The testing of the Mark 9 atomic artillery shell was the Grable event, part of a much larger series of nuclear detonations under the umbrella of Operation UPSHOT-KNOTHOLE in 1953.

This operation conducted at the Nevada Test Site consisted of 11 atmospheric tests. There were three airdrops, seven tower tests, and one airburst. Conducted between March 17 and June 4, 1953, this operation involved the testing of new theories. A new and revolutionary method of producing deliverable nuclear weapons was successfully tested. Approximately 21,000 Department of Defense military and civilian personnel participated in Operation UPSHOT-KNOTHOLE as part of the DESERT ROCK V exercise.

Unfortunately, Operation UPSHOT-KNOTHOLE, particularly the "Harry" test, drew a great deal of criticism as resultant fallout levels produced increased offsite radiation exposures.

The tests comprising the 1953 Operation UPSHOT-KNOTHOLE were as follows:

ANNIE, March 17, tower, weapons related, 16 kilotons (kt)
NANCY, March 24, tower, weapons related, 24 kt
RUTH, March 31, tower, weapons related, 200 tons
DIXIE, April 6, airdrop, weapons related, 11 kt
RAY, April 11, tower, weapons related, 200 tons
BADGER, April 18, tower, weapons related, 23 kt
SIMON, April 25, tower, weapons related, 43 kt
ENCORE, May 8, airdrop, weapons effects, 27 kt [an important test in correlating blastwave and devastating precursor wave formation data of the Grable event]
HARRY, May 19, tower, weapons related, 32 kt
GRABLE, May 25, fired from 280 mm gun, 500 feet airburst, weapons related, 15 kt [equivalent to the yield of the bomb the destroyed Hiroshima, Japan]
CLIMAX, June 4, airdrop, weapons related, 61 kt

The Mark 9 nuclear artillery shell weighed 550 pounds and was fired 7 miles from the cannon firing location to the target array downrange.

The original state of this film was VERY grainy. The grain has been reduced only enough not to destroy details in artifacts resembling watercolor washing away of visual details. This film was locked away for decades in secret vaults. It therefore deteriorated over time with negelect and lack of controlled environments for what was later to be discovered as very unstable 16 mm Kodachrome I film. Colors faded, others bled through the celluloid, creating greenish to deeply blue patches in clear sky scenes, for example.

The clipping distortion of the cannon firing was in the original film and could be expected for microphones recording blasts from an 11 inches/280 mm bore cannon of 1953.

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Operation CASTLE was a six-detonation test series held at the Atomic Energy Commission's (AEC) Pacific Proving Ground in the Spring of 1954. This test series, principally conducted at the Enewetak and Bikini Atolls in the northwestern Marshall Islands, provided proof tests of large-yield thermonuclear, or hydrogen, devices.

CASTLE represented the end of a drive for a workable thermonuclear weapon and the beginning of the refinement of large-H-bombs into smaller and more efficient weapons. After CASTLE, the U.S. could choose in a range of small tactical weapons to large strategic weapons. From this point, weapons development programs concentrated on producing bombs of specific nuclear weapons effects -- heat, blast, and radiation.

The Bravo event of the CASTLE series yielded 15 megatons, unexpectedly the most ever exploded in atmospheric testing by the U.S.. A scientific miscalculation based on a then-unknown "tritium fusion bonus" of highly enriched lithium-6 contributing the the detonation yield caused the yield to be about two and a half times of that what was expected.

Reports indicate that Bravo was the single worst incident of fallout exposure in all of the U.S. atmospheric testing program. Despite winds in an acceptable flow zone, the greatly unexpected yield caused a much larger mushroom than originally calculated, causing a much wider and massive accumulation path of fallout danger. Fallout was scattered over more than 5,000 square miles of ocean and islands, resulting in the contamination and exposure of military, civilian U.S. personnel working on the shot, and people of the islands who were earlier moved to a supposedly "safe" island but received large amounts of radiation. Acute radiation effects were observed among some of these people.

The supreme commander of Joint Task Force 7 was Major General Percy Clarkson, who gave this report to top secret oversight committees of U.S. Congress. General Clarkson was the U.S. Army's 33rd Division commander (October 1943 - November 1945) in the raging battles of the Philippines during the Second World War.

The shots in the CASTLE series were:

Bravo, February 28, Bikini, 15 megatons
Romeo, March 26, Bikini, 11 megatons
Koon, April 6, Bikini, 110 kilotons (sanitized out of the film as a fizzle of 1 megaton predicted yield)
Union, April 25, Bikini, 6.9 megatons
Yankee, May 4, Bikini, 13.5 megatons
Nectar, May 13, Enewetak, 1.69 megatons

Opening narration: Carey Wilson

Wilson was a very influential producer and scriptwriter in Hollywood -- principally with MGM -- and led a double life role as a "Q-Clearance" presenter and contributing scriptwriter in top secret films produced by the Atomic Energy Commission and the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project (AFSWP).

Q-Clearance was a top secret classification within the Atomic Energy Commission, later renamed to the Department of Energy.

Weapons development narration: Dr. Alvin C. Graves, Scientific Commander, J-Division (weapons testing), Atomic Energy Commission

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his test took place in the spring of 1951. It was carried out by the 8500 members of Joint Task Force Three; men drawn from the Atomic Energy Commission, its contractors, military, industrial, and educational laboratories, and from the Army, Navy, and Air Force."

Operation GREENHOUSE was conducted in April and May of 1951.

