The Case of the Missing H-Bomb

The Case of the Missing H-Bomb

www.counterpunch.org

Things go missing. It's to be expected. Even at the Pentagon. Last October, the Pentagon's inspector general reported that the military's accountants had misplaced a destroyer, several tanks and armored personnel carriers, hundreds of machine guns, rounds of ammo, grenade launchers and some surface-to-air missiles. In all, nearly $8 billion in weapons were AWOL.

Those anomalies are bad enough. But what's truly chilling is the fact that the Pentagon has lost track of the mother of all weapons, a hydrogen bomb. The thermonuclear weapon, designed to incinerate Moscow, has been sitting somewhere off the coast of Savannah, Georgia for the past 40 years. The Air Force has gone to greater lengths to conceal the mishap than to locate the bomb and secure it.

On the night of February 5, 1958 a B-47 Stratojet bomber carrying a hydrogen bomb on a night training flight off the Georgia coast collided with an F-86 Saberjet fighter at 36,000 feet. The collision destroyed the fighter and severely damaged a wing of the bomber, leaving one of its engines partially dislodged. The bomber's pilot, Maj. Howard Richardson, was instructed to jettison the H-bomb before attempting a landing. Richardson dropped the bomb into the shallow waters of Wassaw Slough, near the mouth of the Savannah River, a few miles from the city of Tybee Island, where he believed the bomb would be swiftly recovered.

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[edit on 17-5-2009 by grover]

And they still haven't found it.

To continue quoting from the article:

The Pentagon recorded the incident in a top secret memo to the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. The memo has been partially declassified: "A B-47 aircraft with a [word redacted] nuclear weapon aboard was damaged in a collision with an F-86 aircraft near Sylvania, Georgia, on February 5, 1958. The B-47 aircraft attempted three times unsuccessfully to land with the weapon. The weapon was then jettisoned visually over water off the mouth of the Savannah River. No detonation was observed."

Soon search and rescue teams were sent to the site. Warsaw Sound was mysteriously cordoned off by Air Force troops. For six weeks, the Air Force looked for the bomb without success. Underwater divers scoured the depths, troops tromped through nearby salt marshes, and a blimp hovered over the area attempting to spot a hole or crater in the beach or swamp. Then just a month later, the search was abruptly halted. The Air Force sent its forces to Florence, South Carolina, where another H-bomb had been accidentally dropped by a B-47. The bomb's 200 pounds of TNT exploded on impact, sending radioactive debris across the landscape. The explosion caused extensive property damage and several injuries on the ground. Fortunately, the nuke itself didn't detonate.

The search teams never returned to Tybee Island, and the affair of the missing H-bomb was discreetly covered up. The end of the search was noted in a partially declassified memo from the Pentagon to the AEC, in which the Air Force politely requested a new H-bomb to replace the one it had lost. "The search for this weapon was discontinued on 4-16-58 and the weapon is considered irretrievably lost. It is requested that one [phrase redacted] weapon be made available for release to the DOD as a replacement."

There was a big problem, of course, and the Pentagon knew it. In the first three months of 1958 alone, the Air Force had four major accidents involving H-bombs. (Since 1945, the United States has lost 11 nuclear weapons.) The Tybee Island bomb remained a threat, as the AEC acknowledged in a June 10, 1958 classified memo to Congress: "There exists the possibility of accidental discovery of the unrecovered weapon through dredging or construction in the probable impact area. ... The Department of Defense has been requested to monitor all dredging and construction activities."

And unless the Russians or Chinese got to it afterward, its still there slowly rusting and remaining even if it never explodes a nuclear disaster waiting to happen.

It still boggles my mind that at one point we had those things in planes always in flight and given the number of accidents we had with them, none exploded.

www.counterpunch.org
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 17-5-2009 by grover]

reply to post by grover


Well isn't that nice.

You know, you'd think that the Pentagon of all places would be on top of the very weapons it's trying to get out of the hands of so called "terrorists".

Also it is very convenient that they simply go missing. Where is the security? I mean come on, armored bank trucks have 4 guys with shotguns and bullet proof vests.

You'd think they'd have a brigade of troops armed to the teeth to protect a hydrogen bomb. That really says alot about the Pentagon's ability to give us proper information and conduct themselves in a way that is truly "protecting" American from her enemies.

