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[Blader]

There are two Carolinas?

Excellent.

 

[Gr1mLock]

This is not the best idea ever. Flying around with nukes just in case. I mean i know it was a different time and all but holy shit.

 

[Parch]

I wonder who they would have blamed it on.

Perhaps not intentional denial, but they certainly didn't go out of their way to tell anybody. Dismissal and if necessary cover up much preferred over accountability.

 

[freenudemacusers]

This is not the best idea ever. Flying around with nukes just in case. I mean i know it was a different time and all but holy shit.

if it makes you feel better, we still do this from time to time


greaaat time to be stationed there, btw.

 

[GK86]

I wonder who they would have blamed it on.

Rouge communist bomber crew.

 

[industrian]

That's from the movie broken arrow. It's what the title is referencing.

Broken Arrow: an accidental nuclear incident that involves nuclear weapons, warheads, or components but which does not create the risk of nuclear war.

Empty Quiver: the seizure, theft, or loss of a functioning nuclear weapon.

Emergency Disablement: operations involving the emergency destruction of nuclear weapons.

themoreyouknow.jpg

That's scary as shit. Why was it carrying two nuclear bombs?

Before ICBMs became the popular choice, the nuclear deterrent of the United States was to constantly fly squadrons of nuclear-armed B-52 bombers over both North America and Europe

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Chrome_Dome

 

[NotTheGuyYouKill]

Giles Prentice (played by Frank Whaley) in Broken Arrow (1996)

Great movie.

 

[soul creator]

heh, I first heard about this in Rachel Maddow's book.

The whole "we almost wiped out human civilization" thing seemed especially more real after reading about stories like this.

 

[RustyNails]

I thought this was how godzilla was created?

 

[Not Spaceghost]

It kind of makes you wonder what kind of world we would be living in right now if this had happened.

Would we have total nuclear disarmament right now?
Would the US have scapegoated the bombs on the russians leading to WW3?
Or would Godzilla be real?

Has there ever been an accidental nuclear explosion? It would be amazing there hadn't, especially considering the false alarms between the USSR and USA, and other near-misses like this.

Off the top of my head I can't think of any "accidental nukes", but there was something similar. The Castle Bravo nuclear test was like 3-4 times more powerful than they were anticipating and almost killed the whole crew associated with the test and made the atoll that it was tested on uninhabitable for a while, and also caused some japanese fishermen who were in a predicted "safe zone" to die from fallout.

 

[RyanDG]

It's scary to think what the response to one of these weapons accidentally going off would've been at the time. I find it hard to believe that the government wouldn't have actively invoked some kind of cover up, including possibly blaming a foreign power for the results.