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When I was in the Army,it was often said,"don't volunteer for anything".Here is a prime example of why this phrase was taken seriously by most soldiers. :loco:

07.19.12 - 6:47 PM
A Wonderful Thrill: Standing At Ground Zero As A 2-Kiloton Nuclear Bomb Explodes Over Your Heads

by Abby Zimet

What We Have and Haven't Learned Over Time Dept: On this day in 1957, five Air Force officers (all volunteers) and a photographer (not) stood directly underneath a Nevada Test Site nuclear detonation 18,000 feet above them - or 10,000, depending on the account - to prove how safe it was. The event was excitedly recorded by a football-game-like announcer - "It worked, it worked! A perfect, perfect shot! Just beautiful!" - followed by celebratory grins and handshakes all around as they stand by a joke placard reading "Ground Zero: Population Five." Today, most have died, though it's hard to say how many died from this. Astounding.



http://www.commondreams.org/further/2012/07/19-2
It was frightening then (1957) and it is frightening now.

Adele
Keith - great commentary from you, and the hysterical sports-style commentator in the movie.

Symbolically, the film is 100% correct.

Stylistically, I'm suspicious.

I've watched hundreds of films of military and intelligence agency experimentation, and I can't think of another one that looks and feels quite like this. They tend to have a pseudo-scientific seriousness.

The sign "Ground Zero: Population 5", whilst one of the soldiers stands there in hands on hips nonchalance, feels more Monty Python than DoD.

Also, the light doesn't match in the explosion shots and the subsequent ground shots, even allowing for the high altitude explosion, and the editing style is quite modern.

I'd really like to know more about the purported origin of this film.

However, once again, crimes like this did happen on a regular basis, and the US military regarded its warriors as human guinea pigs for everything from LSD to radiation testing.
If that is real, and I'm inclined to think it might well be Jan, that would be over the Nevada Test Site. They got in trouble for a few daybreak above ground nuclear explosions [which were seen far and wide....in many states and needed explanation]. This may well be one of them, as seen from below. I'm sure they got a nice gamma ray dose! For this they probably got an extra weeks pay and a promotion....as well as early death and eye damage.
Jan:

The link in the first post has more information.It's an NPR story.They even did an update,and tried to locate these guys.Two of them are apparently still alive.

Quote:This footage comes from our government's archives. It was shot by the U.S. Air Force (at the behest of Col. Arthur B. "Barney" Oldfield, public information officer for the Continental Air Defense Command in Colorado Springs) to demonstrate the relative safety of a low-grade nuclear exchange in the atmosphere.
There were numerous above-ground atomic tests during the 1950s. Reports came of cattle and sheep dying in downwind Nevada areas in those days. It really happened, Jan.

Adele
Adele Edisen Wrote:There were numerous above-ground atomic tests during the 1950s. Reports came of cattle and sheep dying in downwind Nevada areas in those days. It really happened, Jan.

Adele

I have to admit to not having researched this completely [to the extent it is declassified], but I've read a few books and articles on the subject. I had thought that most of the way-above ground tests were done at Bikini, but I guess not. I was aware that there were on the ground or a few hundred feet above ground tests in Nevada, not at 10-16,000 ft. There are photos available of the pock-marked Nevada test site....with two types of craters - those from underground tests and those from above ground - each making their own pattern. The USA admits to several hundred tests - ditto the Russians....just the radioactive dust particles from these likely figure into the increased cancer rates around the world.....but how much was released is very much secret - and I'm sure will always remain so. However, one can test for radioactives or their decay products in the snows of the Antarctic or Greenland and see the rise starting in 1945 - and extrapolate from these findings. This has been done. The whole nuclear weapons threat is insane and few realize it is as threatening and dangerous as during the 'Cold War'...perhaps even more so. The total destructive power has never been so great and the delivery systems get more accurate all the time. The big 'advance' (sic) has been mini-nukes, which apparently can be carried in a backpack or suitcase.....and neutron bombs, that kill biological systems and leave the buildings and infrastructure. Hooray for science - NOT!:thumbsdown:
Adele Edisen Wrote:There were numerous above-ground atomic tests during the 1950s. Reports came of cattle and sheep dying in downwind Nevada areas in those days. It really happened, Jan.

Adele

Adele - please read my post carefully. Where did I deny such things had happened?

I am merely asking informed questions about the film purpotedly showing this specific event.
Keith Millea Wrote:Jan:

The link in the first post has more information.It's an NPR story.They even did an update,and tried to locate these guys.Two of them are apparently still alive.

Quote:This footage comes from our government's archives. It was shot by the U.S. Air Force (at the behest of Col. Arthur B. "Barney" Oldfield, public information officer for the Continental Air Defense Command in Colorado Springs) to demonstrate the relative safety of a low-grade nuclear exchange in the atmosphere.

Keith - thank you.

The curious thing is that the clip in the OP has a caption saying "A tape recorder was present to record their experience." In 1957, there were no tape cameras, so this suggests that the event was captured on audio tape only.

However, if this is genuine film footage, accompanying the still image at your link, then we have at least two more people - maybe more - present at "Ground Zero".

i) a stills photographer;

ii) a camera operator, and possibly a camera assistant or clapper/loader.

If you examine the footage closely, the camera is locked off whilst the officers are waiting for the blast, and in its immediate aftermath. However, at c1:44 onwards in the clip, the camera shot is much closer to the soldiers and even pans to reveal all five of them in the group. Therefore there MUST have been a camera operator taking that footage, and equally exposed to the blast's effects.

I'm now veering towards this being genuine footage, edited into a piece of "We Love The Bomb" propaganda by Col. Arthur B. "Barney" Oldfield and his psyop mates.

However, that is it's frame of reference: this is not a "science" film, as say many of the LSD/BZ test films purport to be.

This is pure propaganda.
Quote:However, that is it's frame of reference: this is not a "science" film, as say many of the LSD/BZ test films purport to be.

This is pure propaganda.

Jan, I'd agree with you 101% here! First, for internal propaganda [likely classified for many decades]...and now for external/general.
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