Atomic soldiers: American victims of nuclear experiments

by Howard L. Rosenberg

"A timely and unsparing account of how U.S. nuclear test policies were guided and executed in the early years of the atomic age. At its most compelling, Atomic Soldiers tells what became of a man who was made a pawn in a long-ago dress rehearsal for nuclear war."-Alan Cranston, U.S. Senator

During the summer of 1957, Army Corporal Russell Jack Dann was marched to a desert hilltop in Nevada and ordered to watch while an atomic device four times the size of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima was detonated just 4,500 yards away. The story of what that mission did to Dann, and to nearly 300,000 other American soldiers who were exposed to low-level radiation during the 1950s nuclear test blasts, is the focus of this astonishing report. Without hair, or teeth, deaf in one ear, a sterile quadriplegic with leukopenia, Dann is waging a losing battle for compensation from the Veteran's Administration which refuses to acknowledge the connection between nuclear radiation and his disabilities. One of the century's most appalling horror stories, Atomic Soldiers raises questions about both atomic weapons and nuclear power that are crucial to the future of our society.

"Anyone who starts this book will not put it down before reading it from cover to cover. The reader meets in flesh and blood the young military men who became guinea pigs and finally victims of one of the saddest misuses of government in history."-John Gofman, M.D., Ph.D., Chairman, Committee for Nuclear Responsibility

Genres: History, Nonfiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1981

Reviews

[Zeke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book follows the story of Russell Jack Dann (Russ), a paratrooper who was sent from North Carolina to Nevada along with thousands of other soldiers to view atomic weapons tests in the 1950s. More specifically he was involved in Smoky, a large nuclear device that was detonated in 1957. The book goes into more details of Operation Plumbbob and the other tests that were done in the Pacific, but focuses primarily on those at the Nevada Test Site. A TV movie was made in 1989, based on this book called "Nightbreaker" but I have not seen it. It seems like it is hard to find. I looked up Russ online and was sad to hear that he passed away in 1999. There is an article about him that you can still find online from the Albert Lea Tribune that mentions more things about his life.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

You think a government could never do something like that... and then you read some history where it happened. Of course, the entire world was still figuring out the capability and dangers of nuclear power. Thankfully our predecessors did this "research" so we don't have to do this today. It also made me appreciate some of the NBC drills I read about and performed in my early Army days.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very informative on things rarely spoken of in the American Public.