Area 51_ An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base - Annie Jacobsen [217]
36. Pauling said: The quotes in this two-page section, and also the newspaper quotes here, are from the extensive newspaper archive collection located in the Atomic Testing Museum library reading room in Las Vegas, Nevada.
37. The Pentagon wondered: Fehner and Gosling, Battlefield of the Cold War, 159–82.
38. caused Area 51 personnel: Interview with Richard Mingus.
39. “the Indoctrination Project: DNA 6005F, Plumbbob Series 1957, United States Atmospheric Nuclear Weapons Tests, Nuclear Test Personnel Review, Chapter 4, Exercise Desert Rock VII and VIII Programs, 81, 96.
40. Committee on Human Resources: Memorandum, Members of the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments, September 8, 1994, “Human Experiments in Connection with the Atomic Bomb Tests,” attachment 5, item 10.
41. “mythical attack by an aggressor force”: During the Hood nuclear bomb, the Marine Corps conducted coordinated air-ground assault maneuvers that included helicopter airlifts and tactical air support; “Exercise Desert Rock VII-VIII, Operation Plumbbob,” Defense Nuclear Agency 4747F.
42. Mingus saw that a large swath of the desert was on fire: Interview with Mingus.
43. Area 51 had become uninhabitable: Interview with Richard Mingus; also Office Memorandum, United States Government, Observed Damage at Watertown, Nevada, following the Sixth Nuclear shot of Plumbbob, July 9, 1957. R. A. Gilmore, Off-Site Rad-Safe, NTO, #0150371.
Chapter Seven: From Ghost Town to Boomtown
Interviews: T. D. Barnes, Peter Merlin, Al O’Donnell, Richard Mingus, Jim Freedman, Ed Lovick, Tony Bevacqua, Ray Goudey, Ernie Williams, Harry Martin, Colonel Slater, Frank Murray
1. measuring fallout with Geiger counters in hand: Interview with T. D. Barnes; Operation Plumbbob Projects and Reports: Program 2, Project 2.2., Neutron Induced Activities in Soil Elements WT-1411; Project 2.5 Initial Gamma Radiation Intensity and Neutron-Induced Gamma Radiation of NTS Soil WT-1414.
2. dressed in white lab coats and work boots: Photographs viewed at the Atomic Testing Museum library, Las Vegas.
3. from pinhead particles to pencil-size pieces of steel: DNA 6005F, Plumbbob Series 1957, United States Atmospheric Nuclear Weapons Tests, Nuclear Test Personnel Review, Chapter 4, Exercise Desert Rock VII and VIII Programs, Civil Effects Test Group, Fallout Studies, 204-247; AEC Research and Development Report BNWL-481-1, 113 pages.
4. surprise of the nuclear scientists: McPhee, Curve of Binding Energy, 166–67.
5. could locate them with magnets: Roadrunners Internationale newsletter, August 1, 2009, 34th edition. From the personal diary of Dan Sheahan, owner and operator of the Groom Mine, provided to the Roadrunners Internationale by his great-granddaughter Lisa Heawood.
6. weapons planners moved ahead: Interviews with Al O’Donnell, Richard Mingus, and Jim Freedman. There was a nuclear test ban moratorium on the horizon, which meant that all weapons tests were scheduled to end on October 31, 1958. At the test site, weapons engineers worked at a frenzied pace to finish as many nuclear tests as they could before the deadline.
7. the animals observed: An anonymous eyewitness related to me the horror of watching a dying horse seek water at Area 51. The AEC has never declassified its animal observations, which I understand are extensive. In an AEC document released to the public on July 15, 1957, entitled “Responsibility for U.S. Nuclear Weapons Programs,” in a section called “Operating Controls,” it is stated that “cattle and horses grazing within a few miles of the detonation suffered skin deep beta radiation burns on their hides (1952 and 1953 series) with no effect on their breeding value and no effect on