Marines Witnessed Atomic Blast

[GONE BAD]

Wondering if any members here (other than me) have relatives or friends that were in the Corp between 1954 and 1957 that were subjected to test blast of Atomic Bombs?

My uncle was 1 of many .
He told about the experience but not in detail other than they were taken to the desert, got in trenches that were previously dug and told to
Knee down, cover their bodies with their ponchos, cross their arms over their faces and close their eyes.

He said when the bomb went off the flash was so bright he could see the bones in his arms !

My neighbor was in the Army at that time and was building temporary shelters for the Marines to stay in before they were transported to the bomb zone.

This is all I know about the story other than he was exposed to unknown levels of radiation.

Anyone with more information would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Blue Sky Country]

You've been binging the channel Atom Central on Youtube haven't you? That is some crazy shit up there, especially now with tech to reformat the old videos to HD digital... The most beautiful ones are the space detonations. Mini supernovas between the Earth and the Moon that briefly turned night into day on the surface, even at a distance where the EMP is weakened enough to being unable to cause harm to any electronics.

 

[Blue Sky Country]

Ground zero 37,000 feet altitude blast. Holy shit...




Operation Starfish and Fishbowl: Deep space detonations: Instruments and techniques used to monitor energy and radiation output from these shots are used to develop our current cutting edge space telescopes that pick up infrared, x-ray, and gamma transmissions from remote galaxies, including the James Webb Telescope:

 

[ditchdigger]

That’s my father on the right. 1952

 

[GONE BAD]

You've been binging the channel Atom Central on Youtube haven't you? That is some crazy shit up there, especially now with tech to reformat the old videos to HD digital... The most beautiful ones are the space detonations. Mini supernovas between the Earth and the Moon that briefly turned night into day on the surface, even at a distance where the EMP is weakened enough to being unable to cause harm to any electronics.

No I haven't.
The only thing I have ever watched is, concerning the Marines, some footage on a old documentary that talked about the bomb and the Marines. Don't even remember the name of it.

Thanks for the links to the videos!
I will do more research

 

[GONE BAD]

View attachment 7889335
That’s my father on the right. 1952

Amazing!

By 1954 ,1957 the explosions must have gained in power and intensity?

Thanks for the picture!

 

[Blue Sky Country]

No I haven't.
The only thing I have ever watched is, concerning the Marines, some footage on a old documentary that talked about the bomb and the Marines. Don't even remember the name of it.

Thanks for the links to the videos!
I will do more research

Is this it?




Reformatted into HD. Pretty crazy as during this time, the US was fully concerned that a Soviet or joint Soviet Chicom invasion of the mainland might be attempted by the madmen ruling these countries, so part of a protocol for pushback involves detonating a nuke right in the middle of enemy forces on US soil, and then once the fallout has dissipated, the mop-up squads were to go in and finish off any surviving enemies...

 

[Blue Sky Country]

Amazing!

By 1954 ,1957 the explosions must have gained in power and intensity?

Thanks for the picture!

Many of the bombs developed right after the initial first generation batch of WWII emergency-use munitions were "boosted". They were the precursors to full thermonuclear weapons as these newer bombs had a layer of tritium fusion fuel surrounding the fission core. Upon detonation of the fission core, the temperature and pressure of the uranium/plutonium explosion causes some of the tritium in the outer shell of the bomb core to undergo fusion, adding much more power and output to the bomb.

A LOT of concept experiments were done at drawing boards to make the bombs more powerful or deliver radioactive payload over wider distances. Some of the concepts were then calculated to have such horrific consequences that they were fortunately not conducted in real life testing. Such as the cobalt bomb. If a cobalt salted warhead was to be physically tested, a large part of the world could have become irreversibly contaminated and cause apocalyptic loss of life...

 

[GONE BAD]

Is this it?




Reformatted into HD. Pretty crazy as during this time, the US was fully concerned that a Soviet or joint Soviet Chicom invasion of the mainland might be attempted by the madmen ruling these countries, so part of a protocol for pushback involves detonating a nuke right in the middle of enemy forces on US soil, and then once the fallout has dissipated, the mop-up squads were to go in and finish off any surviving enemies...

I really don't know but it is amazing footage!

 

[Blue Sky Country]

I really don't know but it is amazing footage!

More: Booby trap nukes. Buried underground in anticipated advance path of enemy forces, and fired as enemy goes over them...




