A little gem I found...

Steve1839

SF
Verified SOF
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Jul 14, 2019
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"Out where the desert meets the sky"
As I was waiting for my work computer to download some rather large map files, I went down a rabbit hole on my home computer and found this...
The Littlest Boy
For reference, I was once the senior engineer sergeant on a Green Light team prior to OCS...subsequent to commissioning, I served as a battalion S2 and Nuclear Surety Officer, providing staff supervision of a Green Light team...
 
I remember learning about how crazy those things were, but this little insight into some doctrine/mechanics of the weapon is even crazier.

Even at a "safe" distance, SADM teams would still find themselves uncomfortably close to a detonation. "We're outside the vaporization range," said Antenori, "but well within the 'I will feel the wonderful warm wind that will blow by when it goes off in a second' range."

Heightening the absurdity of intentionally huddling near a nuclear weapon that was about to explode was the fact that the men could not know exactly when it would explode. Probably to make the weapon resistant to electromagnetic pulses from any nearby nuclear explosions, as one might expect at the outset of war with the Soviets, the AEC had fashioned the SADM largely devoid of electronics. Instead, the device relied on two mechanical timers that, unfortunately, became less accurate the longer they were set for, potentially going off as early as eight minutes ahead of schedule or as many as 13 behind. Army field manuals warned that it was "not possible to state that [the timers] will fire at a specific time," so SADM teams were trained to predict the general window in which the weapon would go off.
 
@Steve1839 , thanks for sharing! Great insight into a niche program.

@Cookie_ , I watched some documentary about the history of the nuke program, there was an army officer out west during the tests during the 50s, he said something like "the scientists told us 'you'll probably be OK, but if you smell ozone, gets your affairs in order'....
 
A weapons system that was available in the 60s against the Russians was the Davy Crockett weapons system. I have contacted 2 congressmen over the last 4 years to see if it is still in the system and why civilians have been tested for radiation and not those assigned. Thus far I have heard nothing from them. The spotting round was 92% depleted uranium. Max range of the system was a mile and a half so a suicide team. It was a back packed nuclear bomb that could also be transported by jeep or a 113. I have attached a pic of me when I was assigned to the platoon.
 

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A weapons system that was available in the 60s against the Russians was the Davy Crockett weapons system. I have contacted 2 congressmen over the last 4 years to see if it is still in the system...
The Davy Crockett is no longer in the system...I believe it the program was ended in the late 60s...when I was the S2 of 1/10SF, my battalion commander had been a Davy Crockett platoon leader as a lieutenant...I think he was emotionally scarred by the experience...LOL

ETA: the Davy Crockett and the SADM used the same warhead, BTW
 
All assigned were 11Cs so really no record as to who was assigned unless you had a copy of orders assigning you to it. The Army denied the system even existed until 2005 when firing ranges were being cleared and they started discovering the spotting rounds. Ranges could not be cleared after discovery.
 
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