Home Front Bomb Testing part 2
On 18 December 1950, President Harry S. Truman gave his approval to use a portion of the U.S. Air Force’s Las Vegas Bombing and Gunnery Range in southeastern Nevada for atomic tests. Construction of the Nevada Test Site (NTS), originally known as the Nevada Proving Ground (NPG), began in January 1951. Construction of what became known as Camp Desert Rock did not start until September 1951. The camp was named for Exercise Desert Rock, a series of atmospheric nuclear tests first conducted at NTS in 1951. This site included Yucca and Frenchman Flats, Paiute and Rainer Mesas, and the Camp Desert Rock area, which was used by the Sixth Army in the 1950’s to house troops participating in atmospheric tests at the site.
Designed as a military support facility for NTS, Camp Desert Rock began as a temporary camp originally part of NPG. It was located twenty-three miles west of Indian Springs, Nevada, in Nye County on Highway 95 and assigned to Sixth Army effective 12 September 1951. Headquarters, III Corps, Sixth Army, chose an area just outside NTS about two miles southwest of the Atomic Energy Commission’s (AEC) Camp Mercury. The site, in the center of Mercury Valley, was bordered by the Spring Mountains and the Spotted Range towards the north and east and the Specter Range to the west. The Army acquired 23,058 acres for Camp Desert Rock from the Department of the Interior on 5 September 1951.
The Army established Camp Desert Rock to stage and house troops involved in training exercises associated with nuclear weapons testing by the AEC. Personnel from all four services were deployed to observe the detonations from trenches, tanks, and armored personnel carriers. After the completion of exercises, the camp adhered to radiological safety measures throughout its use. In 1951, the Army, working closely with the AEC, carried out the Desert Rock exercises to “dispel much of the fear and uncertainty surrounding atomic radiation and the effects of gamma and x-rays.”
188th/11th Airborne Division at Desert Rock
The initial construction for Camp Desert Rock was accomplished by the 231st Engineer Combat Battalion, a North Dakota Army National Guard unit mobilized in September 1950 for the Korean War and based out of Fort Lewis, Washington. The battalion’s mission was to establish, build, and maintain the camp, and construct field fortifications at the atomic test sites. The 90th Engineer Water Supply Company handled the camp’s water supply, to include running water from a 190,000 gallon water tank, and several permanent type latrines with showers, flush toilets, and wash bowls. Temporary sumps for garbage disposal were built by the 597th Engineer Light Equipment Company.
Within the first six months of existence, Camp Desert Rock had grown from a few tents to a relatively comfortable, semi-permanent tent camp with many modern amenities. It had two permanent buildings for mess halls, each of which could accommodate 500 soldiers, electricity to all parts of the camp from nearby AEC Camp Mercury, and telephone, telegraph, and teletype facilities. A sewage system ran throughout the permanent part of the camp. In addition, the camp featured a permanent training auditorium with seating for 400, a post exchange housed in a Quonset hut, and framed and floored tents to house soldiers.
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New Book Shout-out!
If you ever wondered what it was like in the Philippines after the Japanese started their blitzkrieg, here is an account of Rosalinda Morgan’s family on Luzon..
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THE STORY OF THE FIRST ATOMIC ACCIDENT IS ON DAVE’S HISTORY SITE…
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Military Humor –
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Farewell Salutes –
Wayne B. Baker – Salem, MI; US Navy, WWII
William T. Casper – Lewistown, MO; US Navy, Vietnam
David R. Fusner – Zanesville, OH; US Army, Vietnam
Marvin H. Gohlke (101) – Kerrville, TX; US Army, WWII, PTO, Purple Heart
Frederick R. Jarratt – Richmond, VA; US Navy, WWII, PTO, ETM2C, USS Cabot (CVL-28)
Francis A. Knollmeyer – Vienna, MO; US Army, MP at West Point
Ernest E. Sides III – Troutman, NC; USMC, Desert Storm, (Ret. 20 y.)
Thomas J. Therriault Jr. – Stratford, CT; US Navy, Korea
Donald E. Welker – Danville, IL; US Army, Korea, “Chosin Few”
Joseph Whaley – Columbia, TN; USMC, Lance Cpl.
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Posted on August 21, 2023, in Home Front, Post WWII, WWII and tagged 11th airborne, A-Bomb, Army, History, Home Front, Military, Military History, nostalgia, Tributes, WW2, WWII. Bookmark the permalink. 111 Comments.
