The Day They Chose Ground Zero
On July 19, 1957, five U.S. Air Force officers and a cameraman gathered on a small patch of desert near Yucca Flat, Nevada. A hand-painted sign marked their spot: “Ground Zero. Population 5.” Overhead, two F-89 jets approached. One fired a nuclear missile carrying a 2-kiloton atomic warhead. Eighteen thousand five hundred feet above them, it exploded. The men, wearing no protective gear, stood directly beneath the detonation.
A Government Experiment in Broad Daylight
The event was arranged by Col. Arthur B. “Barney” Oldfield, public information officer for the Continental Air Defense Command. The U.S. Air Force wanted to show that low-yield atmospheric nuclear tests were “safe.” Two colonels, two majors, and one officer volunteered to stand at ground zero. The cameraman, George Yoshitake, did not volunteer. The idea was to prove that a small atomic weapon could be detonated in the sky without lethal fallout to those below.
The Explosion Above Their Heads
Footage shows the countdown, a white flash, and then silence. Seconds later comes the roar, followed by dust and wind. Science explains the delay: light travels faster than sound. The missile was detonated at 18,500 feet, roughly equivalent to one-fifteenth the yield of the Hiroshima bomb. The blast was meant to reassure the public that an airburst of this kind posed no serious danger.
What Became of Them
The men were later identified as Col. Sidney Bruce, Lt. Col. Frank Ball, Maj. Norman Bodinger, Maj. John Hughes, and Don Lutrel (or Luttrell). Cameraman Yoshitake survived and told The New York Times in 2010 that many who filmed tests later died of cancer, likely linked to radiation exposure. By the early 2000s, Bruce, Ball, Hughes, and Luttrell had all passed away. It is uncertain whether Bodinger lived beyond the 1990s.
The Hidden Cost of the “Safe” Test
Though the men at Yucca Flat may have avoided immediate harm, others were not so fortunate. Residents of nearby St. George, Utah, known as “downwinders,” were repeatedly exposed to radioactive fallout from Nevada tests. Over the years, more than 16,000 victims have received compensation exceeding $800 million under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. The 1957 test was intended as proof of safety, but history later showed that atmospheric detonations were far from harmless.
Five Air Force officers once stood beneath a live atomic blast.
On July 19, 1957, in the Nevada desert, they marked the spot with a sign reading Ground Zero, Population 5.
Above them, a jet launched a nuclear missile that detonated high in the sky…🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/RQ53WWcjES
— Fascinating True Stories (@FascinatingTrue) October 30, 2025