Dying for Answers
Expendable Workers of the Cold War Nuclear Testing
by
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This is a true American History story about a critical time in our past, about which little is known, and nothing has been written.
It's the story about the COLD WAR between the United States and Russia. This book shows government mis-information, cover-ups, and deaths to the workers who were over-exposure to deadly nuclear radiation, always present in the work areas at the Nevada Test Site.
These brave workers, most of whom were WWII Veterans, appeared to be "expendable" because of our government's effort to beat Russia in what was considered, "a race we must win"!
When the atomic bomb ended a war of massive death and destruction after Hiroshima was bombed, the bomb appeared as a promise of peace to the entire world. It ended a costly and gruesome war, beginning a time of peace.
The atomic bomb looked too powerful and unethical ever to be used again. It was seen as the weapon that would put an end to the war.
However, with a bomb so powerful it could destroy humanity, people began to realize what their potential was! Aside from the advances in science and medicine, came the advances in weaponry, a deadly growth in man's upward trend. How in the world did a small group of people, transplanted to a tiny isolated community, deep in the mountains of northern New Mexico, conceive of a weapon that would forever change history? The nuclear age became a reality!
Our government approved 1,375 square miles in the Nevada desert to begin a nuclear testing program. Included in this area is also the super-secret Area 51, and Yucca Mountain, where nuclear waste is stored. Nuclear tests were conducted in different tunnel areas which had been driven back into the mountains in a remote area of the Nevada Test Site, specifically known as Area 12. A total of 928 documented nuclear tests were conducted at the NTS from 1951 to 1993. All tests were given a 'codename'. A codename was required for security reasons, because if they associated the nuclear detonation with the area itself, it then became 'classified', because it defined the location for certain events.
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About the Book
The book tells a gripping account and shares the critical decisions made by all agencies involved in the nuclear underground testing during the Cold War with Russia.
About the Author
Dorothy Clayton was born and raised in small town USA. She graduated from Texas High School in Texarkana, Texas and continued her education at Crosier Business College in Dallas, Texas. In 1961, Dorothy was hired by Bendix Field Engineering to set up office for NASA’s Apollo program. After a short stay in Cape Canaveral, Florida, the family moved to Las Vegas, Nevada where she soon found herself working with The Atomic Energy Commission at the Nevada Test Site as part of the Nuclear Weapons Testing Program. The Cold War was in full swing, and there was a patriotic and winning spirit by everyone working at the NTS. All work was extremely secret and certainly not discussed with anyone outside the NTS gates. Everyone knew the main task was to contrive “the perfect” weapon, certainly before the Soviet Union accomplished that task. Dorothy witnessed first hand, the devastation of those tests as workers began dying with all types of cancers. Little did she know that she would become part of an elite group of Americans know as the Veterans of the Cold War while others became casualties of the Cold War.