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God bless and bless the brave modern people of America.!!!
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Thank you.
May I ask where you’re from originally?
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My hometown is North Korea and I ran away from North Korea, so I am married to an American soldier here in the United States and have been living for a long time.
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May I offer a belated welcome.
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Yes sir.!!
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My son currently serves in the US Air Force and is in the unit in Mississippi.
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Please shake his hand for me and give both your men my gratitude for their service.
Thank you.
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Thank you too. sir !!
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I have visited a lot of Patton’s camp sites in Nevada and the California deserts. We thankfully visited during cooler months although we have been out during labor day. Although most signs are gone if you look hard enough you will find remnants of said camps. It gets really hot out there and there are no trees to speak of for shade. But you have to put radiation at the top of the list. Great article!
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Thank you for the first-hand info, Nancy. It’s so good to see you back!!
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Always good info.
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Thank you, Kelly.
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I see on the photo the 11th Airborne was at Desert Rock. Was your father there?
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No, he had been discharged in 1946.
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I am glad he was not exposed to that.
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You and me both. I feel he died too young as it was, 74.
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Yes, 74 is too young. My own father was a couple of months shy of 71 when he passed on. I was 21. Didn’t have many years to get to know him.
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That is a shame. I was 33 and it still felt like my legs were kicked out from under me; my rock was gone.
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“What, me worry?”
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That got me smilin’ !!!
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Incredible. We were amazingly ignorant in the past.
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It makes me wonder what they have hidden these days.
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Do not understand that they also did those tests in their own country. Hopefully it has given them more insight, although we do not notice much of it
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It is obviously beyond my knowledge. But I agree, Mary Lou.
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Thanks again for an interesting post. I guess “the science was settled” regarding the tests.
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We can sure hope so!
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Very interesting post! Glad radiation poisoning is taken more seriously now.
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So true. Most rational people understand what atomic warfare really means.
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Yes.
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Reading these posts, I’ve thought from time to time about how understanding of the true effects has faded. Today (or at least fairly recently), kids describe something good as being ‘the bomb,’ and when someone fails, we say she ‘bombed out.’ Our language has become completely disassociated from the realities that people less than a century ago experienced. It’s odd, and disheartening.
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Very true, Linda. To be honest I never thought of that. When I was growing up, we all knew what “the bomb” meant.
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The 11th Airbone Division was also involved in these nuclear tests. ;-/ They took it very easy in the past.I hope your father had no radiation, at least not dangerous. xx Michael
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Dad did not have to participate, he was discharged by this time.
Thanks for reading it!!
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Can’t even imagine the radiation danger from the testing as it got into the water they drank and the air they breathed. Another time when the government was trying to hide the truth to do what they desired.
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I’m sure you are not surprised, eh Bev?
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I’ve been around too many years and seen too many hidden truths. Nothing surprises me anymore!
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Gotcha 👍😏
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I am astonished at the attitude towards nuclear weapons, GP.
P.S. I did enlarge, as instructed, but I don’t know what it means. Please explain.
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I understand, Dolly.
The enlarged picture shows that the man’s shoulder patch is 11th Airborne Division (one of the reasons this blog exists). I couldn’t believe I found a meme with one of the old-timers of the 11th!
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It’s fascinating GP to think what the febrile world was like back then . WW2 just finished and Korea just kicking off.
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I was born a month after Korea started. What I remember was how every invention kept becoming “new & improved”.
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A very interesting post. It’s very striking too what the attitude was to atomic bombs and radiation. How innocent we all were when it came to that desire to “dispel much of the fear and uncertainty surrounding atomic radiation….. gamma and x-rays.”
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Madam Curie and her assistant died, that should have been a hint, eh?
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Yes, you are 100% right about poor Madame Curie and her assistant. And so many servicemen, both American, British and other nationalities have died since then.
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Yet, we still don’t learn. I might be cynical, John, but I think I’ll go to my grave believing that humans are an invasive species.
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And I would tend to agree with you. They have certainly improved little over the thousands of years they have been exploiting our beautiful planet.
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And multiplying like rabbits.
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Thanks for sharing this idea.with the GP .Anita
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👍
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I would think that desert post would not be the ideal Army posting for most people. Yeah , and as long as we were somewhat under our desk and not near the windows of the classroom we were no doubt safe had there been a nuclear attack . And , after all , we would be warned by that siren , eh ?
