Mentally: Death of parents,siblings, daughter, in-laws
Physically: Going in and working a mile and a half undergound in a full anti contamination suit after detonation of a nuclear device.
Full face masks, sealed suits, fresh air fans cut off, minimal lights with miner's lamps air, dewatering pumps shut off, background radiation above 150 MR. Hot, humid, actual contact radiation of what we recovered above 300 MR.
Everything had to be man handle, no hoists ,etc. from test bed to train flat beds. Everything had to be double bag, swiped for beryllium contamination and nuclear activation. Try muscling a 300-400 warhead that had to be double bagged. Carried 60 yards to the train over debris piles where the roof of the tunnel had collapsed. 8-10 hour shifts and sweated 5-8 pounds off in a few days. Then if you had a hole torn in your suit, you went thru decontamination, hosed down scrubbed until red with a scrub brush.
I did this 37 times in 30 years
Last edited by saddlesore; 09/21/22.
