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55 years ago, 6 stood under atomic bomb blast -- on purpose [View all]
From NBC NewsFifty-five years ago today, five Army officers and a photographer stood directly under a 2-kiloton atomic blast at the Nevada Test Site, about 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, and survived.
The five officers, who volunteered for the duty, and the cameraman, who did not, designated the July 19, 1957, test site with a hand-lettered sign as “Ground Zero, Population 5,” KPLU, a Seattle/Tacoma-based NPR station, said in a story marking the 55th anniversary of the blast.
The intent of the Cold War test was to film the officers surviving the blast and convince U.S. military leaders of the time that using low-grade nuclear missiles in the air would be relatively safe for people on the ground, KPLU reported.
KPLU said it looked for death records on the five officers and said that as far as it could determine, at least two of them lived relatively long lives.
The five officers, who volunteered for the duty, and the cameraman, who did not, designated the July 19, 1957, test site with a hand-lettered sign as “Ground Zero, Population 5,” KPLU, a Seattle/Tacoma-based NPR station, said in a story marking the 55th anniversary of the blast.
The intent of the Cold War test was to film the officers surviving the blast and convince U.S. military leaders of the time that using low-grade nuclear missiles in the air would be relatively safe for people on the ground, KPLU reported.
KPLU said it looked for death records on the five officers and said that as far as it could determine, at least two of them lived relatively long lives.
Holy shit!
No way I would want to be anywhere close when someone was busting a nuke.
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