That time five people volunteered to stand at zero point of a nuclear explosion to see what would happen.

Unless there's a lead-lined refrigerator lying around, we're guessing that no one reading this is too keen on standing at ground zero of a nuclear explosion. But it turns out that's exactly what 6 men chose to do in the afternoon in July 1957 - 5 of them even volunteered, and the 6th man wasn't told what to do that day before he showed up for work... So these Who were the people, why were they there, and what happened next? "As the Cold War began to heat up, both the United States and the Soviet Union sought to create a record of the funding for the stockpiling of thousands of weapons not intended to be used, the public testing of said weapons, and what would happen if one of the two superpowers decided to push things to the next There's a bit of nervousness about what's going to happen next, especially as nuclear-armed rockets and missiles start to become a thing. Despite some assertions that a rocket with a nuclear warhead detonating right above you is not inherently dangerous, American citizens aren't buying it. .

Putting his money where his mouth was, Colonel Arthur Oldfield of the Continental Air Defense Command decided to prove the claim, ordering this particular test called John's to be filmed. It was part of the five-month "Operation Plumb Wave" series of nuclear tests.

In addition to those related to John, these tests also included more than 18,000 other military personnel who were relatively close to the nuclear explosion. The purpose was to determine what forces were fighting against when a nuclear bomb was detonated nearby. The tests also involved more than 1,000 pigs being used to study the biological effects of the explosion, when the subjects were farther away from the blast than officials were comfortable with. Pig! !)” The five men who volunteered to join John were Colonel Sidney Bruce, Lieutenant Colonel Frank P. Ball, Major Norman Bodinger, Major John Hughes and Donald Luttrell. Colonel. The sixth man, a photographer named Akira "George" Yushtak, was also the only one who did not volunteer for the concert and the only one who had a job to do during the explosion. His job, of course, was to film the entire event and create a polished propaganda film showing that these nuclear rockets were completely safe to use in an air combat scenario over populated areas.

And so, on July 19, 1957, five incredibly brave men and a photographer, who no doubt re-evaluated his career choices and decision-making patterns, found themselves standing in Las Vegas About 70 miles northwest of Vegas, as the crow flies, or about 100 miles down the road, at the Yucca Flats test site in District 10. Next to it is a sign that reads "Ground Zero." "Population 5" casually ignores the important contribution of Yoshitake, who has been the subject of hundreds of filmmakers critical to nuclear testing and data collection, but which history has largely ignored. "KDSP" soon had an F-89 jet flying overhead, launching a Phantom rocket equipped with a 1.5 kiloton W25 nuclear warhead. This was actually the first test of a live-fire nuclear Elf rocket, but thankfully for these guys, the unguided rocket didn't malfunction and flew straight up to level 180 (about 18,000 feet or about 5.5 kilometers). It flew about 2.5 miles. Then it detonated almost directly above them.

When it happened, "We felt a pulse of heat. A very bright light. The fireball was red. The surrounding sky looked dark. It was in our It's boiling overhead. It's rapidly losing its color...

Then a huge explosion can be heard, at which point Bodie says, "There's a ground wave!" It's over, guys, it happened! The mound was shaking. marvelous! Right above our heads! It's a huge fireball. …That wasn’t a perfect, perfect shot. "

Seems to remember that the whole thing was a propaganda film showing it was just good family fun standing under a nuclear blast. Colonel Bruce went on to say, "The only thing I regret now is that everyone didn't Maybe show up at the World Trade Center with us. " Shortly after, he thanked the Academy without question, noting how humbled he was.

You might think at this point though that the explosion itself didn't do them any harm, except perhaps A case of persistent tinnitus rarely talked about as a silent killer linked to nuclear explosions - certainly these people must have been exposed to large amounts of ionizing radiation, but it was later determined that the amount of radiation they received was, in fact, negligible. The -89 jet had fewer pilots than were ordered to fly in the atmosphere, and the explosion occurred just ten minutes later.

The fact that the explosion occurred quite high in the atmosphere also ensured that there were no The ground material is sucked away, so there is no large cloud of radioactive particles. As for the radioactive material from the bomb and any dust in the nearby atmosphere, it will spread out widely before landing.

While the whole thing was designed to demonstrate the safety of such nuclear rockets detonating at high altitudes, radioactive particles from these tests often landed in nearby towns and even as far away as Utah.

As you might expect, the U.S. government has spent a fortune so far, about $1 billion, on residents of these areas whose subsequent health problems may be related to exposure to high doses during testing. related to ionizing radiation.

All this said, it's worth noting that each of these six warriors would have cancer at some point later in life. However, it's not thought this test might help that much. They were all involved in some nuclear testing, and many of them saw themselves exposed to well above ionizing radiation, the cumulative effects of which probably didn't help matters either.

In the end, Major Hughes lived to the age of 71 and died of cancer in 1990. Lieutenant Colonel Ball lived until 2003 and died of cancer at the age of 83. Colonel Bruce actually died of cancer in 2005 at the age of 86. Major Bodinger also died of cancer, we believe in February 1997, although it is unclear here because his grave is not listed on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs cemetery locator. But we found a grave in Oklahoma that seemed to match what we knew about Bodie. Later, Colonel Luttrell suffered from colon cancer, but it is unclear whether this was his death from colon cancer. Whatever the case may be, the 91-year-old in 2014 seems to have escaped this mortal coil. As for photographer George Yushtak, although he had to battle stomach cancer, he lived to the age of 84 and died of a stroke in 2013.

If you liked this post, you might also like our new popular podcast, The Brain Food Show (iTunes, Spotify, Google Play Music, Feed), and What People Who Survived Two Nuclear Bomb Attacks Was Nearly 20 years after the UK developed a chicken-heated nuclear bomb, the nuclear launch code for all US Minuteman silos was 00000000, when the US accidentally nuked Britain's first satellite, when the US military built an atomic bomb Cannon, for reference, when the USAF 2 "Fantasy 5" was on the ground at 0.5 would you stand under a nuclear explosion? What does a nuclear explosion feel like? "Operation Plumb Wave" Man Standing Under Nuclear Explosion Atomic Bomb Chronicler Nuclear Grave Locator at Nevada Precinct 10 Donald Luttrell Akira Josh Tucker Norman Bodinger Test site, 5 people agree to stand under nuclear grave locator Donald Luttrell Akira Yoshitake Norman Bodinger What is the difference between a rocket and a missile