Of course.
Yesterday was the 61st Annversary of the Trinity Test, in which the first nuclear device built by the United States of America was exploded near Alamogordo, New Mexico.
While it was neither ‘Random’ nor a ‘Strike’, it is still a day to be remembered around these parts.
I’m still fiddling around with making room for tunage on the server, so if you would be so kind as to pull out your copy of Rush’s Power Windows album and spin track #3, I would appreciate it. Thanks.
Nearly every account I have read describes the first A-bomb explosion as having taken place “at” Alamogordo, NM. That is wrong, and it wasn’t “near” Alamogordo, either.
The site of the test, known as “Trinity Site”, is an empty spot in an area of the Chihuahuan Desert called “Jornada del Muerto” (Journey of Death). It was about 56 miles NW of Alamogordo, NM. A mountain range upwards of 7,000 feet high lies between the two.
That makes sense, doesn’t it? Why would the first nuclear bomb be exploded, as a test, “at” or “near” a city? The site was chosen so it wouldn’t be near a city.
The city of Alamogordo had nothing to do with the test. Why its name has been stuck in most every description of that test, I’ll never understand.
In terms of being “near” a city, as a name to help someone find it on a map, the test was closer to Socorro and Carrizozo than it was to Alamogordo. You can see this on a map at http://www.wsmr.army.mil/pao/TrinitySite/trmap.htm and you can see it on most any NM highway map.
And, you can visit the site the first Saturday of every April and October.
Is this a big deal? No. But it bugs me.