At 5:30 AM, 65 years ago today, 120 miles south of Albuquerque, the first atomic bomb was detonated.
A scientist who witnessed the test reported: “We were lying there, very tense, in the early dawn, and there were just a few streaks of gold in the east; you could see your neighbor very dimly. … Suddenly, there was an enormous flash of light, the brightest light I have ever seen. … It blasted; it pounced; it bored its way right through you. It was a vision which was seen with more than the eye. It was seen to last forever. … There was an enormous ball of fire which grew and grew and it rolled as it grew; it went up into the air, in yellow flashes and into scarlet and green. It looked menacing. It seemed to come toward one.”
Is that the day we could say, “The world changed”? I can think of no single event that changed our world as much. We finally achieved the ability to kill all of mankind. Kinda makes you teary-eyed, doesn’t it?
What an odd coincidence…. I currently happen to be listening to a book on tape of Stallion Gate, by Martin Cruz Smith, when I’m in my car. Just as I was arriving home last night, the characters were discussing when and where to set off that specific atom bomb. I had grabbed the B-on-T in a hurry as the library was closing, because I needed something to listen to going back and forth to Tucson. I didn’t actually know what it was about. I certainly had no idea of the anniversary.
From the B&N website:
Synopsis [This is EXACTLY where I was in the story as I shut it off last night]
In a New Mexico blizzard, four men cross a barbed-wire fence at Stallion Gate to select a test site for the first atomic weapon. They are Oppenheimer, the physicist; Groves, the general; Fuchs, the spy. The fourth man is Sergeant Joe Pena, a hero, informer, fighter, musician, Indian. These four men — and a cast of soldiers, roughnecks and scientists — will change history forever.