The Paper • Page 2 • March 10, 2016
Secret Weapons of WWII Cont. from Page 1
were barred from the southern area of Japan, primarily because the scientists who built the bomb were not sure of its full capability, or any other unknown effects it might trigger in cleaving the atom. Before the bombing, an order was issued by the 20th Air Force giving a 50-mile airspace restriction around Hiroshima, Japan. No chances were taken. The first atom-bomb drop was the exclusive mission of only three U.S. planes permitted within the restricted airspace: the Enola Gay, and two other B-29s that followed at a safe distance to record the effects of the blast. No large bomb prior to this had ushered in such residual elements such as deadly radiation on such a massive scale, the radiation being a second swipe from Death’s hand, if the initial blast did not claim its victims first. Radioactivity from an atomic bomb was virtually unknown to the common person. A split-second before the explosion of the world’s first atomic bomb, a crewman had accidentally broken his safety goggles. He quickly covered his eyes with his hands the best he could. His experience was other-worldly. Face covered, he nevertheless saw the skeletal bones in both his hands, as though seeing them through an X-ray. All this, against the backdrop of the entire sky lighting up, as if illuminated from a million artificial suns. The world’s second atom bomb,
Give Us This Day Our Daily Chuckle This week, a compendium of wit, wisdom and neat stuff you can tell at parties. Enjoy!
A DC 'airport ticket agent' offers some examples of why the US is in so much trouble!
1. I had a New Hampshire Congresswoman ask for an aisle seat so that her hair wouldn't get messed up by being near the window. (On an airplane!)
2. I got a call from a Kansas Congressman's staffer, who wanted to go to Cape Town. I started to explain the length of the flight and the passport information, and then he interrupted me with, ''I'm not trying to make you look stupid, but Cape Town is in Massachusetts ..'' Without trying to make him look stupid, I calmly explained, ''Cape Cod is in
Fat Man, was even bigger at 10,300 pounds, and far more powerful. Fat Man found its target three days later on August 9, 1945, when it was dropped from a B-29 Bockscar bomber. Fat Man’s free fall was timed at 43 seconds before it exploded 2,000-feet above the ground, pulverizing Nagasaki, Japan, into unrecognizable rubble, in mere seconds!
Regarding that historic first-drop on Hiroshima, of all the crewmen aboard the Enola Gay that fateful day, navigator Theodore Van Kirk would become the last surviving member before he died on July 28, 2014. In October 2007, Van Kirk auctioned off his flight log he kept on the Enola Gay at the bombing of Hiroshima. He sold it for $358,500.00 in the hopes it would find its way to a museum for public-viewing. It did not. The years tend to dull the benchmark that was created back then. For good or for bad, it was a turning point in human history. Pandora’s box had finally been breached by science. We had ushered in the atomic age and the dawning of a new era. Humankind had unleashed unspeakable power of the nuclear bomb. Earlier voices at the beginning-stages of the first atomic bomb’s development can still be heard, like echoes from the past. When the first detonation of a nuclear weapon was achieved at the Trinity Test (July 16, 1945) in the Jornada del Muerto desert, 35 miles southeast of Socorro, New Mexico, physicist and director of the test, Kenneth Bainbridge – after witnessing the birth of the
Massachusetts, Cape Town is in South Africa ..'' His response -- click..
3. A senior called, furious about a Florida package we did. I asked what was wrong with the vacation in Orlando . He said he was expecting an ocean-view room. I tried to explain that's not possible, since Orlando is in the middle of the state. He replied, 'Don't lie to me!, I looked on the map, and Florida is a very THIN state!!'' (OMG) 4. I got a call from a lawmaker's wife who asked, ''Is it possible to see England from Canada ?'' I said, ''No.''
She said, ''But they look so close on the map'' (OMG, again!)
5. An aide for a cabinet member once called and asked if he could rent a car in Dallas .. I pulled up the reservation and noticed he had only a 1-hour layover in Dallas ... When I asked him why he wanted to rent a car, he said, ''I heard Dallas was a big airport, and we will need a car to drive between gates to save time.'' 6. An Illinois Congresswoman called last week. She needed to
project’s brainchild, said: “Now, we are all sons of bitches.”
