Declassified U.S. Nuclear Test Film #60

0800060 - Exercise Desert Rock - 1951 -27:51 - Black&White - In 1951, the Army, working with the Atomic Energy Commission, carried out the Desert Rock Exercises, an experiment to "dispel much of the fear and uncertainty surrounding atomic radiation and the effects of gamma and x-rays."
A tent encampment was set up about 27 miles from where the atomic explosions were detonated on the Nevada Proving Grounds. The encampment housed about 5,000 Army soldiers, civilian observers and technicians. Troops spent hours in classes receiving training in radiation and nuclear weapons effects.

The following is a recorded interview between a sergeant and a training officer prior to a blast: Question. "How many of your men would volunteer to go up and be in the foxholes?" (one-half mile from ground zero) Answer. "I guess about half a dozen." Question. "Its quite a loud noise when that bomb goes off. . .would it do them any harm?" Answer. "No sir, not the noise, no." Question. "How about the radiation? Do you think there is much danger?" Answer. "Radiation is the least of their worries that the men are thinking about." Question. "I think most thought radiation was the greatest danger, didnt they? Where did they learn differently?" Answer. "They were, prior to our instructions here. We received a very thorough briefing."

For the Desert Rock I Exercise, the weapon was fired as an airburst. The majority of the troops were out in the open about seven miles away. The soldiers were told to crouch down and face away from the blast. The bomb flash blanked out the troops from view, and the flash was followed by blast winds and the noise of the explosion. Interviews with soldiers were conducted after the test.

Following the test, the troops were trucked toward the stationary military equipment used for experiments. The experiments were set up one-half mile and also at three miles from the blast. At three miles, the gun emplacements and military vehicles were undamaged, but at on-half mile damage was moderate to heavy.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Nukes
• Nuclear
• weapons
• WMD
• radiation
• radioactive
• testing
• warhead
• downwinders
• atomic
• cancer

[SAMFICOM]

Tests on human subjects. As in X-Files.

[kief0120]

One guy took it right in the face. Then marched to the mushroom cloud. Wtf?

[LaGioiella]

What is really spooky is the fact that the US Government knew the effects of uranium exposure since European and American scientists gave them a report back in 1928 of that data. Information European researchers had since the late 1800's who were way ahead of us. Yet somehow the US thought it needed to experiment on the Japanese, the people of the Bikini Atoll and South Pacific neighbors, the Native Americans in New Mexico, US Citizens by their bomb tests in the Nevada desert.

[Daddyo930]

I'm sorry but this training film did nothing to allay my fears about nuclear weapons. The effects linger for hundreds and thousands of years. We know that now. They have turned much of this planet into radiation hot zones.

[IloveyouLenaKatina]

"in airbursts...no serious amount of radioactivity remains on the ground" FALSE!!!

[shotfirer1972]

M1 carbine with a first gen snooper scope, that's cool.

Thanks for posting these films, really interesting technical procedures etc. Cheers

[legomegamoviemaker]

@enjoixander yeah

[ermayo93]

And people keep smoking despite the risks.

[groganzolla1]

WikiLeaks, eat your heart out. Support the troops, NOT the oops...Get the troops out of harm's way

[Ghostwolfalpha]

What the soldiers who participated in this exercise did not realized that, in the decades following the event the majority of them will die of some form of cancer.

Such naivety also existed in the Plowshare program, they thought they can harness the explosive power of the nuclear explosive with total disregard long term effct of the radiation.The fact is that the residual radiation WILL contaminate the surrounding air, soil and water and stays contaminated for decades.