Desert Rock was the name of these series of exercises: Nuke shock & awe, "counterattack", and damage assessment of military hardware placed at varying distances from blast:




Titan: The moment we achieved the capability to potentially deliver a nuke to an asteroid that is on an Earth collision course. A few months later, history would be made on the Moon using the same leviathan engines that powered this beast:




Pure, hardcore scientific innovation with no interference from anti-establishment political ideologies or social movements.

 

[GONE BAD]

I took a screenshot of Dessert Rock to get a date and time but my ability is lacking.

 

[GONE BAD]

Maybe this works:
Anyway can't decifer the year

 

[TXAZ]

View attachment 7889335
That’s my father on the right. 1952

That 9mm M1 he’s using sure packs a punch!

 

[Maser]

Does anyone know if this was a small nuke? Doesn't seem bright enough.

 

[Blue Sky Country]

Does anyone know if this was a small nuke? Doesn't seem bright enough.

That is an EOD blast. I believe it was 2004 or so, early years of Iraqi Freedom. Huge cache of over 35,000 lbs of Iraqi army artillery shells and mortars placed into a pit and fired with detcord to prevent the stuff from falling into insurgent hands. In the 1970s, the US Navy buried several hundred tons of Composition B on a beach and set it off to test the blast effects on nearby ships anchored offshore. It was called the "Quake bomb", basically a nuke without the radiation used to simulate a nuclear blast.

 

[Maggot]

Does anyone know if this was a small nuke? Doesn't seem bright enough.

Dont know but Im in favr of background checks and a waiting period for buying those.

Check out the plasma halo on this one.

 

[Maser]

 

[ditchdigger]

Amazing!

By 1954 ,1957 the explosions must have gained in power and intensity?

Thanks for the picture!

You’re welcome.

He was in the trench , duck and cover. He could see his bones.

The blast went overhead. Then up and out of the trench. Look at the mushroom cloud and get a good dose.

Then back in the trench for the implosion.

They stripped down to nothing and threw it all in an incinerator and issued new gear. Then back on the plane to Camp Lejeune.

 

[n2ishun]

Does anyone know if this was a small nuke? Doesn't seem bright enough.

If I'm not mistaken, that was my ANGLICO boys that did that....and several others too.

 

[Blue Sky Country]

Ever envisioned a scene of post-apocalyptic horsemen with automatic rifles and sabers charging full gallop into a nuclear explosion? Well, you don't have to now... China provided. 1964

 

[Maser]

Ever envisioned a scene of post-apocalyptic horsemen with automatic rifles and sabers charging full gallop into a nuclear explosion? Well, you don't have to now... China provided. 1964

Not gonna lie, that's pretty badass!

 

[GreenGO Juan]

My Grandfather was present for Hard Tack 2 and Plumb Bob. He died before I was born so never had the chance to directly ask questions about it.

 

[Blue Sky Country]

Not gonna lie, that's pretty badass!

At the cost of acute radiation poisoning and aggressive cancer though... They were trying the same 'joint munitions counterattack' that the US had done in the late 40s where nukes and conventional ground forces were used in case of an invasion, but the US used a very extensive and thorough protocol for entering blast zones. In Desert Rock, troops "counterattacking" did not enter the fallout and blast zones until well after the suspended dust had been completely cleared. Usually a day passes before men go in and start doing damage assessment, take photographs, samples of the soil, etc... In the Chinese test, they literally went headfirst into the outer waves of the explosion in progress and directly under the debris cloud still rising...

 

[rockn30809]

It's pretty wild how reckless we handled nuclear testing back then and really into the late 60's. Lockheed Martin and the airforce had a joint facility in North Georgia for the research into atomic aircraft. They used a small, unshielded reactor to blast different materials to study the effects of radiation. Part of the study was blasting the surrounding forrest and wildlife with radiation.

 

[Blue Sky Country]

It's pretty wild how reckless we handled nuclear testing back then and really into the late 60's. Lockheed Martin and the airforce had a joint facility in North Georgia for the research into atomic aircraft. They used a small, unshielded reactor to blast different materials to study the effects of radiation. Part of the study was blasting the surrounding forrest and wildlife with radiation.

Considering how absolutely violently water reacts with superheated metal in foundries, an atomic rocket would be an ideal method to get stuff from ground to orbit for very low price. Nuclear reactor at the base of rocket heating a feeding coil and cylinder white hot. Everything above is basically a water tank pumping water into the coils. Superheated steam blasting out the nozzle and providing thrust.

The Soviets had a concept nuclear locomotive in the 1950s. A streamlined retrofuturistic steam locomotive with an onboard reactor providing heat for the boiler instead of a combustion firebox. Was supposed to be able to run for thousands of miles without refueling except to take on water. Never left the concept stage though...

