I think you’re correct. He said it lit up the entire western sky. People knew to expect weapons tests but of course he didn’t realize what he had seen until a month later.
He was a WWI vet who had been gassed and suffered lung damage. El Paso was considered a better climate for those with breathing difficulty than his native New Orleans.
Oh, how horrible to hear that. I am really sorry for him and the trouble he went through.:-(
Still it is fascinating for me - as a historian - to hear such stories from “the horse’s mouth”, instead of just reading about them in books.