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 [Trinity nuclear test]. 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 [Trinity nuclear test]. Barbara was the only person in the photo that lived to see 30 years old.](https://meta.cdns.win/en/2024/12/13-year-old-Barbara-Kent-center-and-her-fellow-campers-play-in-860x592.webp)
At 5:30 AM on July 16, 1945, thirteen-year-old Barbara Kent was on a camping trip with her dance teacher and 11 other students in Ruidoso, New Mexico, when a forceful blast threw her out of her bunk bed onto the floor.
Later that day, the girls noticed what they believed was snow falling outside. Surprised and excited, Kent recalls, the young dancers ran outside to play. “We all thought ‘Oh my gosh,’ it’s July and it’s snowing … yet it was real warm,” she said. “We put it on our hands and were rubbing it on our face, we were all having such a good time … trying to catch what we thought was snow.”
Years later, Kent learned that the “snow” the young students played in was actually fallout from the first nuclear test explosion in the United States (and, indeed, the world), known as Trinity. Of the 12 girls that attended the camp, Kent is the only living survivor. The other 11 died from various cancers, as did the camp dance teacher and Kent’s mother, who was staying nearby.
Diagnosed with four different types of cancers herself, Kent is one of many people in New Mexico unknowingly exposed to fallout from the explosion of the first atomic bomb. In the years following the Trinity test, thousands of residents developed cancers and diseases that they believe were caused by the nuclear blast.
Fallout flakes drifted down that day and for days afterward. “We thought [it] was snow,” Kent says. “[But the strange thing, instead of being cold like snow, it was hot.”](https://www.dannydutch.com/post/carmadean-s-dance-camp-a-summer-in-the-shadow-of-the-atomic-bomb)
The flakes were fallout from the Manhattan Project’s Trinity test, the world’s first atomic bomb detonation. It took place at 5:29 a.m. local time atop a hundred-foot steel tower 40 miles away at the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range, in Jornada del Muerto valley.
The site had been selected in part for its supposed isolation. [In reality, thousands of people were within a 40-mile radius, some as close as 12 miles away.](https://www.dannydutch.com/post/carmadean-s-dance-camp-a-summer-in-the-shadow-of-the-atomic-bomb) Yet all those living near the bomb site weren’t warned that the test would take place. [Nor were they evacuated beforehand or afterward, even as radioactive fallout continued to drop for days.](https://www.dannydutch.com/post/carmadean-s-dance-camp-a-summer-in-the-shadow-of-the-atomic-bomb) {Credits: DannyDutch1}
More like r/Damnthatssad 🙁
Yikes… Richard Feinman, the noted scientist and his family that spent time in the nuclear lab in new Mexico all developed cancer as well…
Was anyone compensated for this tragedy?
There’s a really good documentary called Downwind about people who were affected by the various testing and the fallout.
Far worse atrocities were committed in the Marshall Islands in the name of atomic research. Whole communities on various islands were exposed to deadly doses of radiation. I’ve been to Nagasaki and I’ve visited Bikini atoll. Radiation sickness from the Castle Bravo detonation exposed over 600 people to extreme doses of radiation on neighboring islands. The radiation traveled around the globe and into the southern hemisphere. It even reached the United States. What was supposed to be a 5 megaton explosion turned into a 15 megaton horror. We knew so little.
We went to paradise and blew it up. There are still several islands that are uninhabitable.
So they were pretty much test subjects?
Interesting read: https://thebulletin.org/premium/2023-07/collateral-damage-american-civilian-survivors-of-the-1945-trinity-test/
The scientists absolutely knew about post explosion radiation. They also knew that the bombs they created would be put into use, and therefore had to be tested. This is an example of official lethargy in preparing for and dealing with the consequences of this test. Atomic Weapons are now a reality. Mankind has the power to end everything. It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when.
They should have issued a heatwave or a weather alert for the radiation radius and not let people in.
Interesting that the photograph doesn’t show signs of radiation damage.
So sad.
Did the government ever apologize for this grave violation of human rights?
Then how did Oppenheimer himself and others who at the site survive for many years? Sure they were in a shelter but not for long after the successful blast…
Just recently watched the documentary The Conqueror: Hollywood Fallout. Highly recommend if you’re wanting to learn more about this.
Thanks Oppenheimer
Horrific
US govt doing nasty things to the population again. Native Americans. Manhatten project. Tuskegee study. Plenty of times US govt didn’t give a shit about the people
How much was known about the issues with nuclear devices? Would people have taken warnings seriously? Did people know the hazards of radiation then?
To those interested, watch Cold War on Netflix.
I believe this screenshot is from that show.
I’m so confused by her torso area. Are those her knees? What is going on there lol
I don’t remember this bit in ‘Oppenheimer’
These are those Good Old Days some people long for
I still do not understand why a human needs to make weapons to kill other **innocent** humans
Too bad capitalism is allowed to live as a cancer causing unregulated harm to the body of people and life itself.
This never should have been allowed. Regulations could have protected citizens.
They needed SPF 100k that day. Bummer deal. :/
Reposts and bots
Wow, what a chilling story – makes you think about the hidden costs of progress. Stay safe out there, everyone.
“Snow” in July… talk about a hot take on history!
Is it just me? I can’t figure out the angle of her body. It almost looks like she has 2 stumps for legs. Such a sad story.
u/bot-sleuth-bot