The Day the U.S. Air Force Almost Nuked North Carolina

[CirrusMonkey]

Not sure if this was posted yet but it was recently has been declassified. Very very very chilling.

http://www.unmuseum.org/goldsboro_bomb.htm

A good read. Here are some pieces from it:

The whole incident might have been simply an unfortunate, tragic, but not uncommon training accident if it hadn't been for what the B-52G had been carrying: Two Mark 39 nuclear bombs with a combined yield of around 8 megatons: the equivalent of 8 million tons of TNT that had more power than 500 Hiroshima-type bombs put together.

On the second bomb, however, the retardation parachute did deploy, indicating that the bomb went through at least part of its arming sequence. The device's parachute snagged on a tree and this left the bomb hanging with just the bottom 18 inches of the nose buried in the ground. Otherwise it was completely intact.

Obviously, since the bomb didn't detonate, it hadn't been completely armed. The fact that the bomb had even partly gone through its arming procedure, however, was alarming to USAF officials and the details of what actually happened inside the nuclear device became a closely-guarded secret.

 

[Pilot Fighter]

There is probably a lost nuke in the Puget Sound off Whidbey Island from a 1959 Marlin crash.

 

[tlewis95]

Wow. I've never heard of this before.

 

[RDoug]

There is probably a lost nuke in the Puget Sound off Whidbey Island from a 1959 Marlin crash.

There's also one still buried in the muck at the mouth of the Savannah River.

 

[TFaudree_ERAU]

There's also one still buried in the muck at the mouth of the Savannah River.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18587608

 

[Autothrust Blue]

Command and Control (Schlosser) is a good yarn. Highly recommended reading, in fact.

Apparently, we were this *holds fingers up* close on multiple occasions to an unauthorized detonation for many, many years.

Incidentally, Strike Command doesn't get the attention it warrants nowadays; "dead" career is dead, but safeguarding the nation's nuclear deterrent is serious business.

 

[NewYorkophile]

Incidentally, Strike Command doesn't get the attention it warrants nowadays; "dead" career is dead, but safeguarding the nation's nuclear deterrent is serious business.

It still gets plenty of attention, when it's the bad kind. Minot had a wave of inspection failures and firings a few years back, around the same time we flew a live nuke across the country on accident.

 

[MikeD]

Command and Control (Schlosser) is a good yarn. Highly recommended reading, in fact.

Apparently, we were this *holds fingers up* close on multiple occasions to an unauthorized detonation for many, many years.

Incidentally, Strike Command doesn't get the attention it warrants nowadays; "dead" career is dead, but safeguarding the nation's nuclear deterrent is serious business.

The loss of SAC and the movement of the bomber/ICBM field to a somewhat second-tier status, is contributory to the lackadaisical attitude that has pervaded the nuclear deterrent force post-fall of the USSR/Warsaw Pact.

Time was back then, while there were accidents sure, it would be unheard of to see events occur through lack of discipline, such that has been seen with the ICBM force of late at many bases with their busted NSIs, as well as things like B-52s flying live nukes across the country and those same nukes sitting unguarded on a transient ramp at the destination over the weekend.....not to mention those nukes even having gotten loaded or out of the WSA in the first place at the originating base.

 

[RDoug]

Positively right, MikeD. General LeMay would have had some people in Leavenworth over some of these more recent escapades.

 

[MikeD]

Positively right, MikeD. General LeMay would have had some people in Leavenworth over some of these more recent escapades.

Agree. And it's the same sentiment shared by @NewYorkophile , as we posted at the same time.

There's been a marked loss of discipline, which isn't entirely the fault of the force itself, but of the treatment the nuke force has received when SAC stopped being the tip of the spear. Accidents like the Titan II at Damascus, Ark in '79 or B-52/B-1/FB-111 aircraft accidents would occur, but they were just that: accidents. Pure outright negligence or laziness or conduct unbecoming or even failure to do one's duty correctly, was just something that never occurred. It wasn't even thought of to occur. And the system itself, hasn't helped matters. The fault is indeed a two-way street in many ways.

You mention LeMay.......could you imagine LeMay's reaction to some of these latest events that have occurred?

 

[mshunter]

There's also one still buried in the muck at the mouth of the Savannah River.

I just flew over that one about an hour ago and was looking down thinking "please don't go off right now. PLEASE!"

 

[SlumTodd_Millionaire]

I just flew over that one about an hour ago and was looking down thinking "please don't go off right now. PLEASE!"

That's where I keep my sailboat. Now I'll never get a good night's sleep on it again!

 

[PhilosopherPilot]

That's where I keep my sailboat. Now I'll never get a good night's sleep on it again!

It's apparently just South of Tybee. Not many people would cry about Tybee getting vaporized. Most of them would be vaporized along with the island...so...

It would make my house waterfront, perhaps. Glow-in-the-dark as well.

