2010.54.1441

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Poster has a black and white photograph of an older man in profile in the center. The man is wearing glasses and a leather jacket with military insignia. The poster reads, "In the Shadow of the Cloud/ Photographs and Histories of American Atomic Veterans/ Jim Lerager/ Sf camerawork Gallery/ 70 Twelllth Street San Francisco.l February 5- March 14, 1987 - Lecture March 5, 8 p.m." Below the photo is a caption. It reads, "Colonel Langdon Harrison/ Langdon was a pilot with the Air Force's 4926th Radiation Sampling Squadron. In 1956, Langdon's squadron was assigned to operation Redwing, a series of 17 nuclear detonations in the Pacific. The pilots of his squadron were assigned to make repeated fly throughs of the mushrooming clouds from large hydrogen and atomic weapons. This test, of pilots and aircraft was officially named Human experiment #133. The pilots were told at the time that they were intentionally being exposed to high levels of radiation. Los Alamos scientists warned them of the risks of birth defects to children conceived after the operation. When Langdon was hospitalized with cancer and his bladder was removed, he requested his service radiation records. He was told his total does had been 8.2 rem (radiation equilvant, man). Langdon was angered; "I had over 100 rem. I had all the data t one time, no one wanted so we burned it all before leaving the Pacific." A 1985 independent report to the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee on Operation Redwing confirms Langdon's memory."