on 11 July 1944 sponsored by Mrs. Darryl F. Zanuck, delivered to the Navy on 7 November 1944, and commissioned on 8 November 1944. The ship was named after a county in east central Texas about 60 miles due east of Austin. Operation Crossroads was a pair of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946. They were the first nuclear weapon tests since Trinity on July 16, 1945, and the first detonations of nuclear devices since the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. The purpose of the tests was to investigate the effect of nuclear weapons on warships.