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Nuclear Test Film - Operation Ranger, Operation Buster/Jangle
31 kt · 1951 · Nevada Test Site · 2 Hiroshimas
A combined record of Operation Ranger (January–February 1951) and Operation Buster-Jangle (October–November 1951), the first tests on the U.S. mainland since Trinity. Ranger opened the Nevada Test Site with five air-dropped shots; Buster-Jangle added the first underground and surface cratering tests and the Desert Rock exercises that marched troops toward ground zero.
Under Exercise Desert Rock, soldiers were positioned in trenches as close as seven miles from detonations and then advanced toward the still-rising cloud to study the psychological and physical effects on troops. Many of these 'atomic veterans' developed cancers; their exposure records were classified for decades.