 

[dustoff17]

Agree. And it's the same sentiment shared by @MikeD

There's been a marked loss of discipline, which isn't entirely the fault of the force itself, but of the treatment the nuke force has received when SAC stopped being the tip of the spear. [B]Accidents like the Titan II at Damascus, Ark in '79[/B] or B-52/B-1/FB-111 aircraft accidents would occur, but they were just that: accidents. Pure outright negligence or laziness or conduct unbecoming or even failure to do one's duty correctly, was just something that never occurred. It wasn't even thought of to occur. And the system itself, hasn't helped matters. The fault is indeed a two-way street in many ways.

You mention LeMay.......could you imagine LeMay's reaction to some of these latest events that have occurred?

My Dad was a lead investigator on this one (in '80, I think)....very interesting story that lead up to this one. Also, lead the one at Rock, Ks in late 70's (amazing stupidity!). And you're right @MikeD, the loss of SAC changed the entire AF. My Dad was crushed when SAC went away.....(I still have large a briefing room wall SAC sticker)

 

[Autothrust Blue]

Agree. And it's the same sentiment shared by @NewYorkophile , as we posted at the same time.

There's been a marked loss of discipline, which isn't entirely the fault of the force itself, but of the treatment the nuke force has received when SAC stopped being the tip of the spear. Accidents like the Titan II at Damascus, Ark in '79 or B-52/B-1/FB-111 aircraft accidents would occur, but they were just that: accidents. Pure outright negligence or laziness or conduct unbecoming or even failure to do one's duty correctly, was just something that never occurred. It wasn't even thought of to occur. And the system itself, hasn't helped matters. The fault is indeed a two-way street in many ways.

You mention LeMay.......could you imagine LeMay's reaction to some of these latest events that have occurred?

I'm pretty sure the accident you speak of in '79 is the accident covered in considerable detail in Command and Control (there were multiple accidents at that specific Titan site, although as I recall only one serious accident happened while there was a nuclear-tipped missile on site). It was an accident, but it was also procedural intentional noncompliance (the wrong tool was used by the propellant team to work on a valve or some such).

To err, of course, is human. To forgive is not SAC policy.

 

[SlumTodd_Millionaire]

It's apparently just South of Tybee. Not many people would cry about Tybee getting vaporized. Most of them would be vaporized along with the island...so...

It would make my house waterfront, perhaps. Glow-in-the-dark as well.

I've actually always liked Tybee. It's a nice middle ground between crazy busy tourist spot like Panama City Beach and quiet no-man's land like Dauphin Island.

 

[MikeD]

I'm pretty sure the accident you speak of in '79 is the accident covered in considerable detail in Command and Control (there were multiple accidents at that specific Titan site, although as I recall only one serious accident happened while there was a nuclear-tipped missile on site). It was an accident, but it was also procedural intentional noncompliance (the wrong tool was used by the propellant team to work on a valve or some such).

To err, of course, is human. To forgive is not SAC policy.

We had 18 Titan IIs around TUS, one of the three locations. I remember them from gradeschool days, as TUS was the first of the three locations to begin decom in 1982, finished by '86 here. And even here, there were a number of times of liquid fuel leaks from the storage tanks and the like, what with the extremely volatile mixture they used. The old sites can still be seen from the air here, along with the one museum.

 

[queeno]

We had 18 Titan IIs around TUS, one of the three locations. I remember them from gradeschool days, as TUS was the first of the three locations to begin decom in 1982, finished by '86 here. And even here, there were a number of times of liquid fuel leaks from the storage tanks and the like, what with the extremely volatile mixture they used. The old sites can still be seen from the air here, along with the one museum.

I remember it well because my tower chief at DMA hated my guts and "volunteered" me for a two week detail for the defueling of the Titan site near Tubac in early 1983. I was one of 7 two man teams that were stationed around the site to evacuate the civis around there in case of an Oxidizer leak or other mishap. It was a pretty boring and most days if the wind wasn't blowing right we would only be out for a few hours and be home by noon, only spent one day where we were out for 12 hours.

 

[Autothrust Blue]

We had 18 Titan IIs around TUS, one of the three locations. I remember them from gradeschool days, as TUS was the first of the three locations to begin decom in 1982, finished by '86 here. And even here, there were a number of times of liquid fuel leaks from the storage tanks and the like, what with the extremely volatile mixture they used. The old sites can still be seen from the air here, along with the one museum.

The museum in Pima is on my list of things to see. Maybe I should do the quintessential American thing and take a road trip someday.

 

[MikeD]

I remember it well because my tower chief at DMA hated my guts and "volunteered" me for a two week detail for the defueling of the Titan site near Tubac in early 1983. I was one of 7 two man teams that were stationed around the site to evacuate the civis around there in case of an Oxidizer leak or other mishap. It was a pretty boring and most days if the wind wasn't blowing right we would only be out for a few hours and be home by noon, only spent one day where we were out for 12 hours.

The remnants of that site are still there.....site 571-8 I believe, and like the other sites, the command center and living quarters still exists underground, just sealed up.