Think of The Picture In Terms of What You Read Here:
Between 1946 and 1964, the United States exploded 183 nuclear weapons aboveground. Bomb tests in the western United States began in 1951. About 103,000 soldiers and other military personnel were exposed to radiation from blasts at close range. In parts of Nevada, Utah, and Arixona, residents in the path of fallout also received large doses of radiation. At that time, most scientists believed that people could safely absorb a dose of 25 rems. Troops and the public were assured that there was no danger.
Sheep provided the first sign that scientists had underestimated the hazard. In 1953, after several bomb tests, more than 4,000 sheep died in Utah and Nevada. Ranchers suspected that radiation caused the deaths, but lost a suit for damages brought against the government. In 1982, however, a judge ordered a new trial, because documents showed that the government had withheld evidence that radiation had harmed the sheep.
Troops were placed within a few miles of the blasts. Shortly after some tests they marched to ground zero — the actual explosion site. Many of the troops wore special film badges that were supposed to record their exposure to radiation. The blasts emitted mostly neutron, alpha, and beta particles. Desert dust stirred up by the explosions undoubtably was contaminated by alpha particles, and some of it was inhaled by those who witnessed the tests.
It appears that troops who were at the tests suffered from a high rate of radiation-caused illness and death. –— Radiation: Waves and Particles/Benefits and Risk, Laurence Pringle
As an added note of interest, John Wayne, Susan Hayward, and Agnes Moorehead, and director Dick Powell of The Conqueror all died of cancer. Of the 220 persons who worked on The Conqueror on location in Utah in 1955, 91 had contracted cancer as of the early 1980s and 46 died of it. The winds had changed and had blowned radioactive dust downwind and they were in it.
![[Troops Watch Atomic Bomb Test; Then Were Marched Down To Ground Zero!]](troops watch atom bomb explosion.jpg)
![[Atomic Test Nevada Troops]](atomic test nevada troops.jpg)