num_pages: 288
description: A real-life version of Catch-22-–the subversively funny memoir of a young army draftee’s experiences during the H-bomb tests of the 50s. In late '55, 22-year-old private Michael Harris earned an assignment to Eniwetok Atoll, ground zero of US Joint Task Force 7’s Pacific Proving Ground. There, on a desolate stretch of the South Pacific, he was part of a grand experiment called Operation Redwing. The biggest &amp; baddest of the atmospheric nuclear weapons test regimes, Redwing was one of those strange Cold War phenomena that mixed saber rattling with mad science while overlooking the cataclysmic human, geopolitical &amp; ecological effects. But mostly, it just messed with guys’ heads. Meet the members of Harris’s new nuclear family:·Major Maxwell, who put safety 1st, 2nd &amp; 3rd–-except when he didn't. Berko, the wisecracking Brooklyn Dodgers fan who was forced to cope with the H-bomb &amp; his mother’s cookies. Tony, who thought military spit &amp; polish plus uncompromising willpower made him an exception. Carl Duncan, who clung to his girlfriend's photos &amp; a dangerous secret. Major Vanish who did just that. With The Atomic Times, Harris welcomes readers into the company of Operation Redwing's men, where the local lexicon of f-words included gems like “fallout” &amp; “fireball.” As he tells it, daily life at ground zero could have been scripted by a committee comprising Franz Kafka, Sergeant Bilko, Hubert Selby &amp; Joseph Heller-–all working within the constraints of the peacetime army’s unofficial modus operandi, “Hurry up &amp; wait.” When not playing radioactive guinea pig, Harris’ jobs included editing the base’s daily newspaper, cheekily named The Atomic Times, whose logo was a mushroom cloud &amp; whose motto was “All the News That Fits, We Print.” In a distinctive narrative voice, Harris describes his h-bomb year with unforgettable imagery &amp; insight into how isolation &amp; isotopes change men for better &amp; for worse.
language: English
title: The Atomic Times: My H-Bomb Year at the Pacific Proving Ground
titlecomplete: The Atomic Times: My H-Bomb Year at the Pacific Proving Ground
genres: Biography, War, Politics, Memoir, Nonfiction, Science, Autobiography, Military Fiction, History, World War II
ratings_count: 994
publisher: Presidio Press/Ballantine Books (NY)