{"id":2431,"date":"2012-04-14T11:56:18","date_gmt":"2012-04-14T15:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=2431"},"modified":"2012-04-14T11:56:18","modified_gmt":"2012-04-14T15:56:18","slug":"janet-and-john-on-holidays-ch-1-the-first-big-bang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/history\/janet-and-john-on-holidays-ch-1-the-first-big-bang\/","title":{"rendered":"Janet and John on Holidays: Ch 1 – The First Big Bang"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
The US Army's guide to Trinity<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

So \u2013Janet and John take a holiday (vacation for my American friends) and where do we go?\u00a0 The middle of nowhere of course\u2026. But not just any nowhere. A radioactive nowhere in the middle of the New Mexico desert.<\/p>\n

Last year, while mucking about on the Internet (as one does), I discovered that on two days every year, the US military opens up the White Sands Missile Base to civilians who want to visit the Trinity Site \u2013 the place where the first atomic bomb was exploded on July 16th<\/sup> 1945.<\/p>\n

That explosion defined the latter part of the 20th<\/sup> Century. I grew up in the shadow of the Bomb (always with a capital B), the Arms Race, the Cold War, the Space Race and the nuclear power debate punctuated by the accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl\u2026 and let’s not forget a lot of pulp sci fi.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Of course, I had to go to Trinity.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The\u00a0day began very early in the morning in Alamagordo (NM) where a convoy formed in the high school football field parking lot \u2013 under the watchful eye of local law enforcement. We were in the middle of what must have been a hundred vehicles.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The convoy forms<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Did our rental agreement with\u00a0Thrifty Rental Cars\u00a0cover radiation damage? Too late to worry about that now.<\/p>\n

Our escort opened a side gate into the Missile Range and off we went \u2013 past any number of fascinating looking government buildings and towers that we had been warned not to photograph.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
One of the military installations near at White Sands Missile Base.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Oops!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Like a zebra crossing - with horns<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The first surprise \u2013 Oryx.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Well \u2013 Oryx signs. We didn’t see any actual beasts, although we are assured they are out there.<\/p>\n

Apparently many years ago, African Oryx were introduced to the Missile Range to provide sport for army hunters. Maybe the hunters were poor shots \u2013 because the beasts thrived to the point of almost becoming pests.<\/p>\n

They are still hunted (under license), but the closest we got was the warning sign and a few tracks near one of the bunkers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Trinity is in the northern part of the range \u2013 it took almost two hours to drive there \u2013 and whatever I might have expected, it wasn’t the almost carnival atmosphere that we found in the car park.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
In the car park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There were hundreds of people \u2013 and a constant stream of new arrivals from a second entry point. There were adults with kids and dogs \u2013 some had brought picnics. There was food for sale, souvenir t-shirts, music and of course portable ‘facilities’.\u00a0 It a lot of ways it reminded me of a music festival.<\/p>\n

Our first stop was the McDonald Ranch house.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Where the bomb was assembled for the test<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Robert Oppenheimer and his team assembled the “gadget” as it was called in the master bedroom. It was so low-tech! They used plastic taped to the windows to keep the dust out of bomb itself. That doesn’t seem right. The house is just two miles from ground zero \u2013 and survived the blast.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A low-tech approach to nuclear physics<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s such a humble building to hold such an important place in history.<\/p>\n

At the site proper, there is a barely discernible depression \u2013 not big enough to be called a crater. In the middle stands a black obelisk \u2013 marking the site of the tower from which the bomb was suspended and detonated 100 feet above the ground. All the remained of the tower after the blast was a bit of concrete and a few inches of twisted metal from its base.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Ground Zero<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The heat of the blast turned the surrounding desert sand to a sort of radioactive green glass. Most of that has been removed by the government. All over the site are warning signs not to remove any of this ‘trinitite’ \u2013 under pain of arrest and imprisonment. That didn\u2019t stop people from looking for it. I did find the tiniest piece \u2013 it was really pretty. For a moment I was tempted\u2026 but then I realized I had to catch two flights to get home again. I figured my chance of getting a piece of radioactive mineral through two airport scanners was pretty poor! I put it back where it belonged.<\/p>\n

The subject of radioactivity was never that far from my mind \u2013 but there really wasn’t any need to worry. According to the guide book, radiation levels are just ten times normal \u2013 and experts estimate that an hour spent at ground zero gives less radiation than a five hour airline flight.<\/p>\n

Of course \u2013 I spent more than an hour there, despite the fact that there really isn’t much to see or do. The military had a bomb casing (never used) on display \u2013 but I guess the fact that there’s nothing left is what the test was all about.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Unused Fatman bomb casing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

I have also been to the Peace Park in Hiroshima and I wept like a child as I viewed the relics in the museum. The Trinity Site isn’t like that. It’s more factual \u2013 figures about heat and energy generated. I found it surprisingly lacking in human emotion. I wonder if that’s because the site is controlled by the military?<\/p>\n

After the blast \u2013 the man most responsible for it – Robert Oppenheimer \u2013 is said to have quoted from an old Hindu text\u2026\u00a0\u00a0 “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”\u00a0\u00a0 I couldn’t find that quote in the Army’s official guidebook.<\/p>\n

I wonder what Oppenheimer would say if he could see the site now on Open Day \u2013 with kids and pet dogs, picnics and souvenirs and music.<\/p>\n

If nothing else, I think he’d have to agree that it’s a good thing so many people care enough to want to visit a place of such historic importance.<\/p>\n

We left the base glad we’d come \u2013 but also looking forward to some more cheerful activities.<\/p>\n

Come and visit again next week for Chapter Two of this Janet and John book \u2013 as we go looking for an even bigger bang.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  So \u2013Janet and John take a holiday (vacation for my American friends) and where do we go?\u00a0 The middle of nowhere of course\u2026. But not just any nowhere. A radioactive nowhere…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-my-travels"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2431\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}