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While in airforce service my father was briefly stationed in the South Pacific for "the tests". I wish I'd asked him more while he was alive. AFAIK he was one of the lucky ones, a long way upwind. He's the only person who ever told me about seeing a mushroom cloud eating up the horizon. I have sometimes worried if I might pay a price for that.

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My high school physics teacher was stationed at Eniwetok and he told us a lot about it. His job was photography, and he showed us some impressive photos of the explosions, including some showing lightning striking the top of the mushroom cloud.

He mentioned that his son was adopted, though whether that was by necessity or out of caution I don't know.

Anyway, he lived to an apparently healthy old age.

Thanks for sharing. Being a photographer must have meant some line of sight exposure I guess. My old man was a radio operator. As I understand it, they were investigation the effects on communications, so he got stuck in a shack listening to the EMP, guess he would have heard that lightning in his headphones.

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