July 19, 2012 11:48 am
Six Guys Stood At Nuclear Ground Zero And Lived To Tell The Tale
In 1957, says NPR’s Robert Krulwich, five Air Force officers volunteered (and one cameraman was voluntold) to stand directly below a mid-air detonation of a 2-kiloton nuclear warhead.
They just wanted to see what would happen, apparently.
The stunt was carried out 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas to, “to demonstrate the relative safety of a low-grade nuclear exchange in the atmosphere.”
Krulwich asks,
Who are these guys? And why is the narrator joyously shouting, “It happened! The mounds are vibrating. It is tremendous! Directly above our heads! Aaah!”
Readers apparently wanted to know, too, and Krulwich looked into the identities of these men. According to his investigation,
I did find a list of the people who were in the film.
- Col. Sidney Bruce
- Lt. Col. Frank P. Ball
- Maj. Norman “Bodie” Bodinger
- Maj. John Hughes
- Don Lutrel
- George Yoshitake (the cameraman, not seen)
He says that of the six men who stood nonchalantly at ground zero, two may still be alive, and the others lived on for three decades or more.
More from Smithsonian.com:
The National Museum of Nuclear Science & History
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please….the rest of the story……what happened to them, do they have cancer – we need details – do they now regret doing that………
Comment by stacey — July 19, 2012 @ 2:06 pm
This is really incredible. Keep digging! I too want to know more about their lives afterwards.
Comment by Philippa Roberts — July 21, 2012 @ 4:49 am
My father did a similar thing back in 1947 during the first hydrogen bomb test on Eniwetok Atol.He was part of the test team.After the explosion,it was important to go to the crater and measure radiation,but it was considered too dangerous.He voluteered anyhow-went to the crater,walked down to the bottom, and measured radiation levels.
My father Lt Gen L.J. Lincoln, died in 2001,age 91.
James Lincoln
Comment by james Lincoln Col Ret — August 16, 2012 @ 1:04 pm
From the audio, sounds like these guys had a blast.
Comment by BJK — October 4, 2012 @ 5:01 pm