FILM STARS A bit of a long shot

I hope regular readers of Film Stars will forgive me if I take a different, more personal, approach to this one, because I want to tell you a story. Normally I write about cameras with historic interests, that might be collectable and which, if possible, are still usable. Well, this one is certainly historically interesting, but as far as collectability and usability are concerned, forget it. But let’s begin at the beginning.

In a small town in the American state of Wisconsin, nearly 4,000 miles from where I live in Hertfordshire, lives a man I’ve never met and I guess never will. His name is Stan Thor and he will be 90 years old in a few weeks’ time.

Stan enlisted in the US Army in 1953, where he undertook a course in camera repairing. By March 1954, he found himself training in the use of atomic weapons for Exercise Flash Burn, the first time air and ground forces