Speaker 1: This is Lei Habib and this is Our American Stories,
Speaker 1: the show where America is the star and the American people.
Speaker 1: And to search for the Our American Stories podcast, go
Speaker 1: to the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 1: From nineteen forty five to nineteen ninety two, the United
Speaker 1: States conducted one thousand and fifty four nuclear tests as
Speaker 1: a part of the nuclear arms race with Soviet Russia.
Speaker 1: Many of these tests were conducted in Nevada, where soldiers
Speaker 1: were sent to be tested on by military scientists and
Speaker 1: upper brass trying to figure out the psychological and health
Speaker 1: effects brought on by the use of nuclear weapons. One
Speaker 1: of those soldiers was Toby Madrid. Here's listener Richard Muniez,
Speaker 1: who worked with Toby with the story of this atomic Marine.
Speaker 1: The only two people I ever heard this story as
Speaker 1: myself and his son Jr. As far as Jr knows,
Speaker 1: he never told his story to anyone else. Toby was
Speaker 1: in the Marines and in nineteen fifty one to nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty seven out in nevadapproving grounds. It was a small camp.
Speaker 1: It was called Camp Desert Rock, and it was barrys
Speaker 1: and mess halls and things like that. But it had
Speaker 1: one mission, one purpose. It was to support military personnel
Speaker 1: while tests involved in the atomic bomb were conducted. Remember
Speaker 1: sure if Toby to Madrid. We were in his office
Speaker 1: if you can call a broom closet with a light
Speaker 1: and a desk an office. He had a cup of
Speaker 1: coffee in his hands, and he has feet upon the desk.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was totally laid back attitude, but I
Speaker 1: could see the tension in his job on. The funny
Speaker 1: part about it was he wasn't looking at me, and
Speaker 1: he wasn't looking at Jr. He was looking at the wall.
Speaker 1: I had this distinct impression that if he bothered to
Speaker 1: look at either one of us would never hear the story.
Speaker 1: He said, they stuck us out in the middle of nowhere,
Speaker 1: and if you ever been out that section of Nevada,
Speaker 1: it's pretty much the middle of nowhere. And went on
Speaker 1: to say that they told us we were to be
Speaker 1: part of an atomic bomb test. Now, the name of
Speaker 1: these tests that I looked up later on, it was
Speaker 1: called the Desert Rock Exercises, and this is what we
Speaker 1: call Desert Rock for Operation Tumbler Snapper. Well, he said
Speaker 1: they took him out there and they were there for
Speaker 1: several different several days beforehand, they Chrieff said, they took
Speaker 1: him out there to have the trenches they built, defensive
Speaker 1: fortified positions, all that stuff. Now, the idea was they
Speaker 1: would be able to stand in these or squat at them,
Speaker 1: provide some cover. And then he said, I remembered as
Speaker 1: we were digging, there were trucks carrying tanks and jeeps
Speaker 1: and things like that. Some of the vehicles were towing
Speaker 1: artillery pieces out there, and some of the marinacy was
Speaker 1: with went out with them, and they came back to
Speaker 1: saying how they sort of dummies that were in uniform
Speaker 1: and some of them were standing up. So we're lying
Speaker 1: down that kind of stuff. Now, I went out to
Speaker 1: research a little bit more and it seems to be
Speaker 1: that he was out there for what they called a
Speaker 1: shot Dog nuclear test, and this happened on May first,
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty two, and involved the dropping of what we
Speaker 1: call a Mark seventh bomb. Now, the Air Force was
Speaker 1: doing the drops and they were using either B fifties
Speaker 1: or B forty five to do these. So he said
Speaker 1: the day of the test, they got them up, they
Speaker 1: had breakfast, and they took him out there to the site,
Speaker 1: and they got in their trenches and what they were
Speaker 1: told to do. They were told to crouch below the
Speaker 1: rim of the trench, had their faces down, their eyes
Speaker 1: closed when the blasts happened. Now, they would get plenty
Speaker 1: of warning beforehand that this was going to happened, you know,
Speaker 1: they give him a warning the bomber to hear the
Speaker 1: bombers coming in. Stood like that, and they needed to
Speaker 1: be doing this, she said. Along around eight thirty or so,
Speaker 1: they heard the aircraft coming in, and that's when the
Speaker 1: warning happened. So they climbed to the trenches. They got
Speaker 1: in the position they were told to get into. He
Speaker 1: had said he was crouched down, he had his head down,
Speaker 1: his eyes closed, and even with this, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: he said there was light. He seriously felt that he
Speaker 1: had actually seen the blast of the bomb. Now what
Speaker 1: he had witnessed here was the debtinish of a nineteen
Speaker 1: kiloton bomb, and it exploded about one thousand meters above
Speaker 1: the ground. And then he went on to say that
Speaker 1: the light faded, but as it faded, there was thunder
Speaker 1: like I had never heard before. And then there was wind.
