The following dialog is real. The actors are real soldiers/guinea pigs, filmed as part of an ongoing propaganda series entitled The Big Picture.
"What seems to be the trouble, soldier? You look a little bit worried."
"Well, I am, chaplain. Just a little bit."
"Actually, there's no need to be worried, as the army has taken all of the necessary precautions to see that we're perfectly safe here."
"Sir, have you ever been out on one of these shots before?"
"Yes, I've had the opportunity to see a number of the atomic tests. I feel as a chaplain, it is my responsibility to be with my men."
"What's it like, chaplain?"
"First of all, one sees a very, very bright light, followed by a shock wave, and then you hear the shock wave, and then you hear the sound of the blast, and then it seems as though there is a minor earthquake. Then you look up and you see the fireball as it ascends up into the heavens. It contains all of the rich colors of the rainbow, and then as it rises up into the atmosphere, it turns a beautiful pale yellow, and then assembles into the mushroom. It's a wonderful sight to behold."
Sure. Right. Test Smokey was part of a long series of above-ground tests that were eventually banned by treaty. They have evocative names, a fine example of Army PR at its most effective: Ivy and Crossroad and Castle, Greenhouse, Tumbler-Snapper, Plumbob and Red Wing and Teapot, Upshot and Hardtack. These tests included the first test, Trinity, in New Mexico, as well as the Bikini Atoll tests and the 126 atmospheric tests that took place at the Nevada Test Site between 1951 and 1962.
Luckily for us, the U.S. Army saw fit to film these tests in those dark days when atomic weapons were, for all intents and purposes, another facet of our fierce national pride that we had conquered the atom to protect ourselves and our interests from those dastardly communists. You see the men arriving and setting up a small city of tents. Specialized radiation detection groups sign out Geiger counters and other equipment, and long trains debark smiling infantrymen who try their best not to look into the camera lens. The film features some terrifying shots of actual nuclear detonations, buildings and equipment flattened by the heat wave of the nuclear blast, and finally, men with no protective clothing whatsoever (with not even a bandana to cover their mouths) walking over the still smoking ground zero. Pretty chilling stuff. Did they understand what they were doing? Did the Army know what would happen to these men? Maybe they did!
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