Evening star., 1955-07-10
BY ELTON C. FAY


Now he has lived with it for
nervous decade, watching its mount
ing power and numbers dominate
political decisions, remake the art
of war and threaten him each day
with extinction.
The United States made the
weapon first because 1t won q race
with Nazi scientists. For i've years
the weapon belonged exclusively to
the United States. No one expected
it would remain forever exclusive,
but Russia learned its secrets far
faster than was forecast.
Today. nuclear weapons exist by
the thousands, q family 50 diver
sified that one member can be used
merely to blow out an enemy air
field or another to vaporize the big
gest city.
Their blasts can wipe out great
masses Of humanity In an instant
and threaten countless others with
lingering death from radioactivity,
spreading out over thousands of
square miles. They can unleash
heat greater than that Of the sun
itself.
A Wognerion Note
The atomic weapon age opened
at Alamogordo, N. Mex, on July
I6, 1945, like q Wagnerian opera.
Pitch darkness, storm, lightning,
pealing thunder greeted the band
Of men who came TO the desert at
night TO test their weapon. It was
an omen for the anxious decade
ahead.
The band Of scientists and mill
tary men who gathered on o lonely
corner Of the sprawling Alamogordo
Air Base, 40 miles southeast of
Albuquerque, was small by COM
parison with the tens of thousands
who were to conduct tests in later
years. but their names now are
famous.
Heading the Manhattan Dis
trict." the very name Of which was
a high secret, was Maj. Gen. Leslie
r. Groves, with Brig. Gen. Thomas
F. Farrell as his deputy. Both were
Army engineers. The command was
military. but much Of the personnel
was civilian-men like Robert OPP
penheimer, vannevar Bush, r. F
Bacher, James Conant, Enrico
Fermi, Alvin C. Graves, and K. T.
Bainbridge. Since 1910, these sci
entists had been working toward
the goal Of creating explosion by
f1ssion Of atoms.
Now all the years Of calculations.
of theories, Of laboratory tests, OF
refining uranium, Of building huge
and secret plants were past. The
moment for proof had arrived.
Four nights before, in an old
ranch house, the scientists had
started putting together the COM
ponents of the first bomb, the ex-
plosive charge, the rudimentary
trigger. What they assembled rep
resented a 50 billion Government
investment.
The First Shot
Two days before scheduled shot
time, they had hoisted the bulky,
instrument-festooned gadget to the
top of a steel tower. The time set
for the detonation "S-hour" (shot
hour was 4 am, but when that
hour arrived a violent thunder
storm was whipping the area. The
timetable was reset to $50 am.
The closest observers were sta
toned in a timber and earth dug
out almost six miles from the bomb
site, where the controls for the test
were situated. At another point.
nearly 10 miles distant, Gen.
Groves, DR.. Bush and some Of the
other top officials took their stand.
The storm had rumbled away
into the distance. The count-down
began, first measured In minutes,
then shrinking to seconds. Ten
sion gripped the men who had built
the bomb.
A timer chanted the moments
over a NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. five
seconds four three :.
two NOW!"
Then came q swiftly mounting.
unearthly white light, the punch of
a racing shock wave and the grum-
bling roar Of the explosion.
Success! Success that exceeded
estimatesl
"reminiscences
What did some Of those atomic
pioneers think about In that mo-
ment Of victory?
Gen. Groves, now retired, says:
my first reaction when the ex-
plosion occurred was naturally one
of pleased relief. But I did not
as did most Of my scientific asso-
ciates, I believe-regard it in any
way as the climax. 1t was more of
o well, we're over that hurdle feel
ing After q moment Of interchang-
ing congratulations with DR.. Bush
and DR.. Conant and a few others,
I turned my attention to the i'm
mediate problem of making certain
that the fallout danger was under
control and that the press reports
Of the explosion were localized to
the maximum extent possible.
Gas to my retrospective views. I
doubt If they are much different
than my feelings at the time.
feel now as I did then. that the
means of waging war had been
revolutioniZed and that war would
now be too terrible for any nation
to engage in If its enemy had
atomic weapons in quantity and
the means to deliver them"
Gen. Farrell, now also retired.
remembers:
II do not expect 10 be 80 moved
again until I approach the gates
Of heaven. The scientists who
knew all about the atom were as
deeply affected as we unlearned
ones to whom all this was new and
strange.
IT thought, we now have a sure
and repid means of ending the war