Operation Plumbbob was a series of nuclear tests conducted between May 28 and October 7, 1957, at (what is now) the Department of Energy’s reservation in Nevada. Altogether there were 29 explosions, the biggest of which, Hood, was felt 300 miles away in California and seen by a pilot in Hawaii, about 2700 miles away. Hood was the largest atmospheric test in the continental United States.
I heard about the pigs used in these tests back in the 80s from journalist, Paul Jacobs. He told this seemingly hilarious tale of how the DOD had decided to test different materials on pigs in a nuclear explosion. The pigs had been measured and when their tailored clothes were delivered, they had grown so that most of their outfits” had to be re-tailored. You can see the pigs in the video above.
Paul Jacobs knew that there were movies of the tests and the pigs and had used the Freedom of Information Act to get to see them. However, the Pentagon press relations people knew of his left-wing muckraking and were obliged to allow him to watch the films only under the care of an armed guard! Jacobs said he was certain they thought he would have bolted with the film, a fact he said he just might have done.
From Wapedia:
Plumbbob released 58,300 kilocuries (2.16 EBq) of radioiodine (I-131) into the atmosphere. This produced total civilian radiation exposures amounting to 120 million person-rads of thyroid tissue exposure (about 32% of all exposure due to continental nuclear tests).
Statistically speaking, this level of exposure would be expected to eventually cause between 11,000 and 212,000 excess cases of thyroid cancer, leading to between 1,000 and 20,000 deaths. [1]
In addition to civilian exposure, troop exercises conducted near the ground near shot “Smoky” exposed over three thousand servicemen to relatively high levels of radiation. A survey of these servicemen in 1980 found significantly elevated rates of leukemia: ten cases, instead of the baseline expected four.
An eyewitness account of one soldier tells the terrible story of the colossal force at work on the desert during the explosion of Hood:
“At the point of detonation, I could feel the heat, like someone ran a hot iron over the whole of my body, and I could see the bones in my elbow. I’m looking with my eyes shut and it was just as clear as could be. So first, its the light and the heat. We looked out at ground zero, and it was a vast dish and there were all the fumes and smoke rising out of it. It was green-black-purple, and just fused into one solid big bowl.”
R. Merron, Marine
American Ground Zero
For the longest time, it was Paul Jacobs’ tale of hi-jinks with the DOD that I remembered until I watched this video. The force of nuclear weapons is something that should not be underestimated nor trivialized. I know the genie is out of the bottle on nukes. I just hope that you or I never have to witness something a terrible as this.
Interestingly, I heard author/educator, Gary Wills, speak to the Commonwealth Club of California about his new book, The Extra-Constitutional Executive Bomb Power: The Modern Presidency and the National Security State. In his address, which can be heard online, he spoke about how the military process around the development of the atomic bomb in World War II has led to the end of the separation of powers (legislative, judicial and executive) and the rise of a unitary executive in the President of the US. It is a fascinating talk. Guaranteed to make you wish for a simpler, Constitutional, America.