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Oh yeah! How could I forget that siren – it was right at the end of my street!!
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Interesting and informative, GP, and definitely worth learning about. Thanks!
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Thank you for reading here, Tim.
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Great illustration at the top of the post for the 11th Airborne.
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Thank you. One of a few I’ve located and enjoyed.
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Love the humor. Good timing.
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Thanks, Jacqui. I need all the humor I can get!!
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I wonder if the tent camp is still in existence and how did the residents fare with the radiation? Thanks for the shout-out about my book. I do appreciate it very much.
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You are very welcome, Rose!
I can only give you this link for radiation answers – I’m clueless….
https://www.dtra.mil/About/Mission/Nuclear-Test-Personnel-Review/NTPR-Radiation-Exposure-Reports/
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Thanks for the link. It’s quite extensive. I might have to go back later. I’m in the middle of reading War and Peace by Tolstoy. Yes, I’m nuts! The couple of articles I read have the results contradictory to each other. One said insignificant effect, the other said it has significant effects on human, plants and animals except chickens. Also, they are too scientific, I am getting a headache reading the numbers.
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No, you’re not crazy for reading Tolstoy. After reading W&P, I went on to get Anna Karenina.
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I’m wondering the same things!
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Oh boy….scary stuff and they had no idea.
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Yup, it was and is still scary.
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In the 50’s, all we had to know about an A bomb attack was to duck and cover.
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That’s about the size of it. We didn’t hide under our desk though, we had to go out into the hallway, duck and cover. I guess they thought the cider blocks would be added protection.
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Thanks GP, for so much information that most of us didn’t know about.
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We should have been told, especially those in the fallout areas.
Thanks for coming by.
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I have wondered if there is any lingering radiation near Las Vegas from these tests. Scary. Man should not mess with anything nuclear…
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Perhaps these fellas can answer that for you, John.
https://www.dtra.mil/About/Mission/Nuclear-Test-Personnel-Review/NTPR-Radiation-Exposure-Reports/
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Thanks for the link, GP, those PDFs are very long and complicated.
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Try the info sites on the right-hand side of the page.
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Will do!
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You can tell it’s an Army base. The Air Force would have had an O Club and an NCO Club. 😉
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haha, you sure know the difference!
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First heard when I read Catch-22. Since then, I’ve seen a few jokes where the Marines have it the hardest, followed by the Army, the Navy, with the Air Force having it the cushiest.
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Oh, I’ve seen a bunch of those making fun of the Air Force and how cushy they have it, but I’ve hesitated to using them.
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Probably wise. Don’t need partisan ‘toons. 😉
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👍
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“dispel much of the fear and uncertainty surrounding atomic radiation and the effects of gamma and x-rays.”…..without much of a clue what those effects were to be….
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Yup, doesn’t give you much confidence in the scientists, does it?
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Never had much to start with…not for nothing do we have the saying ‘to blind with science’ !
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I’d rather see the aim as “to assess the affects of…..” rather than “dispel much of the fear and uncertainty surrounding atomic radiation and the effects of gamma and x-rays.”
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Sometimes I wonder what the world would look like if Madam Curie hadn’t worked with radium.
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A good point
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I have always found it incredible that the US allowed such testing on its home soil during peacetime, and put so many soldiers in harm’s way in the process.
Good luck to Rosalinda with her new book.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Thank you for reading, Pete, and for checking out Rosalinda’s work.
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Pete, Thanks.
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That Demon Core story, frightening. Well, all of it was.
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I agree, Joy. So much went on that we were not aware of.
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Thank you, GP, for another great post. I learn so much through your shares.
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I thank you, Gwen, for taking the time out of your day to be here.
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wow, imagine the impact it had on everyone involved. only with time, did we adhere to greater safety measures for those involved
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As smart as the scientists were, they still made mistakes.
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and I’m sure it continues, but we all learn as we go
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Very true.
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It’s good to see that the Pentagon took radiation effects much more seriously and improved much of the safety measures by the early 1950s.
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I do believe it was in their best interest to do so.
Thanks, Swabby.
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🖤
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The beginning of the reason we were cautioned not to eat snow when we were children. It’s scary to think they thought there would be no after effects. Thanks again for this series, GP, and thanks for the heads up on the book.
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My pleasure, Dan. I’m glad you found it interesting.
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Sure interesting GP.
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Thank you, Ned.
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Thank you, John.
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Thank you, Jonathan.
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Thank you very much.
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