Before I began a long drive from Albuquerque to Wichita Falls on an extremely windy day; tumbleweeds bounced across the highway as dust filled the sky; I stopped at the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History. The museum included exhibits on WWII, the Manhattan Project, nuclear scientists, the cold war, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the falling of the Berlin Wall, and a variety of weapons, some still in use today.
Not having been interested in history as a teenager, the exhibit on the atomic bomb, the Manhattan Project, and World War II were truly mindboggling, especially the numbers of people in multi-millions who were killed. It’s hard to imagine everyone in the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex plus millions more being murdered by a government.
The exhibits included information on how nuclear fission and fusion was discovered, the names of the scientists from all over the world who recognized the power, and how the decision was made to drop the atomic bomb. It also included prototypes of the bomb and it casing as well as the Packard limousine that transported the scientists.
The Cold War area of the museum included a list of Broken Arrows which is the military code name for nuclear weapons accidents. There have been 32 accidents involving nuclear weapons owned by the United States since 1950, all of them occurring prior to 1970 except one. The weapons are designed with safety features, thus none of the weapons detonated. Two of the accidents occurred in New Mexico…the state in which this museum presides.
It was interesting to see the difference in the size of the missiles that are launched from a nuclear submarine versus the size of missiles launched from planes. I’m told it is because the missiles from the submarines are designed to be launched from anywhere in the world while the ones launched from a plane are flown to a nearby area. Another thing I learned is the missiles launched from a plane (perhaps others as well but I don’t know) are designed with a parachute. The parachute slows the missile from 1,000 mph to 150 mph in two seconds!! The parachute is made of Kevlar.
For some reason, the falling of the Berlin Wall struck me. I think it is because it is one of the view events I lived through that was included in the museum, yet seems so
long ago, and it wasn’t. With all due respect to those who suffered under these conditions and probably feel like it was just yesterday, it was an event that I had forgotten about, and I even have a piece of the wall. I felt bad having to be reminded of it.
In addition to the exhibits on war and weapons, the museum also included old hospital equipment, archaic TV’s, and an ancient 1984 MAC computer complete with a floppy disk drive! After an hour or so in the museum, I crossed the entryway that was designed like a periodic table and spent the rest of the day driving 600 miles to my home state just as my book on CD is getting very gripping. I’ll be reaching Dallas before it is over. I might have to go find the paperback to finish it. Only a couple hundred more in the morning! ETB
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