Comments on: Time Bombs

By: Melanie Forbush

Melanie Forbush — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:33:18 +0000

I think the Atomic Soldier test was horrifying. By 1957, our military had plenty of time after Hiroshima to know the effects of radiation on humans, Just study the Japanese people after the 2 nuclear blasts. To be putting OUR OWN soldiers in harm’s way, 12 yrs later is real doctor “strangelove” material.

By: doorkeeper

doorkeeper — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 13:05:19 +0000

Thanks for posting this, M. Of course they should be recognized and in some way compensated. Just because we “didn’t know” (but we did) is no excuse.
Our servicemen (and women) give enough without being asked to submit to experimentation.
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By: Babs

Babs — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 04:49:49 +0000

Plumbbob was held between May 28 and October 7 of 1957. It was the largest, longest and most controversial series of nuclear tests in the history of the Nevada Test Site. The military was interested in knowing how the average foot-soldier would stand up, physically and psychologically, to the rigors of the tactical nuclear battlefield.

You could say that the pacific theatre was the most brutal of any theatre the United States had experienced in the case of disease in its history. Was it unrealistic to ask the American soldier to bath in a toxic element in the hopes that it would stand up to such experimentation?
I am not trying to minimize the suffering and anguish that Canadian recruits endured during nuclear experimentation. I am only trying to say that the Western world did what they did in order to safeguard our way of life. To that end, I blame no one for having my father bath in a toxic substance just as I blame no one for the Canadians that were deployed to Nevada to experience radiation.
If you want to put the shoe on the other foot and blame the American gov’t for medical experimentation then I guess you also have to include the use of DDT in the Pacific Islands into your equation. Both chemical and nuclear experimentation were part of the American war fighting programs.

By: Babs

Babs — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 04:28:07 +0000

Heh, I don’t doubt your claims Michelle. I just wanted to point out that a lot of GI’s were exposed to toxic elements during WWII. Where do I file my claim for my father having to wash in DDT during the Pacific campaign?
I’ll also tell you something that blows my mind; my son #2 is currently studying in Nagasaki… My father flew weather planes over Japan during WWII prior to bombing missions. Times change… Shall we all sue for compensation?

By: Michelle

Michelle — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 04:04:05 +0000

I wish I had caught the whole documentary but I missed some in the beginning. I was out of the room and was only half paying attention to what was on but I *think* I heard said something US soldiers being compensated. Anyone know anything about that?

At any rate, its one thing to say standards are different now versus then. But even so, that doesn’t mean that we can’t recognize mistakes that were made back then as mistakes. And I believe that our federal government did recently compensate vets who were exposed to … I can’t find the reference right at the moment, but Agent Orange or something like that.

Then again, its hard not to “judge” something like this:

Most of these young soldiers were under 20. With absolutely no knowledge of the effects of radiation, wearing only their regular cotton uniforms, they played “war games,” sometimes less than 1 000 yards away from exploding nuclear bombs as much as four times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Mere moments after the explosion, they had to march toward ground zero, while nuclear dust settled on them. Some even flew a helicopter through the mushroom cloud.

By: Babs

Babs — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 03:51:32 +0000

You know Michelle, while I understand your wanting to have these men recognised, I also know that my father was a pilot in WWII and was told to wash in DDT while in the Pacific theatre. Yes, that is absolutely true, my father bathed in DDT.
He died at the age of 63. Why he contracted cancer and died at such a young age is open for debate. The point I am trying to make is that many, many men of the WWII generation were subject to life threatening illnesses. We didn’t know better then. If you think we did then I think you are mistaken.
I have always told my children not to judge history by today’s standards. Maybe that leaves me some comfort or maybe I am just naive. I like to think that I am realisitc.