Selling is a 1953 magazine article about: Atom Bomb testing, Nevada Title: Nevada Learns to Live with the AtomAuthor: SAMUEL W. MATTHEWSSubtitled “While Blasts Teach Civilians and Soldiers Survival in Atomic War, the Sagebrush State Takes the Spectacular Tests in Stride” Quoting the 1st page “Against night's last darkness on the Nevada desert, a faint green band of dawn framed jagged mountains to the east. Suddenly a siren sounded, rising in urgency, higher and higher. "It is now H minus 2 minutes," loud-speakers blared. "Kneel down in your trench. Look down. Brace yourself against the forward wall." 2mis out across the flat, a bright white light shone from the top of a 300-foot tower. At that point, the 22nd atomic explosion within the United States was a hundred-odd seconds away. "I don't mind admitting it," the dark shape next to me said abruptly into the gloom. "I'm scared." Sgt. Tom Radtke of Chicago, 6 yrs in the Regular Army, spoke for about 1,500 of us on hands and knees in our narrow burrows. A few minutes before, the loud-speaker voice had said, "Good morning, gentlemen. Welcome to Yucca Flat, valley where the tall mushrooms grow... "The detonation you will witness today is about what the survivors of Hiroshima saw in 1945. It will be closer to you than any such detonation has ever been to Americans." We had received many other briefings. I was 1 of 20 newspaper, radio, and magazine representatives accompanying 850 soldiers and approx 600 officer-observers into entrenchments twice as close to the forthcoming blast as men ever had deliberately gone before. My name had been drawn from a hat for the chance to be there, 2 miles from an atomic explosion. The "Trembling Twenty," we had been dubbed - "Men of Extinction." By flickering light of flare pots, after only 3 hours' sleep, we had boarded a bus at 2 a.m. at the 6th Army's Camp Desert Rock, 65 mis northwest of Las Vegas. Ahead lay a 25-mile ride into the heart of the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission's Nevada Proving Ground. The convoy winked and twisted among moonlit hills, past the white expanse of Frenchman Flat, through Yucca Pass, to be stopped finally by military policemen with glowing electric batons. We stumbled out into darkness speckled by bonfires among the brush, where waiting soldiers warmed themselves in the bitter cold night. Loose powdery dust puffed beneath our feet. Canteens and helmets jingled as we walked. Platoons and companies comprising the simulated atomic attack force spread along a double line of trenches half a mile in either direction from command and observer posts. Many of the men in the trenches had come to Camp Desert Rock directly from Korean fighting. Cpl. Frederick Jin, a Chinese American, had been in Korea for nearly a year. He laughed when I asked him which he preferred. "I don't think any of us are sorry we're here," he said. "The Thing out there ... I'd like to see it." "Anyone for Las Vegas?" some 1 joked. "Seems pretty close here, doesn't it?" a soldier muttered. "You should be in those houses, bub!" came an answer. Out to the right, lights marked 2 isolated frame houses built by Civil Defense planners within the predicted blast range of the "nuclear device" on the tower. 1 stood two-thirds of a mile from the explosion point, the other 1.four miles away. With "Milton Able I" Company, third Platoon, I took my place in a 5-foot-deep, 2-foot-wide slit cut into the desert floor. The sides were braced by tar paper, chicken wire, and timber. Sandbags lined the lips. The siren howled just behind us. We knelt in the dust, heads down, muscles tense. "H minus 30 seconds." The signals came through miles of wire from the Control Point, nerve center of a network of communication systems, automatic switches, and recording instruments all across Yucca Flat. "H minus twenty seconds." I took a deep breath. The "count down" of seconds began. ... 6 ... five ... four ... three … 2 … one-" Half-night in the trench turned suddenly into blinding, pure-white noon. It was impossible…" 7” x 10”, 6 double-sided pages, twelve B&W images These are pages from an actual 1953 magazine. No reprints or copies. 53F1 Please note the flat-rate shipping for my magazine articles. Please see my other auctions and store items for more old articles, advertising pages and non-fiction books. Click Here To Visit My eBay Store: busybeas books and adsThousands of advertisement pages and old articlesAnything I find that looks interesting! Please see my other auctions for more goodies, books and magazines. I’ll combine wins to save on postage. Thanks For Looking! Luke 12: 15 Note to CANADIAN purchasers: Since 2007 I've only been charging 5% GST on purchases. Thanks to a recent CRA audit I must change to the full GST/HST charge. Different provinces have different rates, though most are just 5%. My GST/HST number is 84416 2784 RT0001 Powered by eBay Turbo Lister