Speaker 1: I mean, the wind just came up and it was
Speaker 1: so intense that brocked him back against the back of
Speaker 1: his wrench. And then the wind reverse directions came back
Speaker 1: and pushed him face forward into into the front of
Speaker 1: the trench. And so then the second a few seconds
Speaker 1: later came in order to leave the trenches. So they
Speaker 1: climbed out. And as he put it, we've all seen
Speaker 1: movies of the motionroom cloud an atomic bomb generates, he says,
Speaker 1: seen it in real life. It was like it just
Speaker 1: wasn't real. You know, you can't you can't wrap your
Speaker 1: mind around something like this. And you sit there and
Speaker 1: look at and say, something humans built generated this. And
Speaker 1: he said it was already towering up into the sky,
Speaker 1: and he compared it something that was like a cloud
Speaker 1: that was boating up from Hell. And they told him
Speaker 1: to start walking forward, and they did. He went on
Speaker 1: to relate that as they moved along, he started seeing
Speaker 1: some of those things have been so a few days before, like,
Speaker 1: for one location member seeing the Sherman tanking, he said,
Speaker 1: look like the Sherman tanks had been swatted aside by
Speaker 1: some giant's hand. And then they started encountering some of
Speaker 1: these dummies have been set up. Some were almost burnt
Speaker 1: up entirely. Others were smoldering, so they kept walking. They
Speaker 1: got within about three quarters of a mile of where
Speaker 1: the bomb had exploded, and they stopped him. They turned
Speaker 1: him around and marched him back out there, and he
Speaker 1: said he remember hearing somebody saying it had gotten it
Speaker 1: was too hot to go much further, and well that
Speaker 1: basically man was too radioactive. They marched to a certain
Speaker 1: site there they swept them off, hold them off, and
Speaker 1: he said, it's actually surprised by how much dust came
Speaker 1: off of him in his up latoon and really keep
Speaker 1: the uniform he had been warning, he watered it up
Speaker 1: and threw it away. Like I said, that's the only
Speaker 1: time that we know of, that's myself and Jr. That
Speaker 1: Toby actually ever talked about the day of the bomb.
Speaker 1: A lot of people wounded up, getting sick and dying
Speaker 1: because of exposure to fallout. The thing is, I don't
Speaker 1: think a lot of people knew what they were headed for.
Speaker 1: They were at a pivotal moment to history, and they
Speaker 1: didn't realize it. I know the chef didn't. And this
Speaker 1: is why we routinely celebrate our veterans on this show
Speaker 1: because Our soldiers serve in so many distinct and dangerous ways,
Speaker 1: and you just heard about one, the story of Tobby Madrid,
Speaker 1: the Atomic Marine. Here on our American story Folks, if
Speaker 1: you love the stories we tell about this great country,
Speaker 1: and especially the stories of America's rich past, know that
Speaker 1: all of our stories about American history, from war to innovation,
Speaker 1: culture and faith, are brought to us by the great
Speaker 1: folks at Hillsdale College, a place where students study all
Speaker 1: the things that are beautiful in life and all the
Speaker 1: things that are good in life. And if you can't
Speaker 1: cut to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their
Speaker 1: free and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot du
Speaker 1: to learn more.