JF Ptak Science Books Post 487
This folder, colored in the bright colors of New Mexico, contained a number of small pamphlets intended for the new-comers working in the filed of nuclear weapons construction and deployment. It is an "advanced" course, and I'm not so sure why. Most of the material in it was pretty elementary, which makes you atop and think some. Like, for example, what would the "elementary" course look like when these efforts stop just shy of being Classic Comics Illustrated? This was not a confidence-builder, this simple approach to getting to the end of the world, but then again it wasn't intended to be so. There were a number of references to test observation, which was perhaps the most glaring oddity (with the exception of the overall ordinariness) in these pamphlets. There were perhaps tens of thousand of these military veterans who suffered unspeakable radiation sickness and were largely ignored and abandoned by the federal government. An excellent book on this topic was written by Robert del Tredicci, At Work in the Fields of the Bomb (the images from which can be found here.)
I'm posting a simple list of some of the first series of nuclear tests and their observers, as follows:
Timeline of Atomic Tests, 1945-1962
This data is taken from the Naval historical Center of the Department of the Navy (805 Kidder Breese SE, D.C., the Washington Navy Yard). Almost all of the data here is presented on the website for the NHC and re-arranged by me for easier use here. The research and thinking had already been done by the good people at Navy History.
1945-6. Project Trinity, 1945-1946. . Detonation of the world's first nuclear device during July 1945, in New Mexico.Witnesses, participants and human experimental subjects: 1000.
1946. Operation Crossroads. “2 detonations conducted by JTF-l during June-July 1946, at Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands,Pacific Ocean.” At least 36,262 Navy and 550 Marine Corps personnel, as well as 251 ships, participated.Witnesses, participants and human experimental subjects: 36,262 Navy and 550 Marine Corps personnel, plus 251 ships.
1948. Operation Sandstone.. “3 detonations conducted by JTF-7 during April-May 1948, Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Islands.” Witnesses, participants and human experimental subjects: At least 7,759 Navy and 182 Marine Corps personnel participated.
1951. Operation Ranger: Shots Able, Baker, Easy, Baker-2, Fox, 25 January-6 February Witnesses, participants and human experimental subjects: “5 detonations conducted at the Nevada Proving Ground, involving at least 6 Navy and 1 Marine Corps personnel.”
1951 Operation Greenhouse. “4 detonations conducted by JTF-7 during April-May 1951, at Enewetak.” Witnesses, participants and human experimental subjects: At least 2,900 Navy and 80 Marine Corps personnel were involved.
1951. Operation Buster-Jangle. “7 detonations conducted from October-November 1951 at Nevada Proving Ground.” Witnesses, participants and human experimental subjects: involving at least 319 Navy and 188 Marine Corps personnel.
1952. Operation Tumbler-Snapper. “8 detonations conducted during April-June 1952 at Nevada Proving Ground.” Witnesses, participants and human experimental subjects: At least 556 Navy and 2,042 Marine Corps personnel participated.
1952. Operation Ivy. “2 detonations conducted by JTF-132 during October-November 1952, at Enewetak. One of the events, designated Mike, was the first thermonuclear or hydrogen bomb.” Witnesses, participants and human experimental subjects: At least 5,258 Navy and 178 Marine Corps personnel participated.
1953. Operation Upshot-Knothole. “11 detonations conducted during March-June 1953 at Nevada Proving Ground.” Witnesses, participants and human experimental subjects: At least 773 Navy and 2,275 Marine Corps personnel participated.
1954.Castle Series. “6 detonations conducted by Joint Task Force (JTF) 7 during March-May 1954, at Enewetak.” Witnesses, participants and human experimental subjects: At least 8,633 Navy and 303 Marine Corps personnel were involved.
1955. Operation Teapot. “14 detonations conducted during February-May 1955 at Nevada Test Site.” Witnesses, participants and human experimental subjects: At least 541 Navy and 2,305 Marine Corps personnel participated.
1955. Operation Wigwam. “A single deep underwater detonation conducted by JTF-7 during May 1955, in the Pacific Ocean, approximately 500 miles southwest of San Diego CA.” Witnesses, participants and human experimental subjects: At least 6,567 Navy and 110 Marine Corps personnel as well as 30 ships participated.
1956. Operation Redwing. “17 detonations conducted by JTF-7 during May-July 1956, at Bikin
and Enewetak.” Witnesses, participants and human experimental subjects: At least 5,654 Navy and 253 Marine Corps personnel were involved.
1957. Plumbbob Series. “24 detonations conducted during April-October 1957 at Nevada Test Site.” Witnesses, participants and human experimental subjects: At least 574 Navy and 2,148 Marine Corps personnel participated. Naval aircraft included 4 model ZSG-3 airships, an HSS-1 helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft.
1958. Operation Hardtack I. “35 detonations conducted by JTF-7 during April-August 1958, at Bikini
and Enewetak.” Witnesses, participants and human experimental subjects: At least 9,736 Navy and 219 Marine Corps personnel were involved.
1958. Operation Argus. “3 high-altitude detonations conducted by TF (Task Force).” 88 during August-September 1958. over South Atlantic Ocean.
1958. Operation Hardtack II. “19 detonations conducted during September-October 1958 at Nevada Test Site.” Witnesses, participants and human experimental subjects: At least 33 Navy and 2 Marine Corps personnel were involved.
1961. Projects Gnome and Sedan : The Plowshare Program “27 nuclear detonations conducted between 1961 and 1973 at Nevada Test Site, Colorado, and, New Mexico.” Witnesses, participants and human experimental subjects: At least 82 Navy and 1 Marine Corps personnel participated.
1962. Operation Dominic I. “36 detonations inc. Polaris and ASROC tests conducted by JTF- 8 during April-November 1962, in Johnson and Christian Island areas, and a single detonation 371 nautical miles southwest of San Diego CA.” Witnesses, participants and human experimental subjects: At least 18,163 Navy and 659 Marine Corps personnel participated.
1962. Operation Dominic II. Shots Little Feller II, Johnie Boy, Small Boy, Little Feller I “4 detonations during July 1962, at Nevada Test Site.” Witnesses, participants and human experimental subjects: At least 81 Navy and 89 Marine Corps personnel participated.
I looked at just a few of the pictures in At Work in the Fields of the Bomb, but this one gave me a funny feeling: http://tinyurl.com/c5j93k
It doesn't seem so impossible that some day we WILL annihilate ourselves by making a black hole.
Posted by: Jeff | 27 January 2009 at 11:59 PM