GROUND ZERO POPULATION 5 THE AIR 2 AIR GENIE TEST (1957)

On July 19, 1957, five men stood at Ground Zero of an atomic test

 that was being

 conducted at the Nevada Test Site. This was the test of a 2KT

 (kiloton) MB-1 nuclear air-

to-air rocket launched from an F-89 Scorpion interceptor. The

 nuclear missile detonated

 10,000 ft above their heads,

A reel-to-reel tape recorder was present to record their 

experience. You can see and hear

 the men react to the shock wave moments after the detonation.

The placard reading "Ground Zero; Population Five" was made by

 Colonel Arthur B

. "Barney" Oldfield, the Public Information Officer for the

 Continental Air Defense

 Command in Colorado Spring who arranged for the volunteers to

 participate.

The five volunteers were:

Colonel Sidney Bruce

Lt. Colonel Frank P. Ball (technical advisor to the Steve Canyon tv

 show)


Major Norman "Bodie" Bodinger

Major John Hughes

Don Lutre

and GeGeorge Yoshitake, the cameraman (who wasn't a volunteer)

see George discuss his work photographing atomic and nuclear

 explosions in "Atomic

 Filmmakers.

THIS ROCKET FIRED OVER THE HEADS OF VOLUNTEER PILOTS WAS THE STANDARD AIR 2 AIR 12 PLUS KILOTON ROCKET CARRIED BY F-106 DELTA DARTS AND F-101 VOODOO INTERCEPT AIRCRAFT TO TAKE DOWN RUSSIAN  BOMBERS INTENT ON DROPPING THEIR ATOMIC ORDNANCE ON MILITARY TARGETS,CITIES,&INFRASTRUCTURE.  RUSSIAN TACTICS DURING THE COLD WAR WOULD SEEK TO PIERCE US AIRSPACE AND TARGET MILITARY, THEN MANUFACTURING CENTERS AND THEN  U.S. CITIES.  THE SUFFOLK COUNTY AFB JET AIRCRAFT INTERCEPTORS CARRIED THESE ROCKETS LIVE AND WERE ON CONSTANT ALERT WAITING TO BE LAUNCHED ON MINUTES NOTICE, THESE WEAPONS CARRIED ALOFT BY SOME OF THE BEST USAF PILOTS OF THE DAY HAD 3 OR MORE BROKEN ARROW EVENTS A TERM USED TO DESCRIBE THE LOSS OF A NUCLEAR WEAPON THESE WERE THE AIR 2 AIR GENIE CARRIED BEING TORN FROM THE AIRCRAFT LOST IN LONG ISLANDS PINE BARRENS ONLY TO BE FOUND WEEKS LATER BY HUNTERS AND RETRIEVED BY USAF TEAMS. AND THE TRAGIC ACCIDENT OF ONE OF SUFFOLKS F-101 VOODOOS THAT SUFFERED A CATASTROPHIC MALFUNCTION OVER THE PECONIC BAY, JUST EAST OF THE AIRBASE. THE JET BROKE APART AND WAS NOT FOUND AS WERE THE PILOT AND BACKSEATER THEY ALONG WITH THE NUCLEAR WEAPON IT CARRIED ARE LOST TO THIS DAY, IT IS STILL MISSING AND PROBABLY BURIED IN THE MUD OF THE PECONIC BAY, THESE ROCKETS WERE CAPABLE OF TURNING UP THEIR YIELD TO EXPLODE WITH LARGER ATOMIC YIELD,USAF TEXTBOOK TACTICS WARN AIR CREWS TO GET AWAY BY USING A SHALLOW DESCENT TO AVOID BEING DOSED BY THE WEAPONS RADIOACTIVE PULSE, SO I WONDER IF THESE BRAVE AIRMEN AND ONE CAMERA MAN THAT WERE UNDER THIS ATOMIC DETONATION GOT A GOOD DOSE OF GAMMA RADIATION THAT MAY OF EVENTUALLY LED TO THE POSSIBILITIES OF CANCER SINCE THERE WAS NO PROTECTION FROM THE EFFECTS OF THIS ATOMIC DEVICE . ALTHOUGH ITS A GREAT PR STUNT FOR THE NUCLEAR AIR FORCE OF ITS DAY AND A GREAT PIECE OF HISTORY FOR THIS BLOG.