I Was an A-Bomb Baby

[MineralMan]

I was born 10 days before the city of Hiroshima was devastated by the first nuclear weapon ever used by any nation during a war. That fact has literally followed me all of my life. I grew up in a time when children dove under their desks during A-bomb drills. I remember the first radios that had CONELRAD Triangles on the dials to mark where to tune when there was a nuclear alert.

My father built a bomb shelter under our house when I was 14 years old, during the Cuban missile crisis. I had recurring dreams that startled me out of sleep when the sky lit up from a nuclear device exploding in Los Angeles.

All of that made me an anti-nuke person. I suppose it was inevitable. I have not changed that status in my 80 years of life on this troubled planet.

One thing has struck me throughout my life:

THE USA IS THE ONLY NATION THAT HAS EVER USED A NUCLEAR WEAPON DURING WARTIME!


Now, the subject has come up again. It keeps coming up. I served in the USAF during the Cold War, keeping watch on the Soviet Union as my job. As decades went by, more and more countries acquired and built nuclear weapons. The threat that they might someday be used has always kept me awake some nights. I have kept my eye on the Doomsday Clock.

Today, we're dealing with the possibility that Iran might be close to becoming a nuclear nation. As one nation after another has had nuclear capabilities, the threat has continued to grow.

So far, they have not been used again by any nation. So far. Still, we're just one maniacal head of state away from that. Still. It cannot be ruled out. Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) seems to have worked to keep the weapons in storage rather than on the battlefield.

Will that continue forever? I think about that still, far more often than I wish I did.

I do not know. I do know that there is always the risk that we will devolve into nuclear warfare. We really can't imagine what that would mean. We simple can't We have too little knowledge and experience of what that would mean. We don't like to think about such things.

The danger persists, and there is one fact that should never be forgotten:

THE USA IS THE ONLY NATION THAT HAS EVER USED A NUCLEAR WEAPON DURING WARTIME!


Please keep that in mind as elections come and go. Please!

[Permanut]

1. Not far behind you; born December '45..

Hadn't thought about those "duck and cover" drills for a long time, but that that elephant is still sitting in the corner of the room.

[lastlib]

4. ...and it deposited its crap in the Oval Office..... n/t

[calimary]

2. Not possible to forget THAT "bottom line".

[lastlib]

3. I had a supervisor at work....

who was born on Aug. 6, 1945. She liked to say she was the OTHER bomb dropped that day!

Not to make light of what you are saying, I fully agree that we live in a very dangerous world as long as these weapons exist. And our "Dear Leader" the Traitor has allowed the principal arms control agreements to expire, without even making an ATTEMPT to renew them. Until we GET a president (here AND in Russia!) who WILL re-negotiate them, we will be living on the knife's edge. The sad part of it is that our children really have little awareness of what the danger is. It is disheartening and rather frightening.

[DinahMoeHum]

5. Maybe we were the first, BUT. . .

. . .whoever was successful in developing this weapon would have used it.

USA, Soviet Union, Great Britain, Germany, etc.
whoever was successful in developing this weapon would have used it.

AND ANY ONE OF THEM WOULD'VE USED IT.

World War 2 was the closest thing we had to total war in our history.

And TOTAL WAR MEANS TOTAL DEATH.

And I do not want to hear any bullshit about the Japanese Empire getting ready to surrender before those bombs were dropped. That has been completely disproven.

Truman had ONE priority when he made his decision: End the war as fast as possible, and spare as many American casualties as possible.

Just my 2 cents, FWIW.

[MineralMan]

6. Yes, but we were the only ones who ever did.

That fact remains. So far...

[DinahMoeHum]

9. Because we were the first to get it.

Like I said, whoever got this weapon first would've used it back then.

[MineralMan]

10. Well, that is an interesting supposition.

However, we can never really know, since it didn't happen any other way.

It doesn't matter, really. The point remains the same.

[Bluestocking]

7. After what I have seen Trump do since he took office

There is no doubt in my mind that he wants to and will try to use a nuclear weapon before he leaves office.

[LessAspin]

8. Las Vegas

Come for the Mushroom Cloud

Stay for the Fallout

Link to tweet

John Wayne filmed the 1956 movie The Conqueror near St. George, Utah, which was heavily contaminated by fallout from1950s nuclear tests at the nearby Nevada Test Site. Over 90 cast and crew members developed cancer, including Wayne, leading to claims that inhaled radioactive dust caused the illnesses.

Key Details Regarding the Site and Film:

Location: The filming took place in 1954 in the Snow Canyon area of Utah, roughly 137 miles downwind from the Nevada National Security Site (formerly Nevada Test Site).
Contamination Source: The area was heavily affected by fallout from the 1953 "Harry" nuclear test nicknamed Dirty Harry.

Health Impact: Of the 220 people involved in the production, roughly 91 developed cancer, and 46 died from it, including stars John Wayne and Susan Hayward.
Production Context: The movie was produced by Howard Hughes, who reportedly ordered 60 tons of the "hot" dirt to be transported back to Hollywood for studio reshoots.

Note: The first atomic test site is the Trinity Site in New Mexico, which is distinct from the Nevada site responsible for the fallout in Utah.

Susan Hayward

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001333/?ref_=tt_cst_t_2

Born - June 30, 1917
Died - March 14, 1975 (57)

Trivia

Was diagnosed with brain cancer, allegedly the result of being exposed to dangerous radioactive toxins on location in Utah while making The Conqueror (1956). All the leads; John Wayne, Agnes Moorehead, John Hoyt, Pedro Armendáriz, Hayward, and director Dick Powell, died of cancer. The case is still a scandal.