This test series consisted of four weapons related test shots from the 300-foot level on towers on the Enewetak Atoll, Pacific Ocean, two of which greatly aided the pursuit of a hydrogen, or thermonuclear device.

Carried out by the Atomic Energy Commission, the shots were:

Dog, April 7, 81 kilotons
Easy, April 20, 47 kilotons
George, May 8, 225 kilotons
Item, May 24, 45.5 kilotons

The George experiment proved an thermonuclear bomb was possible and led to a crash development program of the "Super." The fusion contribution was roughly 25 kilotons equivalent yield.

Item was the first test of the boosting design principle, which involved increasing the yield of a fission implosion weapon. The effect often approximately doubled the yield for the same amount of fission fuel, effectively revolutionizing efficiency in weight versus yield of each warhead, excluding a dirty casing effects option of fast fission of uranium 238-lined weapon casings.

About the narrator:

Carey Wilson narrated this film.

Wilson was a very influential producer and scriptwriter in Hollywood -- principally with MGM -- and led a double life role as a "Q-Clearance" presenter and contributing scriptwriter in top secret films produced by the Atomic Energy Commission and the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project (AFSWP).

Q-Clearance was a top secret classification within the Atomic Energy Commission, later renamed to the Department of Energy.

A figure highlighted in this film was the firing team commander, Stanley W. Burriss. He was an engineer by profession. He later became among the greatest forces for creating the U.S. Fleet Ballistic Missile, and later, critical contibutions to generations of Polaris, Poseidon, and Trident weapons systems. He managed this unprecedented scientific, engineering, and command management undertaking, which had profound effects on the civilian space program. Burriss retired as president of Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, after 25 years with Lockheed, and died in the spring of 1979.

This formerly secret film was produced through the top secret Lookout Mountain Laboratory, located in the Hollywood Hills of California, under the joint command of the United States Air Force and the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project (AFSWP).

The intention of this film was for viewing by top secret oversight committees of United States Congress and leading members of the United States military.

Among the leading figures for this nuclear test series was the father of former United States vice-president, Albert Gore, Junior. Albert Gore, Senior was a member of the United States House of Representatives, and was one of the leading appropriations/funding dignitaries who observed at this test series. Representative Gore, Sr. was a very active force in early nuclear testing funding and oversight.

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KBR Convoy Ambushed in Iraq. Preston Wheeler, a truck driver for KBR a subsidiary of Halliburton shot this amazing video of his truck convoy being ambushed in Iraq. The attack occurred after the U.S. military made a wrong turn down a dead-end street. Mr. Wheeler is lucky to be alive. Three KBR truck drivers were killed after U.S. troops apparently abandoned the truck drivers.

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DEAD IN THE WATER

During the Six-Day War, Israel attacked and nearly sank the USS Liberty belonging to its closest ally, the USA. Thirty-four American servicemen were killed in the two-hour assault by Israeli warplanes and torpedo boats. Israel claimed that the whole affair had been a tragic accident based on mistaken identification of the ship. The American government accepted the explanation.

For more than 30 years many people have disbelieved the official explanation but have been unable to rebut it convincingly. Now, Dead in the Water uses startling new evidence to reveal the truth behind the seemingly inexplicable attack. The film combines dramatic reconstruction of the events, with new access to former officers in the US and Israeli armed forces and intelligence services who have decided to give their own version of events.

Interviews include President Lyndon Johnson's Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara, former head of the Israeli navy Admiral Shlomo Errell and members of the USS Liberty crew.

The Israeli government, the AntiDefamation League, and certain notorious apologists for Israel insist that the attack was a tragic accident and that the US government accepts that assertion. Not so. Virtually every knowledgeable American official with the lone exception of Robert McNamara is on public record calling the attack deliberate and the Israeli story untrue.

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Remember when Sarah Palin said that "the surge principles that have worked in Iraq need to be implemented in Afghanistan." Wellas Ms. Palin would say, many Afghans working for the Afghan security forces are now switching sides and are now defecting to the Taliban.

Guess who trained many of them? Blackwater!

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In September 2007, private contractors Blackwater were implicated in the shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians. In this special we air Private Armies and are joined by author Jeremy Scahill to discuss the danger of using "guns for hire".

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BLACKWATER'S WAR CRIMES / Many of the legal experts say there almost literally is no law that could be applied to Blackwater, except war crimes. There clearly is jurisdiction and a basis to act against them under the War Crimes Act. But the Bush administration doesn't want to go there, doesn't want to touch that. I think they've made that point clear. Congress is trying to amend that so that it would apply to Blackwater, but it can't be applied retroactively. Talk about free pass !

With a new scandal breaking practically every day, one would think Blackwater security would be on the ropes, facing a corporate meltdown or even a total wipeout. But it seems that business for the company has never been better, as it continues to pull in major federal contracts. And its public demeanor grows bolder and cockier by the day.

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The Army in Joint Operations (The Army's Future Force Capstone Concept 2015-2024). BG(P) David Fastabend from the US Army Training and Doctrine Command's Futures Center presents an overview of the logic underpinning The Army in Joint Operations, The Army's Future Force Capstone Concept 2015-2024 (TRADOC Pam 525-3-0).

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The controversy over Blackwater USA, whose private security guards opened fire on Iraqi civilians, leaving at least 11 dead. The Iraqi gov't says Blackwater must go...but who has the power over these "soldiers for hire?

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Video about rebuilding Afghanistan

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Afghanistan Provisional reconstruction Team Gardez

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