"You would've created a bay of North Carolina"

[LongTomH]

January 24, 1961, a B52 Stratofortress broke up in the air, releasing the two 3.8 megaton nuclear weapons in its bomb bay; these weapons were 250 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb.

The weapons landed in a tobacco field in North Carolina. This morning, Jan 25, NPR's Story Corps carried an interview with Jack ReVelle, who as a 25-year old Air Force Lieutenant, led the team tasked, first with making certain the bombs were 'safe' and then to recover them.

Of the two bombs, one had its parachute deploy, and it landed in one piece. For Jack and his 10-person crew, it was much easier to deactivate and haul away than the other bomb, whose parachute had not opened.

"This huge, multi-ton weapon penetrated the ground at 700 miles an hour and buried itself in the swamp," Jack says.

Lt. ReVelle and his team worked in cold, freezing temperatures to recover the 92 detonators and the modules that contained the 'arm / safe' switch.

Here are the really scary parts of the story:

When they finally found the switch that shows whether the bomb is armed or in safe mode, it was on "arm." That meant the bomb could explode at any time, depending on the status of the remaining safety features in the weapon — which were unknown.

Had either or both weapons detonated, the map of the US would be altered forever:

"You would've created a bay of North Carolina, completely changing the configuration of the East Coast of the United States, and the radiation could have been felt as far north as New York City," he says. "At the time, nobody knew it, but it could have easily been the start of another world war."

[unc70]

1. I remember the crash clearly

I grew up a little further east in NC, but that crash was big news. While the official stories tried to downplay the risk involved, the story was too big to be silenced, at least among the local population. We pretty much knew that we had dodged the big one.

NC then and now has an extremely large military presence and most everyone knows what is normal operations and what is abnormal. Eastern North Carolina is also very "tribal"; it is rural and families are intermarried through the whole region. There are not many big secrets and not for long.

[bobbieinok]

2. !!! The following May I graduated from college!