How I learned to start worrying and hate the bomb.

July 26, 2014 3:15 PM

Diary of an atomic bomb technician. "I will not be responsible for my actions if you keep me here in this programme."
posted by bitmage (19 comments total)

That was a great story. Thanks for posting.
posted by Uncle Grumpy at 3:49 PM on July 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

.
posted by Rash at 4:00 PM on July 26, 2014

Ki..y was here, via Pynchon, who also knew bombs.
posted by ovvl at 4:04 PM on July 26, 2014

Yeah v. interesting
posted by GallonOfAlan at 4:26 PM on July 26, 2014

A great read, very nicely written.
posted by maggiemaggie at 4:31 PM on July 26, 2014

That was an excellent read. Thanks for posting it.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 4:37 PM on July 26, 2014

Very powerful. Thank you.
posted by basicchannel at 4:40 PM on July 26, 2014

beautiful.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 4:51 PM on July 26, 2014

Oh god, the almost-throwaway reference to the demon core is harrowing -- I assume that's what he's referring to when he talks about the Los Alamos accident video (although it was plutonium and not uranium). I had no idea they had filmed Slotin after the accident. I'm a radiation physicist by training, but I never learned much about the techs on projects like these. This was tough to read.
posted by dorque at 4:51 PM on July 26, 2014 [7 favorites]

I got kicked out of Marine boot camp over 20 years ago. After two and a half out of three months of training, I feigned suicidal depression. I got a (relatively) quick uncharacterized discharge. I quit because I knew that joining was a mistake, that I wanted no part of the organization that I had joined and, most of all, that I could never be a killer. There was guy there from another platoon who had simply refused to take any further part in training. I watched as a captain ordered him to return. He responded with, "I will not obey your order, sir." I think they threw him in the brig. I wish that I had been that brave.
posted by double block and bleed at 5:25 PM on July 26, 2014 [9 favorites]

I don't know about the "demon core", but Mike Kirby is a man with a much stronger moral core than I have. His only mistake was the decision to join the military after being "a street kid for about a year". But then, life as a street kid has prompted worse decisions.
posted by oneswellfoop at 5:31 PM on July 26, 2014

It meandered a bit, but it was well worth the read.
posted by empath at 6:10 PM on July 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

This is what I hate about the military. Kirby turns in a memo on security issues, and it gets shitcanned. The ones that need to be outta there are that type of individual that can blithely ignore the seriousness of what could happen. People with moral core and a fear of repercussions need to be in charge.
posted by BlueHorse at 6:56 PM on July 26, 2014 [3 favorites]

I have worked in an atomic weapons depot, a Veterans’ psychiatric hospital and a perfectly awful mental hospital for juveniles, and in all of these places I did what I was told to do, and gave my notice when I had had it with the life they offered.

I'd be interested in hearing what he has to say about those other jobs too.
posted by orme at 7:04 PM on July 26, 2014 [2 favorites]

This is what I hate about the military. Kirby turns in a memo on security issues, and it gets shitcanned. The ones that need to be outta there are that type of individual that can blithely ignore the seriousness of what could happen. People with moral core and a fear of repercussions need to be in charge.

I don't think this is just the military. I've been in government and in private industry, and it seems the ones that get promoted are exactly those who lack a moral core. And the problem seems to be getting worse.
posted by jenh526 at 8:52 PM on July 26, 2014 [6 favorites]

I knew about the demon core, but, following the link, learned that Slotin's method of preventing what happened was a screwdriver wedged in between the hemispheres of beryllium. That is shocking. Think about all the times you tried to do something sketchy, even if it didn't involve going right up to the edge of a critical nuclear reaction, by wedging a screwdriver into it.......did they all end well?
posted by thelonius at 9:03 PM on July 26, 2014 [5 favorites]

It's unfortunate that we will most likely never hear about the contents of the second memo that got him out of the position he was in. He has such an interesting build up to that moment concerning how his realization that this enormous amount of power he worked with every day fueled these fantasies that he might use this power for his own purposes, and yet we are left at that climactic moment only to imagine what was in that memo. I wonder if the contents of it would change how we think about him. That kind of power in a persons hands can twist the mind a bit and inspire all sorts of justifications for doing something drastic, not unlike those people above him who saw such weapons as absolutely necessary for the survival of their nation. Whatever your opinion is on the whole concept of nuclear weapons, and however good or noble his intentions were, this is a guy who for a time was not only seriously fantasizing about holding this country hostage to meet his demands, but could proceed with his plans at any time he wished. If he had proceeded with his ideas, would it have turned out as he hoped? If he actually managed to get the president to Los Alamos, and things went wrong, if he followed through with his threat, would would the rest of the government and military of not only our country but others do in the minutes and hours just afterwards, upon hearing that a bomb took out one of our primary research facilities and the President? Would some mistake or misinterpretation during the frantic scrambling of SAC and the rest of the military in the first minutes afterwards cause the USSR to interpret those reactions as a preparation of a first strike? As we have discussed before, there were no launch codes needed to fire our missiles, and in a situation like that, it only takes one mistake to start the whole thing off, whether its an overeager general, a guy in a silo or a fighter pilot making a bad call when they see a huge amount of mobilized Soviet fighters coming a bit too close to the country and have only moments to decide what to do?

However, once again, humanity was saved by that little voice in someone's head who happened to be in charge of the most critical parts of the war machine realized that, no matter what the situations is telling them, something is not just right, and they don't act on those thoughts. This guy could have started WWIII just by doing everything he could to stop it, but at least he was self aware enough to do whatever was necessary to fight that temptation and get away from there.

Although I am tempted to criticize some of the methods that the military (not just the US, but any military in any age) uses to mold a good soldier by for lack of a better term, programming, that same programming and a damn good bit of luck has kept us from having some fool inadvertently starting WWIII for almost 70 years now. The whole situation is ludicrous, of course, but all I'm saying is that there is at least aspect on the positive side to it.
posted by chambers at 9:41 PM on July 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

"I wondered if you could be a good soldier and have an imagination."

Kapow.
posted by allthinky at 4:50 AM on July 27, 2014 [1 favorite]

that same programming and a damn good bit of luck has kept us from having some fool inadvertently starting WWIII for almost 70 years now

In the spirit of full disclosure, there have been more than a few times that 'damn bit of luck' I mentioned comes into play, especially lately - compilation courtesy of John Oliver.
posted by chambers at 9:29 AM on July 28, 2014