Hi John,

I checked out your web site, great job..!!

I thought I'd send you a couple more photos, the black and white was also in the 12 Nov 1951 life magazine. Both photos are of the 1 Nov 1951 shot "Dog," a 21.5 kiloton atomic bomb. We were sitting on the desert floor with no protection, the higher-ups were up on Lookout mountain in concrete reinforced bunkers, I remember we were all pissed about that..!!

The first test in the Buster-Jangle series of shots was named "Able" the Able shot was a dud, the high explosives detonated and blew the plutonium pit to bits and scattered it all over the area where we were working setting up the tests. As you know, the plutonium pit is the fuel for an atomic bomb. A chain reaction didn't occure. I found a document at Los Alamos, MM that states that the Gieger Counter reading was 720,000 counts per minute near ground zero after the Able shot. The AEC and DOE were so anxious to continue the tests they didn't inform us about the radiation hazard.

At Yucca Flat, sand and dust was always blowing, we breathed in radioactive particles left over from the detonations, we weren't provided any protective clothing; dust masks or anything; decontamination was a guy sweeping the dust off as we loaded into trucks to return to Camp Desert Rock. I remember I wore the same filthy clothes the whole time I was there in that hell hole. The DOD was particular though, they made us pick up every scrap of paper, cans; anything loose on the ground because they didn't want us to contaminate the atomic test site..!!

Our only daughter was born with birth defects in 1958 and died a few days after she was born, more likely than not because of my experience at the Nevada Test Site.

John DeBusk

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