Nonetheless, the atomic bombs had shortened the war and, in so doing, ultimately saved countless lives in the long run.
Today, we stand at the crossroads between better-living by harnessing nuclear power and global peace, or we stand at the threshold of mutual annihilation. In all of life, hard lessons are often given to us; learning from them is often even harder. For example, World War II became known as “The war to end all wars.” It is human folly that World War I also went by the same name. Only time will tell what will become of us. Whatever our fate as citizens of this planet Earth, the release of Little Boy from the skies on August 6, 1945, will forever remain as one of the greatest secrets of World War II, which – in a split-second — remained a secret no more. Aside from the Manhattan Project which gave forth the biggest secrets of World War II,there were other highly-secret weapons that were crucial for victory.
The mid-1940s brought a most frightening reality: the German army had succeeded in conquering all of Western Europe. On the seas, Hitler’s U-boats were creating havoc as well. In the Atlantic, German U-boats were sinking Allied convoys that were carrying critical supplies for the war, threatening to bring Britain to its knees by cutting off her only lifeline. On all fronts, the outlook
know how it was possible that her flight from Detroit left at 8:30 a.m., and got to Chicago at 8:33 a.m. I explained that Michigan was an hour ahead of Illinois , but she couldn't understand the concept of time zones. Finally, I told her the plane went fast, and she bought that.
7. A New York lawmaker, called and asked, ''Do airlines put your physical description on your bag so they know whose luggage belongs to whom?'' I said, 'No, why do you ask?'
He replied, ''Well, when I checked in with the airline, they put a tag on my luggage that said (FAT), and I'm overweight. I think that's very rude!''
After putting him on hold for a minute, while I looked into it. (I was dying laughing). I came back and explained the city code for Fresno, Ca. is (FAT Fresno Air Terminal), and the airline was just putting a destination tag on his luggage. 8. A Senator John Kerry aide called to inquire about a trip package to Hawaii . After going over all the cost info, she asked, ''Would it be cheaper to fly to California and then take
was beginning to look grimmer by the day for the Allied Forces. Something had to be done to turn the tide of the war, and something had to be done quickly, or else. That something, that secret weapon, which Britain desperately needed, was now beginning to emerge, stronger and stronger, just 50 miles north of London, in a mysterious parcel of land known as Bletchley Park. Its seeds were first planted after the First World War. Britain had established a brain trust, a military establishment of the most brilliant minds to figure out and break various secret codes by the enemy. But disaster struck when Britain’s greatest and most versatile minds were unable to break Germany’s ingenious Enigma Code, which was so advanced, and so complex, as to be considered impenetrable. But then something strange, something unimaginable happened in 1938 when the militarytrained codebreakers were relocated to Bletchley Park, at a sprawling multi-level mansion. Shockingly, Britain’s Government Code and Cipher School (GC&CS) suddenly decided to take a most startling departure from its ranks and begin recruiting civilians that were not government-trained, not graduates of military academies and in fact, common every day citizens, many of whom had never even seen a code before, let alone solved one. This bold and bizarre concept of recruiting ordinary people of high intelligence, but with no code-breaking experience or
Secret Weapons of WWII Cont. on Page 3
the train to Hawaii?''
9. I just got off the phone with a freshman Congressman, from Ala. who asked, ''How do I know which plane to get on?''
I asked him what exactly he meant, to which he replied, ''I was told my flight number is 823, but none of these planes have numbers on them.'' 10. A California Senator called and said, ''I need to fly to PepsiCola, Florida. Do I have to get on one of those little computer planes?'' I asked if she meant fly to Pensacola and fly on a commuter plane. She said, ''Yeah, whatever, smarty!''
11. A Louisiana Senator called and had a question about the documents she needed in order to fly to China. After a lengthy discussion about passports, I reminded her that she needed a visa. "Oh, no I don't. I've been to China many times and never had to have one of those.''
I double checked and sure enough, her stay required a visa. When I told her this she
Chuckles Cont. on Page 6