Evening star., 1953-03-18
The Latest in Nevada
YUCCA FLAT, Nevada.

ne LATEST m NeN000
YUCCA FLAT, Nevada
Three major objectives have been well
served by yesterdays grinnly beautiful atomic
explosion at Yucca Flat in the Nevada Proving
Ground The first of these is to promote
progress of a sort calculated to insure American
supremacy in the field of nuclear ornaments.
The second is to educate and train our ground
forces in the manner required by the revolu-
tionary military changes implicit in the con-
tinuing development of A-weapons. And the
third is to stimulate the Nations interest in
civilian defense, an interest that is sadly
deficient right now.
AS far as our nuclear scientists are con-
cerned, the latest Nevada test is significant
chiefly for what it promises to do in helping
the United States to harness the atom more
effectively for military ends, and presumably
for long-term peacetime ends as well.
The fact that the new detonation released
energy equivalent to "only" about $4,000 tons of
TNT-or 5000 tons less than the crude Hiro-
Shima bomb-may seem to some to represent
form of retrogreSsion instead Of progress
Actually, however, it reflects a situation in
which the Nation, by learning to employ f1ssion-
able material with increasing economy and
efficiency, is manufacturing "ittle" and "big"
A-weapons (nany of them several times
deadlier than the Hiroshima destroyer, de-
signed to meet wide variety Of tactical and
strategical needs in the event of an all-out war.
Such war; because of nuclear ornaments,
would be strikingly different from wars Of the
past. But ground forces would continue to be
a key factor in it unless an exchange of hydro
gen bombs had the effect of wiping out whole
nations and destroying the ability of the
belligerents to keep on shooting at each other.
rIan%r ir S,aaN ,nAfr,oI L.
but land armies as of today-still are military
factors of prime Importance. Hence, the
wisdom of the troop participation in yester-
days atomic test This participation now
involves the stationing of officers and men in
trench positions only 2 miles from ground zero,
the point of explosion. It involves, too, post
explosion combat maneuverS. In the new series
of Nevada detonations, upward of $1,000 GIs-
far more than ever before-will thus come into
rather close contact with A-weaponS, and the
experience, since it will tend to reduce the fear
of those weapons, and since it will include
special training in atomic battle, Is bound to
be beneficial.
Certainly, the greater the spread of that
kind of experience among commanders and
throughout the ranks, the better equipped the
United States Army will be psychologically and
otherwise-to cope with any future world
emergency.
BY the same token, it is salutary thing
that hundreds of representatives of civilian
defense organizations in all parts Of the coun-
try have taken an active part, close observers,
in yesterdays test. They have seen, heard and
felt the fearsome explosion. And they have
viewed from a distance (highly dangerous
radioactivity prevented closeup look) some
of the grim resuts-one typical American home
leveled to the ground, another shattered by
major structural damage.
This experience they will now take back
to their home communities, and most. Of them
can be counted on to carry on good missionary
work in behalf of having the cities, States and
Federal Government wake up to the fact that
not nearly enough is being done to prepare
against the possibility Of catastrophe atomic
attacks.
All tliS-civilian defense, Army training
and the constant effort to improve the Nations
atomic arsenal-makes clear that such prefer
natural detonations as yesterdays are not set
off just for the fun of it, or for the show. Each
of them is a deadly serious undertaking, with
deadly serious purposes behind it.
The chief Of those purposes, of course, is
to safeguard the soil and freedom of America.
Whether in Nevada or at Eniwetok that is the
real meaning, the basic meaning, of every one
of our nuclear explosions.