Five guys volunteer to stand under a mid-air atomic bomb detonation! (This blew my mind)(video)

intrepidthinker (69)in #history • 7 years ago (edited)

This absurd thing to do, happened before we understood the effects of radiation on the human body, in 1957.

The Story

It was four Air Force officers and a cameraman out there. These men were pretty brave to do this. The reason behind this event was, to reassure Americans that it was actually safe to use atomic bombs as a defense mechanism against the Russian military.

A crazy thing about this is that, the men who participated in this test actually went on to live fairly long lives;one could potentially still be alive! Haha

Col. Sidney C. Bruce — died in 2005 (age 86)
Lt. Col. Frank P. Ball — died in 2003 (age 83)
Major John Hughes — died in 1990 (age 71)
Major Norman Bodinger — not listed in the database so he may be alive
Don Lutrel — died 1987 (age 63)

The information was found here.

Here is the video of this atomic experiment. It will blow you away! Haha

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#america #atomic #bomb #experiment

7 years ago in #history by intrepidthinker (69)

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johncongdon (42) 7 years ago

I was cruising around looking at different posts and this piqued my interest. There are probably quite a few more similar incidents however this film is pretty good about showing the nonchalance of the time period with using humans as guinea pigs or rats. The original thesis on radiation damage to the body was based on single exposures which turned out to be a much higher tolerance than multiple exposures for people working consistently with radiation.

There were a series of tests done in the 1950's by GE at the Hanford, WA site of releasing huge clouds of radiation to see what would be the effects. I read that they actually released more radiation during those tests than what was released at the Chernobyl meltdown and explosion. I happened to be living downwind from those at the time, though it seems that I was a bit north of where there is a higher incidence of cancers which is around the Walla Walla, WA area.

There's a fair amount of testimony regarding carelessness of the Hanford operation which is still on going to this day about which you might like to do an article. Also there are a lot of complaints about cancers from downwinders of the Nevada tests that could be another follow through.

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intrepidthinker (69) 7 years ago

Hell yeah! Nice comment.

Leaked out more than Chernobyl? Now that's crazy! This is some great information that you brought to the table. I appreciate the in depth comment @johncongdon.