In the following video you can hear a few people talk about a nuclear test that was done close to a ship filled with military personnel. They wanted to see how people would react it a nuclear blast close by. Below you can read the transcript of this 4 minute video. As Douglas Hern said: “For a government to do that to its own people, is absolutely disgraceful. It’s outrageous.“

George Booker: “We were told very little about the day, except: don’t look in the flash.”

Interviewer: “Can you describe the day that the nuclear bomb was dropped?”

Douglas Hern: “Just before the sun came up, we were marshalled in groups.”

Ronald Bostwick: “We went out on the aircraft carrier, the Warrior. We were told to face the stern of the ship, the back of the ship

George Booker: “We were told to cover our eyes with our hands or bury your eyes in the crook of your arm, which we did

Douglas Hern: “To say it was frightening is an understatement. I think it shocked us all into silence. When the flash hit you, you could see the X-rays of your hands through your closed eyes.

Robert Fleming: “It was just sheer, brilliant light. I’ve never seen anything like it, never had done.”

Ronald Bostwick: “In the process of hands over your eyes, you saw every bone in your hand.”

David Hemsley: “If I were looking at you know, I would see all your bones. You would see all the blood vessels and everything.”

Douglas Hern: “Then the heat hit you. That was just as if someone my size had actually caught fire and then walked through me. It was an experience that was absolutely unearthly. It was so strange.”

David Hemsley: “Some of the lads would stand up, but about 30 odd seconds later, you’d get the blast and the blast would knock you flying.

Douglas Hern: “And there were guys with bruises and broken limbs. We couldn’t believe it.”

George Booker: “After a while, we were told that we could now stand and look up and watch the mushroom form.”

Douglas Hern: “You caught sight of the side of it at 90 degrees. It was that huge….It was practically above you.”

David Hemsley: “All I saw was this colossal fireball just going up, and thunder, lightning, you name it.”

Peter Barnard: “What I noticed most was the cloud moving away like that. You know, round and round and round. “

David Hemsley: “I think it was too much for some of them. Some of them were crying, asked for their mum. That was awful.

Douglas Hern: “There was no comprehension that anything like that could even exist. It was immense.

Ronald Bostwick: “It’s a sight to see, but I never want to see it again.

Douglas Hern: “Over a ten year test period there were 22,500 personnel. In 2013 we estimated that 18,500 of us had died. And in the reports that I had seen, nobody had died, practically of natural causes. They all died of leukemia, cancer, carcinomas of one sort or the other. For a government to do that to its own people, is absolutely disgraceful. It’s outrageous.” (1)

FOOTNOTES
(1) Veterans’ long battle for nuclear tests’ compensation