Description

Charlie promised to be a “Big Shot,” as the
press dubbed the nation’s twenty-fifth nuclear
weapons test. With a projected explosive yield
equivalent to thirty-three kilotons of TNT, Charlie would be the largest test conducted to date at the Nevada Proving Ground, formerly—and again to be—the Nevada Test Site. Charlie also was big in the sense that for the first time a nuclear weapons test would be held as an “open” shot that allowed a significant degree of public access. For the first
time, as well, ground and airborne troops would
conduct military maneuvers on a simulated nuclear battlefield following the shot.