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Photographer of atomic bomb destruction dies at 96
ap on Bakersfield Californian ^ | 12/18/05 | AP

Posted on 12/18/2005 9:12:21 AM PST by NormsRevenge

LAGUNA WOODS, Calif. (AP) - Air Force Lt. Col. Daniel A. McGovern, a combat photographer who filmed the aftermath of the atomic bomb detonations in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, has died. He was 96.

McGovern died of cancer Wednesday at his home in Laguna Woods.

Weeks after the bombs were dropped in August 1945, McGovern began taking photographs that have since appeared in history books, newspapers, television shows and movies. Earlier during the war, McGovern photographed President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the White House.

In 1943, McGovern flew missions as a cameraman while stationed in Chelveston, England. He survived two crashes and shot footage used in William Wyler's 1944 wartime documentary, "The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress."

McGovern talked about his war experiences with the Los Angeles Times when Steven Spielberg's World War II film, "Saving Private Ryan," was released in 1998.

"Combat men don't like to talk about what they did," he said. "Airplanes crashing, headless bodies with helmets still on. Limbs here, limbs there. You say, 'There but for the grace of God,' but you don't talk about it. You relive it in your sleep. You go through recollections of pulling bodies out of airplanes - an experience you never forget."

He said he spoke about what he witnessed because of encouragement from his children and grandchildren.

McGovern and several colleagues founded the International Combat Cameramen Association to recognize photographers who risked their lives shooting combat footage.

After World War II, McGovern wrote, directed and produced classified films about nuclear weapons at Lookout Mountain, a secret Cold War-era government film lab and studio in the Hollywood Hills.

He is survived by his sister, four children, six grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Japan; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: atomicbomb; danielmcgovern; destruction; dies; hiroshima; memphisbelle; nagasaki; obituary; photographer; photography; veteran; wwii
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To: ncountylee
he was 96.... unfortunately ya gotta die of something... if not heart disease or lung disease or kidney disease ....then what.

It's all BS... there was only one guy that's gotten out alive, and he had to be stuck on a cross for a couple of hours.

21 posted on 12/18/2005 10:16:19 AM PST by Dick Vomer (liberals suck......... but it depends on what your definition of the word "suck" is.)
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To: Jigsaw John; peyton randolph
The fact is, no one will probably ever know if being in that area after the fact, was the cause of his death, many years later.

Highly unlikely that the radiation contributed to his death in any way. The highest levels of radiation produced by atomic bombs tend to dissipate fairly quickly (short half life or are simply dispersed by win and rain) after detonation. Being near the detonation or around ground zero very shortly thereafter can cause serious radiation exposure. However, weeks or months later the radiation has already started to dissipate.

In December 1961, the United States detonated an atomic bomb in a salt dome about 40km south of Carlsbad, New Mexico. Six months later, crews drilled down and entered the cavity created by the detonation. While radiation still existed, the intense radiation created by the blast had long dissipated.

22 posted on 12/18/2005 10:19:34 AM PST by COEXERJ145 (Those Who Want to Impeach President Bush Are the Party of Treason.)
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To: COEXERJ145
Highly unlikely that the radiation contributed to his death in any way.

If you read my other posts, you'd realize that I was making that point. He died at 96. It is like blaming George Burns' death on cigars when he died at age 100.

23 posted on 12/18/2005 10:23:13 AM PST by peyton randolph (Warning! It is illegal to fatwah a camel in all 50 states)
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To: ncountylee


Cancer or not, I'd take 96 years over anything.....how long does someone with HIV or AIDs have on their 'playlist'?


24 posted on 12/18/2005 10:26:36 AM PST by Gaffer
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To: ncountylee

"Note that AP threw in cancer to imply exactly that."

If you live long enough you will die of cancer if something doesn't get you first, radiation or no radiation.


25 posted on 12/18/2005 10:44:28 AM PST by dalereed
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To: COEXERJ145

Here's a site and some links put together with the help of atomic test veterans. Are you referring to the Nougat test in 1961 by chance, not sure if that was the Carlsbad one..

Quite a few blasts were set off over the years here in the homeland.

Atmospheric Atomic Weapons Tests
http://www.aracnet.com/~pdxavets/a_tests.htm

Atomic Veterans History Project
http://www.aracnet.com/~pdxavets/index.shtml


26 posted on 12/18/2005 10:45:34 AM PST by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Monthly Donor spoken Here. Go to ... https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: Jigsaw John
Besides, it's no secret that atomic bombs put out lots of contamination in the form of radiation.

