Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Goldsboro NC...well, two outta three ain't bad

[CountDeMoney]

There are far scarier stories in the secret annals of the atomic bomb, as I discovered when I took the Nuclear Weapons Safety Officer course back in the day.  I don't know when they will be declassified, but in those early days even routine maintenance risked cities and aircraft carriers.

I'm sure the increased production and forward deployment of tactical nukes for all varieties of platforms made things a lot more interesting in the 70s and early 80s.

All of those potential disasters were averted by the exertion of either common sense or (in retrospect) flimsy "fail-safes."  One of the lessons I learned was that the anonymous "little guy" is not as stupid as is generally asserted. One of the "guaranteed" detonations was avoided by an E-4 saying "that doesn't seem right" when following a checklist.

And that's with arguably the most technically proficient, educated and trained professional military in the world.

Now, just imagine how they've been doing things in Pakistan, China or Russia.

[The Brain]

Were Hiroshima and Nagasaki accidents?

[Syt]

BTW, it is no accident that the book limits itself to incidents between 1950 and 1968.  I can attest to the fact that the underestimation of the risks in 1950 had been corrected by 1968 (though I, obviously, went to the school many years later).  Even in the early '80s, though, learning what was going on at the dawn of nuclear weapons deployment was scary stuff.

My brother in law spent a couple of years guarding nuclear ordinance in our hometown. From his stories (e.g. apparently there were a few fatal gun shot accidents on base between the 60s and 80s because people became bored, careless and/or foolish), it seems not everyone involved showed the required care around those sites.


Still, the early atomic age was so innocent and cheerful.

[Admiral Yi]

Show of hands: who ever did duck and cover drills in school?

[Syt]

No duck and cover. We did read "Die letzten Kinder von Schwewenborn" (The Last Children of Schewenborn), about a small town in Germany coping with the aftermath of nuclear war (must have been in '87 or so). Malformed babies, radiation sickness, hunger, disease and lots of despair - the perfect stuff for a class of 11 year olds. As accompaniment we watched The Day After.

[Syt]

Oh, and:

[Syt]

... and I do recall during my last year of primary school ('86) that at school we weren't allowed to stay out during rain or play in the sand following Chernobyl.

[The Brain]

My brother in law spent a couple of years guarding nuclear ordinance in our hometown.

A high security archive?

[The Brain]

Show of hands: who ever did duck and cover drills in school?

*hides hands*

[The Brain]

Those atomic kits were probably quite awesome. You can do a lot of cool stuff with real simple shit when it comes to nuclear stuff.

[Syt]

My brother in law spent a couple of years guarding nuclear ordinance in our hometown.

A high security archive?

http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=53.970653&lon=9.693718&z=15&m=b


There's some pictures here:

http://www.usarmygermany.com/Sont.htm?http&&&www.usarmygermany.com/units/ordnance/USAREUR_294th%20USAAG.htm

(13th US Army Artillery Detachment)

[Ed Anger]

Show of hands: who ever did duck and cover drills in school?

They never bothered, since we were in the crispy critter zone of an potential impact at Wright Patt.

[Ed Anger]

Show of hands: who ever did duck and cover drills in school?

*hides hands*

[Maximus]

Brain did duck, but not cover.

[Admiral Yi]

I can remember doing duck and cover once.  I was in 2nd grade, in 1970.