Five Volunteers Stood Underneath an Atomic Explosion and Lived

On July 19, 1957, or 55 years ago on Thursday, six men stood underneath a 2-kiloton atomic blast at a testing site in Nevada and survived, with some leading relatively long lives. Five of them volunteered to stand under the blast, while the sixth, a cameraman, filmed.

The incident was captured on video and was reported by the Seattle-based NPR station KPLU. The video showed the five men holding a sign, which read “Ground Zero, Population 5.” The footage was kept in the U.S. government’s archives.

In the footage, two F-89 jets fly overhead, and one shoots a missile with a nuclear warhead, which subsequently detonates 18,500 feet above the ground. The cameraman, who was also apparently under the explosion, captured the film.

“There it goes; the rocket is gone. We felt a heat pulse,” the narrator said, while filming the five men who, except for one wearing a pair of sunglasses, were shielding their eyes from the blast. “A very bright light, a fireball that is red … it is boiling above us there,” the narrator continued.

The bomb blast goes off and the viewer sees a white light, causing the men to flinch. Several seconds later, an explosion is heard.

“It is over, folks! It happened! The mounds are vibrating. It is tremendous! Directly above our heads! Aaah!” the narrator added, showing a mushroom cloud floating in the air. “It’s a very odd cloud,” he said.

One of the men, who identified himself as Col. Sidney Bruce, said, “My only regrets right now are … that everybody couldn’t have been out here at ground zero with us.”

Cigar in mouth, one of the volunteers shook another’s hand after the bomb went off.

The footage was shot by the Air Force at the request of Col. Arthur B. “Barney” Oldfield, the public information officer for the Continental Air Defense Command in Colorado Springs. It was an attempt to show that low levels of nuclear discharge in the atmosphere are relatively safe, reported KPLU.

The station reported that the cameraman, George Yoshitake, who is not seen, is likely still alive and was interviewed by The New York Times two years ago. Two of the other men were Col. Bruce, who died in 2005 at age 85, and Lt. Col. Frank P. Ball, who died in 2003 at age 83. A third man died in 1990 at age 71, and the fates of the other two men are unclear.

Yoshitake told the Times in his interview that “quite a few” other cameramen who filmed atomic explosions during the early testing periods “have died from cancer.”

“No doubt it was related to the testing,” he added.

Yoshitake told CBS that he remembered the day, saying that he was not told that the test was taking place directly over the heads of the five soldiers.

“I remembered I had a baseball cap, and I thought, ‘I’d better wear that, just in case,’” Yoshitake said. He said that the film was made as a type of government propaganda to assure the American public that atomic bombs could be safe for the general public to be around. 

In the 1950s, Americans feared a nuclear attack, and a number of movies, including one imploring people to “duck and cover,” were made. Yoshitake’s film may have been one of them.

“And if there was a war or something, with atomic bombs going off, that it was going to be safe for the general public,” he said.

With permission from: http://www.theepochtimes.com/