"It's no secret", huh? Well, FYI, the nuclear detonations at Hiroshima and Nagasaki were air bursts above 5,000 Ft, AGL. There was very little nuclear contamination in the debris at these sites. The initial Gamma Ray exposure is what killed many people after a few days or weeks. The destruction that you see in these photos of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are from the blast of the explosion, not anything related to "atomic" other than that was the process used to create a destructive pressure wave. The same way that conventional explosives "kill people and break things".

Unless McGovern was at Hiroshima on the day the bomb was dropped, his exposure to nuclear radiation was next to nil.

When McGovern photographed the destruction on the ground, there was very little nuclear contamination. It's the "Dirty Bombs" that one needs to worry about. And anthrax scares me more.

27 posted on 12/18/2005 10:47:08 AM PST by elbucko
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To: NormsRevenge
McGovern died of cancer

I was kinda hoping the common cold got him at his age, or that he just went gentle into that good night.

Instictively I knew that the cause was gonna be cancer. I'm glad he lived as long as he did.

28 posted on 12/18/2005 10:50:19 AM PST by Bear_Slayer
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To: NormsRevenge

29 posted on 12/18/2005 10:50:27 AM PST by BJungNan
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To: NormsRevenge

30 posted on 12/18/2005 10:52:08 AM PST by BJungNan
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To: NormsRevenge
Today


31 posted on 12/18/2005 10:52:52 AM PST by BJungNan
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To: NormsRevenge

There is a link to a movie (Quicktime viewer) at this web address:

http://www.idbsu.edu/history/ncasner/hy210/hirosima.htm


32 posted on 12/18/2005 10:55:02 AM PST by BJungNan
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To: Westlander
His alias name was Peter Parker, while photographing the nuclear damage, a radioactive wood tick bit him, and he lived as a super hero, until arthritis made him give up his peculiar night life. It all fits.
33 posted on 12/18/2005 11:00:54 AM PST by Nathan Zachary
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To: BJungNan

Thanks


34 posted on 12/18/2005 11:03:23 AM PST by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Monthly Donor spoken Here. Go to ... https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: Dick Vomer

Jesus actually died on the cross. He rose from the dead.
Elijah(sp, the prophet, was taken in a flaming chariot. He may not have died.


35 posted on 12/18/2005 11:03:46 AM PST by brooklin
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To: elbucko

Right on. That 'radioactive' myth was generated by these anti- nuke nutz, and silly Hollywood movies like 'black rain'.

Those were baby bombs, we have some better ones now that are far more efficient, and 100's of times more powerfull. We need to flash a few off over Iran.


36 posted on 12/18/2005 11:07:33 AM PST by Nathan Zachary
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To: peyton randolph
Some of the Peace Studies womyn would bare their breasts in protest every once in a while. /shudder/

There's an "e" and maybe also a hyphen missing in there somewhere.

37 posted on 12/18/2005 11:11:36 AM PST by Erasmus (Getting captivated by modern music leads to Stockhausen Syndrome.)
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To: Right Wing Assault
In the late forties, the medical community did some really weird stuff with radiation.

My little bro was born in 1949 and shortly thereafter developed pneumonia*. At the age of forty, he developed a fibrous chest tumor, which necessitated the removal of a perfectly good lung.

*Thinking back, my mother recalled that the "treatment" for his pneumonia was to put him on a table and zap his torso with an unknown dose from something like an X-Ray machine.

Who knows if there was any tie-in...

38 posted on 12/18/2005 11:15:34 AM PST by ErnBatavia (I post in slang..live with it or ignore it - reader's choice.)
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To: ncountylee
Note that AP threw in cancer to imply exactly that.

Ummm... maybe, just maybe, the AP "threw in cancer" because he died of cancer. Sheesh, people can be so paranoid.

39 posted on 12/18/2005 11:19:07 AM PST by ecurbh ()()A Festivus for the rest of us!()()
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To: brooklin
I thought died meant not being alive.... if you die and you come back to life..you're not dead...just like a kid that drowns in icy water and dies...but comes back....

Now as far as Elijah....don't know what that means... riding up in a flaming chariot. Is it that he got on a chariot and rose up into the sky...I guess. I don't know. But there's a lot of stuff in the Bible that makes me scratch my head. Especially in the Old Testament

40 posted on 12/18/2005 11:21:57 AM PST by Dick Vomer (liberals suck......... but it depends on what your definition of the word "suck" is.)
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