From Annie Jacobson’s
The Pentagon’s Brain: An Uncensored History of
DARPA, America’s Top Secret Research Agency; here is a description of
the scientists aboard
USNS Ainsworth observing the detonation of the
first thermonuclear device (H-bomb) “Castle Bravo” at Bikini Atoll:
The prerecorded voice of Barney O’Keefe came over the loudspeaker,
counting down the last seconds. Everyone fell silent. “Five. Four.
Three. Two. One.” Zero Hour. A flash of thermonuclear light, called the
Teller light, sprang to life as a flood of gamma radiation filled the
air. The presence of x-rays made the unseen visible. In the flash of
Teller light, Freedman—who was watching the scientists for their
reactions—could see their facial bones.
“In front of me…they were skeletons,” Freedman recalls. Their faces no
longer appeared to be human faces. Just “jawbones, and eye sockets. Rows
of teeth. Skulls.”
p.19-20
