What It Was Like to Stand in the Shadow of an Atomic Blast

On this episode of Our American Stories, from 1945 to 1992, the United States conducted more than a thousand nuclear weapons tests. Many took place in Nevada, where young Marines were ordered into trenches to observe what would happen when the bomb went off. Among them was Toby Madrid. For decades, he stayed silent, sharing his memories only once with his son and a trusted co-worker, Richard Muniz. That rare conversation captured the surreal experience of facing a nuclear explosion in the desert and the shadow it left on the men who served.

Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate) 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American People.
And to search for the Our American Stories podcast, go
to the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
From nineteen forty five to nineteen ninety two, the United
States conducted one thy fifty four nuclear tests as a

(00:31):
part of the nuclear arms race with Soviet Russia. Many
of these tests were conducted in Nevada, where soldiers were
sent to be tested on by military scientists and upper
brass trying to figure out the psychological and health effects
brought on by the use of nuclear weapons. One of
those soldiers was Tobi Madrid. Here's listener Richard Munez, who

(00:53):
worked with Toby with the story of this atomic Marine.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
The only two people I know I ever heard this
story is myself in his son Jr. As far as
Jr knows, he never told his story to anyone else.
Toby was in the Marines and in nineteen fifty one
to nineteen fifty seven out in Nevada proving grounds. It

(01:20):
was a small camp. It was called Camp Desert Rock,
and it was barricks and mess halls and things like that.
But it had one mission, one purpose. It was to
support military personnel while tests involving the atomic bomber conducted.
Remember Sheriff Toby to Madrid. We were in his office

(01:43):
if you can call a broom closet with a light
and a desk and an office. He had a cup
of coffee in his hands, and he has feet up
on the desk. I mean, it was totally laid back attitude,
but I could see the tension in his job. The
funny part about it was he wasn't looking at me,
and he wasn't looking at Jr. He was looking at

(02:04):
the wall. I had this distinct impression that if he
bothered to look at either one of us, we'd never
hear the story. He said, they stuck us out in
the middle of nowhere, And if you've ever been out
that section of Nevada, it's pretty much the middle of nowhere.

(02:25):
And he went on to say that they told us
we're part of an atomic bomb test. Now, the name
of these tests that I looked up later on was
called the Desert Rock Exercises, and this is what we
call Desert Rock for Operation tumblr Snapper. Well, he said
they took him out there and they were there for
several different several days beforehand, the sheriff said, they took

(02:50):
him out there, had the trenches, they built, defensive, fortified positions,
all that stuff. Now, the idea was they were to
be able to stand in these or squat at them
some cover. And then he said, I remembered as we
were digging, there were trucks carrying tanks and jeeps and
things like that. Some of the vehicles were towing artillery
pieces out there, and some of the marines he was

(03:12):
with went out with them, and they came back to
saying how they'd set up dummies that were in uniform
and some of them were standing up, some were lying down.
That kind of stuff. Now I went on to research
a little bit more, and this seems to be that
he was out there for what they called a shot
Dog nuclear test, and this happened on May one, nineteen
fifty two, and involved the dropping of what we call

(03:35):
a Mark seven bomb. Now, the Air Force was doing
the drops and they were using either B fifties or
B forty five to do these. So he said the
day of the test, they got them up, they had breakfast,
and they took them out there to the site, and
they got in their trenches, and so what they were
told to do. They were told the crowds below the
rim of the trench have their faces down, their eyes

(03:56):
closed when the blast happened. Now, they would get plenty
of warning beforehand that this was going to happ happened,
you know, give him a warning. The bomber was to
hear the bombers coming in stiff like that, and they
needed to be doing this. So he said, along around
eight thirty or so, they heard the aircraft coming in,

(04:17):
and that's when the warning happened. So they climbed the
trenches and they got the position they were told to
get into. He had said he was pouched down, he
had his head down, his eyes closed, and even with this,
all of a sudden, he said, there was light. He
seriously felt that he had actually seen the blast of
the bomb. Now what he had witnessed here was the

(04:40):
debtonishing of a nineteen kiloton bomb, and it exploded about
a thousand meters above the ground. And then he went
on to say that the light faded, but as it faded,
there was thunder like I had never heard before. And
then there was wind. I mean, the wind just came
up and it was so intense that it blocked him
back against the back of his train. And then the

(05:00):
wind reverse directions came back and pushed him face forward
into into uh the front of the trench. And so
then the second few seconds later came to order to
leave the trenches. So they climbed out, and as he
put it, we've all seen movies of the mushroom cloud
and the atomic bomb generates, but he says, seeing that

(05:23):
in real life, it was like it just wasn't real.
You know, you can't you can't wrap your mind around
something like this. And you sat there, I look at
it and say, something humans built generated this. And he
said it was already towering up into the sky, and
he compared it to something that was like a cloud
that was boiling up from hell. And they told him
to start walking forward, and they did. He went on

(05:47):
to relate that as they moved along, he started seeing
some of the things have been so a few days before, Like,
for one location, remember seeing the Sherman tanking. He said,
look like the Shriman tankers have been swatted aside by
some giant's hand. And then he started encountering some of
these dummies had been set up. Some were almost burnt
up entirely, others were smoldering. So they kept walking. They
got within about three quarters of a mile of where

(06:09):
the bomb had exploded, and they stopped him. They turned
him around and marched him back out of there. And
he said, remember hearing somebody saying that it had gotten
it was too hot to go much further, and well
that basically meant was too radioactive. Then marshal to a
certain site. There they swept them off, hosed them off,
and he says, actually surprised by how much dust came

(06:30):
off of him in his uplatoon. And rather keep the
uniform he had been wearn, he wadded it up and
threw it away. Like I said, that's the only time
that we know of as myself and Jr. That Toby
actually ever talked about the day of the bomb. A

(06:53):
lot of people wound up getting sick and dying because
of exposure to fallout. The thing is, I don't think
a lot of the peopeople knew what they were headed for.
They had a pivotal moment of history and they didn't
realize it. I know the chef didn't.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
And this is why we routinely celebrate our veterans on
this show because our soldiers serve in so many distinct
and dangerous ways, and you just heard about one, the
story of Toby Madrid, the Atomic Marine. Here on our
American Stories, Folks, if you love the stories we tell

(07:32):
about this great country, and especially the stories of America's
rich past, know that all of our stories about American history,
from war to innovation, culture and faith, are brought to
us by the great folks at Hillsdale College, a place
where students study all the things that are beautiful in
life and all the things that are good in life.
And if you can't cut to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come

(07:52):
to you with their free and terrific online courses. Go
to Hillsdale dot edu to learn more.