The search teams never returned to Tybee Island, and the affair of the missing H-bomb was discreetly covered up. The end of the search was noted in a partially declassified memo from the Pentagon to the AEC, in which the Air Force politely requested a new H-bomb to replace the one it had lost. "The search for this weapon was discontinued on 4-16-58 and the weapon is considered irretrievably lost. It is requested that one [phrase redacted] weapon be made available for release to the DOD as a replacement."

Sure, and when some country like NK detonates one and they realize it was theirs, they will go...OOPS, but it was irretrievably lost. Sure it was...sure it was. And why do they need a replacement? I guess somebody else is willing to pay big bucks for them to drop one out of a plane at 30K feet.

Mind boggling.

~Keeper

Edit To Add.

[edit on 5/17/2009 by tothetenthpower]

All I can say is they drop an H Bomb in a river then because another incident happens it is just left there I have an image of an old hillbilly having this thing as a coffee table and saying " Hey ma why du ya think this family can never grow any hair, I mean the boys are bad enough but 3 bald daughters, well thats just plain unlucky"

So we had the technology to build and successfully test the H bomb back then.

Why the hell were they flying around with live H bombs?

It was not necessary for training, there were safer means of transportation, there is no reason for it.

That should be the question everyone demands an answer to.

As for the missing bomb, a nice official oops will suffice.

The terrorists haven't got it... it fell from 36,000 feet into the muck and got swallowed by it... still its a damned serious situation just having it sitting there decaying.

reply to post by Walkswithfish


They didn't have long range continental ballistic missiles in those days... remember Dr. Strangelove?

I can see how they could lose tanks and armored personnel carriers, hundreds of machine guns, rounds of ammo, grenade launchers and some surface-to-air missiles. there is a war going on and in wars things get lost and destroyed plus in wars records get destroyed or lost.
plus in a war no one accounts for every last round of ammo fired.

I can even see how the loss of the h-bomb could be explained as not a loss but a inability to retrieve the h-bomb due to its location being masked by underwater terrain. By the way there are others lost.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

The one i can not understand is how can you misplaced a destroyer.
I would guess that the crew of the destroyer knew where it was all along so was it really lost.

It was the military's accountants that lost it most likely because they never looked for it.

reply to post by grover


It wont go off. Yea the explosives in it will, but they bomb nuke part of it wont go off. It needs a very specific chain of events to make it go Nuclear. Without that happening, it wont go off. But like I said the explosives in it, yea that could be a problem. If your thinking Big boom, nah, but for small boom, yea it can totally happen, and with some radioactive goodies with it.Lol. Check it out on Wiki..

A million dollars to find the missing bomb? Quick, where's the checkbook?! Write the check before someone else does!

If scattering uranium and plutonium "all over hell" is the least it could do, that's not good.

This article has been updated from the one I read in 2001, originally from In These Times, but found at this website.

The nuclear genie will never go back into the bottle.

Anyone on ATS from Georgia and has anything further to contribute?

I was watching a program on Nat GEO the other day about a team of privatly funded guys who are trying to retreive this nuke and are NOT being helped by the Air force at all.In fact they are going out of thier way to hamper them.These divers are concerned Americans by the way.In that program they stated that this nuke in question was one of 51,thats right 51 lost nukes sitting at the bottom of the oceans world wide,and also 7 nuke reactors.Just to recap,51 nukes and 7 nuke reactors.Sleep well my friends.

I remember hearing about the H-bomb when I lived in Savannah. The thing with the Savannah river is that there is very deep mud at the bottom.
When people take their final plunge off the Talmadge Memorial Bridge, their bodies get stuck in the mud, and they are never found.

You'd think, however, that they could find this. Shouldn't they just be able to look for radiation?

reply to post by Paveway27


Oh I know that... still if its explosives blew even without a nuclear reaction it could release a lot of radiation... that is what I was talking about.

On The Level: I like that image of a hillbilly with a nuke coffee table and bald daughters.

Leaving the H-Bomb where it lies does seem to be the safest bet . Any terrorist organizations are unlikely to go to the effort of retrieving a device that is under the sea bed and is likely kill them before killing anyone else . Taking soil samples to track the environmental damage being done would be a smart idea thou . It is a bit of a worry that the Pentagon didn't bother going back for what is basically the most destructive weapon devised by people .