Event Horizon – The Atomic Marine – Revisited – William R. Ablan, Police Mysteries

An Event Horizon is a term associated with Astrophysics, specifically black holes. It’s that point you cross when moving towards a black hole, where’s there’s no return. To break away from it would mean being able to move faster than that of the speed of light. And since nothing can go faster than light, there’s no getting out.

**Sheriff Toby Madrid as a then young Marine. After fighting in Korea, he found himself with a part in Atomic Bomb tests.**

In my next novel, Event Horizon, I use the term to describe those events in life where there’s no going back. In some cases, there’s a conscious decision made such as deciding to murder someone. Or they can be thrust upon us through no fault of our own.

In the case of my fictional character, Sheriff Tony Madril, it was the A-Bomb tests during the 1950s. It’s established in the very first novel of the Lawman series that he has Cancer. During the course of the novels, it gets progressively worse.

He has suspicions that it came from the A-bomb tests. As he puts it, “Yes, I was there. But then I’ve smoked for years.”

Sheriff Madril is willing to give his government and country he loves the benefit of a doubt. He’s having a problem coming to grips with the idea that he was what amounted to a lab rat in a game between superpowers. He’ll be forced to face this terrifying concept in Book Five – Internal Affairs.

The A-Bomb tests occurred during the 1950 and early 60s at a place called Camp Desert Rock, Neveda. Its near enough to Las Vegas that there’s a famous picture taken that shows swimmers enjoying the sun around a swimming pool in Las Vegas while a mushroom cloud from an A-Bomb test hovers in the distance.

The tests were seized upon by the locals as a nice tourist attraction and a way to increase tourism.

**Famous photo of swimmers watching a bomb test in the distance.**

Camp Desert rock was a facility far from civilization. Getting there was such a commute that it demanded a live in staff. This meant establishing barracks, administrative offices, homes for families, schools for children, PXs, and so it. So, while the Sheriff had a one-time exposure, there are families and soldiers who went through this several times, even though they were “Far” from the actual blasts.

The character of Tony Madril is based on former Sheriff Toby Madrid of Conejos County, Colorado. Toby was part of the A-Bomb tests held near Camp Desert Rock in Nevada during the 50s. He and several hundred Marines were taken out to the site, a bomb was dropped, and while the mushroom was still billowing up into the sky, they were ordered to leave their trenches and bunkers and move towards ground zero.

I told his story on this blog, and the local newspapers in the San Luis Valley where he lived and as a story on Our American Stories. I’ve long wanted to tell his story in my novels and hope to make people aware of what happened back then.

The idea was to test the effectiveness of fighting men and equipment in a nuclear environment.

The hardest part of the test is the aftereffects. The incidents of cancer among the people there seems to be much higher than the general population. Of course, it’s all about statistics. If you look at the statistics Vs. the general population at the time, it seems almost normal. X amount of people living at the time would develop cancer is what’s saying.

**If my homework is correct, then this is near where the test was Sheriff Madrid was part of was conducted. This was an air explosion, so the marker may be correct.**

But if you treat them as a separate data point and look at the veterans who suffered from cancer that “those who were there vs those that weren’t,” then the ratio is much higher.

Even civilians suffered. People in the area had fallout come down on them and developed cancers. In my talk concerning the Atomic Marine is a post from a gentleman who says his parents lived down range from the tests and they developed cancer. A very frightening testimony to fallout has to do with the Trinity explosion and how fallout came down on a small campsite some distance away. The children, not knowing what it might be, thought it was snow and went out into it.

There’s a suspicion that fallout from the various bombs might have had a hand in the cancers developed by the John Wayne, Agnes Moorehead and Susan Hayward, as well as other members of the cast and crew the movie The Conqueror (widely regarded as the WORST film Wayne ever made). Bob Ford, the director, was concerned about fall out in the area. The Government assured him the area was clear. It was later learned that the reverse was true, and because the information was classified and to the contrary, they were given false information.

In an interview, Wayne said one of his fondest memories was playing baseball after the shooting was over. He recalls Susan running the bases barefoot and kicking up dust as she ran. Little did anyone dream that dust would condemn them.

While very few of the members of the cast and crew of that movie were poster children for good health and no doubt contributed to their cancers, the incidence of cancer among them matches closely what was seen by the soldiers at the tests.

And God knows what damage has been done to the DNA of the Soldiers, Marines, and Civilians impacted by the tests. What future issues might we see in terms of birth defects, family cancers, and so forth?

So, what got me thinking about this?

First, I talk to a lot of veterans. Many bear the effects of things like agent orange and the likes. Then, I discovered Ft. Mcclellan, Alabama, where I went to Basic, Military Police AIT, and MPI school was used for the test of different gases and etc. It was so bad; the place was a superfund site.

One frightening story I recall is when I went to MPI school. Several of my classmates from MP school had been assigned there and I wanted to visit at least some of them. Ann P was still there, and she and I went out to supper. We got to talking and I recall Ann telling me that their barracks had tested positive for chemical agents. I saw the look in her eyes. It was fear and concern. The agents were supposed to be low and in non-dangerous quantities. But like her, I can’t help but wonder what the long-term effects of low quantity exposure does to people. Perhaps that’s why it’s a question asked on VA forms (of course I’m just outside the time where I could be included in any compensation).

While it has nothing to do with Camp Desert Rock tests, it’s an example of some of the things our troops live with.

Another is a picture my buddy Jr Madrid (the Sheriff’s son and the man RJ is based on) sent me. It shows him and his three favorite cousins. One is Dale who flew Apache helicopters in the Gulf (and who might have helped save mine and a host of other butts – I owe him a beer), an old classmate of mine, Hazel, and his cousin Tony.

Tony passed away last year of Brain Cancer. Now, here’s the kicker. Tony, as a child, lived with his parents and his father was in the military. Guess where they lived.

Camp Desert Rock.

Makes you wonder.

Places like Desert Rock are still used, not as bomb test sites, but to test equipment and weapons no one should know anything about.

But in the soil, there lurks the stuff future nightmares might be made of.

For more Information, check out:

Clock ticking on A bomb test Vets. Click here for more info.

National Association of Atomic Veterans

Camp Desert Rock bomb tests

Interview with Dave Crete

Cancer among cast and crew of The Conqueror

Article from Scientific American concerning “Downwinders” from the A Bomb tests

Want to visit the bomb sites? Check this out.