 

[GONE BAD]

It seems that the Jarheads have always been the ones who have been expendable?
Just sayin

 

[GreenGO Juan]

It seems that the Jarheads have always been the ones who have been expendable?
Just sayin

My family member was Air Force, a Master Sargent at Eglin when he passed. Though he died of a sudden high speed impact with the ground, he was having many unexplained health issues. He was a private pilot and I am told was about to lose his pilots license for medical Issues, what I am not sure.

One of my cousins, her mother born inbetween the two test strings I mentioned above was born dis figured. Her lower extremities did not develop properly and was confined to a wheel chair her entire life of 40 years, she hard a hard life. Constantly in the hospital, around 50 surgeries on a shunt to drain fluid from her brain. We don’t know if his exposure was the culprit to her deformity but it was always a thought on the back burner. I believe some time in the 1980’s there were lawsuits brought up and my grandmother tried getting involved but nothing ever came out of it.

Its not just the Marines who get the brown end.

 

[Lightning8]

It's pretty wild how reckless we handled nuclear testing back then and really into the late 60's. Lockheed Martin and the airforce had a joint facility in North Georgia for the research into atomic aircraft. They used a small, unshielded reactor to blast different materials to study the effects of radiation. Part of the study was blasting the surrounding forrest and wildlife with radiation.

That explains that whole Deliverance movie thing

 

[pmclaine]

Considering how absolutely violently water reacts with superheated metal in foundries, an atomic rocket would be an ideal method to get stuff from ground to orbit for very low price. Nuclear reactor at the base of rocket heating a feeding coil and cylinder white hot. Everything above is basically a water tank pumping water into the coils. Superheated steam blasting out the nozzle and providing thrust.

The Soviets had a concept nuclear locomotive in the 1950s. A streamlined retrofuturistic steam locomotive with an onboard reactor providing heat for the boiler instead of a combustion firebox. Was supposed to be able to run for thousands of miles without refueling except to take on water. Never left the concept stage though...

Had one as a kid….

Redirect Notice

 

[Blue Sky Country]

Had one as a kid….

Redirect Notice

My local Rite Aid Pharmacy's seasonal aisle still got a ton of 'em for summer backyard party season! Including wing and fin kits for turning 2L soda bottles into V1 buzz bomb looking things, and launched with water.

 

[GONE BAD]

Had one as a kid….

Redirect Notice

Lol I had the blue one 1960's model and soon discovered I could wrap my arms around a small port and use it as leverage to pump it up . The results were unbelievable!

Must be a carry- over to my bad loading practices?

 

[GONE BAD]

My family member was Air Force, a Master Sargent at Eglin when he passed. Though he died of a sudden high speed impact with the ground, he was having many unexplained health issues. He was a private pilot and I am told was about to lose his pilots license for medical Issues, what I am not sure.

One of my cousins, her mother born inbetween the two test strings I mentioned above was born dis figured. Her lower extremities did not develop properly and was confined to a wheel chair her entire life of 40 years, she hard a hard life. Constantly in the hospital, around 50 surgeries on a shunt to drain fluid from her brain. We don’t know if his exposure was the culprit to her deformity but it was always a thought on the back burner. I believe some time in the 1980’s there were lawsuits brought up and my grandmother tried getting involved but nothing ever came out of it.

Its not just the Marines who get the brown end.

I'm sorry to hear this and really didn't mean to take away from those who have paid so great a price without any recognition.

If nothing else I learned more!
Thank you for enlightening me

 

[RUTGERS95]

Considering how absolutely violently water reacts with superheated metal in foundries, an atomic rocket would be an ideal method to get stuff from ground to orbit for very low price. Nuclear reactor at the base of rocket heating a feeding coil and cylinder white hot. Everything above is basically a water tank pumping water into the coils. Superheated steam blasting out the nozzle and providing thrust.

The Soviets had a concept nuclear locomotive in the 1950s. A streamlined retrofuturistic steam locomotive with an onboard reactor providing heat for the boiler instead of a combustion firebox. Was supposed to be able to run for thousands of miles without refueling except to take on water. Never left the concept stage though...

brilliant really

 

[Blue Sky Country]

brilliant really

98% of our present day global infrastructure STILL relies on steam engines. All thermal based power plants, nuclear or coal or geothermal, uses steam turbines to generate power. So are the nuclear aircraft carriers and subs.

 

[Ravenworks]

I honestly wonder how many of these fellow Marines had ill health during their lives or their offspring?
It pisses me off to see how wreck less and ignorant our leaders were.

