Today is the day. This is the moment all of us were waiting for. After months of planning, calculating, and building, we were all finally here.
I am thinking to myself, this is it. This is what we’ve planned for. Today, in the Jornada del Muerto desert of New Mexico, we are making history. The rest of the crew is also standing by. They all seem to be thinking the same thing. We are all miles from the test site, but have a clear view. It had been raining this morning, causing a small set back, but now things are ready to go.
Some of the men are lying on the ground, with their feet to the explosion. I cannot understand why. Maybe it is to help protect themselves from the blast. I have taken precaution and decided to stay in my vehicle. Although, as I sit here, I have started to feel restless. I feel as though I should be out there, standing alongside my crew. At the last moment, I decide to step out of the car, and watch outside.
In the background, I can hear the countdown from the speaker.
“Ten… Nine…”
This is it. The clock is ticking. In just a few moments, history is made.
“Eight… Seven…”
Won’t be long now. Finally we’ll know whether we have succeeded or not.
“Six… Five…”
Everyone appears to be tensing up. Our protective eyewear seems to protect other from seeing what the other are truly feeing.
“Four… Three…”
But what were we all feeling?
Two… One…”
Now, as the white light in the distance fills my eyes, I now know what I am feeling: fear.
The light has grown brighter and brighter in the two seconds of its existence. Will it ever go away? Perhaps this is what it’s like to die. Perhaps that’s what happened. Maybe the light was simply God revealing himself to us for the first time.
Now the light has gone away. In its place, there is nothing but red fiery smoke, surrounded in darkness. The blue from the sky has gone. It has instead been replaced with the darkest black I’ve ever seen. The red light from the cloud has covered the horizon, and even given the fellow scientist around me the same glow. This couldn’t be God appearing; rather I think it is the gates of Hell.
As the mushroom grows into the sky, I notice that the others around me have taken on several tones. Some people were laughing, some were crying, and others, such as myself, were simply silent. The cloud rose higher and higher. The area around it seems to get darker and darker. As I sit here, either marveling at the sight, or just paralyzed by fear, all I can think of is a moment from the Hindu Scripture, and it went as such:
Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince and to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, 'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’
I suppose all of us are thinking the same thing, in one way or another.
Finally, I am able to put two simple words together: “It worked.” And it had. After months of planning and development, after doing everything in our power to keep the communist spies from finding the plans, it’s all fallen to this. And now the bomb has detonated. The explosion is either one of the most beautiful or horrible things I have ever seen.
Something I notice is that there is a deep growling coming from the distance. The sound was something of which I have never heard. It just keeps going, as the cloud rises higher and higher. I can see the cloud of smoke and earth racing across the ground, tearing up the land. And at this moment, now that I see the full picture, that I feel a huge sigh of relief.
I have done it.
The explosion continues to rise into the sky, and I feel a wave of excitement come over me.
It worked. It actually worked!
As I look on, a sudden crack rips through the sky. It is extremely loud, and almost ruined my ears. I look around, and everyone else had apparently been bothered by it as well.
There is then a start to a rather reluctant applause from the crewmen around me. They all seem to be in amazement from the great fire ball that now was higher than the clouds. People’s whispers and murmuring could be heard more than anything else. I can only smile.
Finally, the explosion is starting to dissipate. We all know that the fallout from the blast will reach us at soon, so we all start to get back in our vehicles.
But before I can make it to my car, I am stopped by Dr. Charles Thomas.
“This is one of the greatest moments in human history, you realize?” he asks me.
“Yes, I suppose so,” I reply, just realizing that what he has said is in fact true. This very moment, history was made. We have crossed a milestone today. Just a few minutes ago was the start of a new age. It was an age that would make us the true heroes. We had created the greatest weapon of all time, and it was going to dominate the modern world.
The president wanted us to create a new super weapon, and that is exactly what we have done. It was the most powerful bomb that could ever be used.
I start to feel extremely hot, and knew that it was time to go. The heat from the blast had finally reached the watch site, and was making everyone uncomfortable. I get in the jeep, and drive away. I glance back at that site once further down the road, and saw that most of the cloud was now gone, and the sky is turning blue again.
I simply look back at the road and say to myself:
“You’ve done it, Oppenheimer. You’ve given birth to the nuclear age.”