In 1955 my father had just earned the rank of Commander and our family was stationed at the Naval Ordinance Training Center in China Lake California. Even at the age of five I recognized that they were exciting times. The father of one of my classmates had invented the sidewinder missile and even in the first grade, we knew what his dad had done and that it was important. The base was a high security area and when you exited the main gate you passed a large billboard that read, "What you see here, what you do here, what you hear here, when you leave here, let it stay here."
From the window of my first grade class, I could see missiles being test fired from desert launch sites but the most notable test occurred one morning before sun rise. My father herded my brother, sister and I out on the front lawn and we stood in the cool darkness facing east. For just a few seconds it looked like the sun was coming up. The horizon lit up, glowed brightly and returned to darkness. The Nevada test range was over 100 miles away but not far enough to diminish the radiance of an atomic bomb being detonated.
Photo taken by my father
He labeled the slide - Atomic Bomb, seen from our quarters at China Lake