 

[Im2bent]

 

[LongRangeElkHunter]

My dad was there for Operation Wigwam in the Pacific. 1955. He told me stories about the mistakes that were made. The National Archive sent me a copy of his commendation which was pretty cool. He did pass from cancer.

 

[GONE BAD]

Just wondering how many lives are affected to this day by our own ignorance!

 

[pmclaine]

Just wondering how many lives are affected to this day by our own ignorance!

Enough potentially that steel is now classed as pre Trinity and post Trinity.

Any new steel post Trinity has markers of radiation.

Some medical instruments can only be made of Pre Trinity steel so as to maintain there fine readings.

I think the armor plate of the Graf Spee was salvaged for such use as well it was good steel.

Dont know why those radiation markers did not penetrate the Pre Trinity steel but apparently there is value for non nuke steel.

 

[GONE BAD]

Enough potentially that steel is now classed as pre Trinity and post Trinity.

Any new steel post Trinity has markers of radiation.

Some medical instruments can only be made of Pre Trinity steel so as to maintain there fine readings.

I think the armor plate of the Graf Spee was salvaged for such use as well it was good steel.

Dont know why those radiation markers did not penetrate the Pre Trinity steel but apparently there is value for non nuke steel.

So I remember hearing about rebar from Mexico having high radiation content.
Was this iron shipped from the US to Mexico and then shipped back in finished form as rebar to the US?

O what a tangled web we weave !

 

[Im2bent]

The radiation that is in the steel is due to the radiation still in the air. Any new steel you make gets contaminated. Pre Trinity steel was made before that shit was in the air. Oh joy. And 3 months does not a necro thread make

 

[Aftermath]

It's pretty wild how reckless we handled nuclear testing back then and really into the late 60's. Lockheed Martin and the airforce had a joint facility in North Georgia for the research into atomic aircraft. They used a small, unshielded reactor to blast different materials to study the effects of radiation. Part of the study was blasting the surrounding forrest and wildlife with radiation.

Here is a real good example of just how cavalier we were then. It can be dry reading but I found it very interesting. I lived not far at all from the proposed ground zero for a while.

The Firecracker Boys: H-Bombs, Inupiat Eskimos, and the…

In 1958, Edward Teller, father of the H-bomb, unveiled …

www.goodreads.com

 

[pmclaine]

Here is a real good example of just how cavalier we were then. It can be dry reading but I found it very interesting. I lived not far at all from the proposed ground zero for a while.

The Firecracker Boys: H-Bombs, Inupiat Eskimos, and the…

In 1958, Edward Teller, father of the H-bomb, unveiled …

www.goodreads.com

It amazes me they feared setting the atmosphere on fire as a possible outcome and said "Mercia" and carried on full speed ahead.

Thinking the odds were low but still.

 

[MediumSpeed]

My dad was one of the key scientists at LLL behind the Hydrogen bomb. He hated Teller. Used to refer to him as Asshole Eddie and that Lying Bastard...

 

[WeiserBucks]

All thermal based power plants, nuclear or coal or geothermal, uses steam turbines to generate power.

Close, but no cigar. Most geothermal doesn't use water/steam as the motive fluid. But it's conceptually similar.

 

[7.62willdo]

Enough potentially that steel is now classed as pre Trinity and post Trinity.

Any new steel post Trinity has markers of radiation.

Some medical instruments can only be made of Pre Trinity steel so as to maintain there fine readings.

I think the armor plate of the Graf Spee was salvaged for such use as well it was good steel.

Dont know why those radiation markers did not penetrate the Pre Trinity steel but apparently there is value for non nuke steel.

Her gun barrels were used and still are to this day

 

[RUTGERS95]

Her gun barrels were used and still are to this day

really? I did not know this

 

[RPN]

Close, but no cigar. Most geothermal doesn't use water/steam as the motive fluid. But it's conceptually similar.

What then? The h.p. geothermal here (NZ) runs on a steam turbine. Not using the crap out of the ground directly though - it is used to make clean steam via a heat exchanger. The exhaust steam is used to heat pentane (I think the US uses iso butane) to spin a l.p. binary turbine.

 

[WeiserBucks]

What then? The h.p. geothermal here (NZ) runs on a steam turbine. Not using the crap out of the ground directly though - it is used to make clean steam via a heat exchanger. The exhaust steam is used to heat pentane (I think the US uses iso butane) to spin a l.p. binary turbine.

Ours use pentane, butane or R134A depending on brine temp and condenser configuration.