The First Atomic Bomb

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On July 16, 1945 at 5:29 a.m. Mountain War Time the first atomic bomb was exploded 214 kilometers (133 miles) due north of where I live now. The bearing is 355 degrees true, so in my book this qualifies as due north.

My grandfather Joseph Percivil Garland was living in El Paso, Texas at the time. It would be another 3-1/2 years before I would arrive on the scene. My grandfather was awake early that July morning, and he saw the sky light up brilliantly. The military issued a press release later that morning saying that a munitions storage depot had exploded.

My father Benjamin Hadley Garland worked on the Manhattan Project, but the secrecy was so high that he did not realize what they were working on until the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan in early August 1945.

An odd bit of fate is that originally the test explosion was going to be held near Blythe, California. But General Leslie Groves decided not to use the California range because he didn’t want to have to deal with the base’s cantankerous commander General George S. Patton.

Now it is 63 years later. I own a small piece of the Trinitite that was created when the explosion sucked up desert sand into the mushroom cloud. I have read that it was 10,000 times hotter than the sun in there, and when the sand settled back on the ground it had been melted into a greenish glass.

For many years there was an active effort to eliminate nuclear weapons, but within the last few years India, Israel, Pakistan, and North Korea have all gotten the bomb. Of course France, England, Russia, and America already had the bomb. It appears that Iran is not too far behind. What a disaster for mankind. Global warming will be seen as a very minor problem if one brand of religious fanatic decides to use the bomb in anger against another brand of religious fanatic.
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