13-year-old Barbara Kent (center) and her fellow campers play in a river near Ruidoso, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945, just hours after the Atomic Bomb detonation 40 miles away.
Barbara was the only person in the photo that lived to see 30 years old.
13-year-old Barbara Kent (center) and her fellow campers play in a river near Ruidoso, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945, just hours after the Atomic Bomb detonation 40 miles away.
Barbara was the only person in the photo that lived to see 30 years old.
She’s still alive I believe
These girls and other campers “came out to watch as the “snow” covered streets and grass and coated the top of the river that flowed alongside the campsite, she remembered.
‘We put it on our hands and were rubbing it on our face,’ she said. ‘We were all having such a good time in that river, trying to catch what we thought was snow. … There was a lot, let me tell you.'”
https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/downwinders-seek-acknowledgement-that-trinity-test-caused-suffering/article_617f9d01-299a-5d3d-b278-01b8fb5775a8.html
According to Kent, only two of the girls lived to reach 40.
I read The Day We Bombed Utah in the 80s. Testing in the 50s and wind that blew the wrong way. Sheep farmers and sheep that died standing up. Their wool coats falling off in one piece.
☹️☹️☹️
This is so so sad. How can you build an atom bomb and still be so stupid about your detonation site?
“How come you Americans haven’t investigated Trinity?” — noting that U.S. scientists have been involved investigating other nuclear events around the world, including Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Chernobyl and Fukushima.
Because the government would have to admit fault for this and God forbid we take care of our vulnerable populations- especially when it’s directly our fault they are suffering.
Odd how a government can kill so many people through decades of incompetence and face virtually no consequences. Not the side of the American Dream people were sold.
That govt do not care about us .
I had no idea any of that happened
Sad, but this needs to be shared
[interesting article](https://www.nti.org/atomic-pulse/downwind-of-trinity-remembering-the-first-victims-of-the-atomic-bomb/)
There is a really interesting documentary about this called Downwind. Highly recommend
Rad.
Jeze, the dose rates must have been insane for the stuff to still be hot. Lots of decay goes into B and alpha decays, but even the gamas must have been horrific
I knew as soon as I saw it. This is a chilling, chilling tale.
So how did the other four die? I get that the implication is that they died of radiation related cancers but I’m really not seeing any sources saying as much.
my high school science teacher grew up in nevada during the testing. when we studied the elements in earth science, she used a geiger counter to show us how radioactive she was. way more than a banana!
Went down the rabbit 🕳️ with this recently after the image appeared on the dark stories YouTube channel. Very interesting, Oppenheimer left out that bit!
Human testing?
My whole family is from this area and I grew up some of my childhood in Alamogordo, southeast New Mexico and west Texas. My great grandma had 12 children. They have all died from cancer, except one uncle. Each one got a very aggressive kind of cancer and died within a year or two of being diagnosed, my grandpa included. My dad has always blamed the bombs.
What did the others in the photo die of?
I grew up in SE Colorado. In the early 60’s, I remember not being able to go outside at recess because the wind had brought fallout from Nevada to our area.
But we still walked to and from school, and played outside after school.
I’m struggling, with an admittedly cursory google search, to find anything that backs up the claim that none of the people in the photo besides Barbara lived beyond 30.
humans suck
Am I wrong in that her hair looks absolutely fabulous, while camping in the 40s? Incredible!
They knew very little about the effects of atomic bombs at that point. Soldiers literally marched in after detonation. So sad but true.
Hey wtf
Move along…nothing to see here
Wtf
Ruidoso was aptly named. It means “noisy” in Spanish.
She was the only survivor of an accident on the way home.
Huh.
I remember spending some time out in Ruidoso as a kid when we lived in El Paso.
Atomic badass lady