Command and Control

about twenty-three thousand feet per second, faster than a speeding bullet: An object going 16,000 miles per hour is traveling about 4.44 miles per second — roughly 23,467 feet per second. The velocity of bullets fired from a typical handgun ranges from about 800 to 1,200 feet per second at a distance of 50 yards. The speed of rifle bullets is higher, reaching as much as 4,000 feet per second.

surface temperatures of about 15,000 degrees Fahrenheit: Although temperatures that high might be encountered briefly, the strong shock wave preceding a warhead as it falls will dissipate a great deal of that heat in the atmosphere. Cited in “Ballistic Missile Staff Course Study Guide,” 4315th Combat Crew Training Squadron, Strategic Air Command, Vandenberg Air Force Base, July 1, 1980, p. 3–1.

hotter than the melting point of any metal: Tungsten’s melting point is the highest—6,170 degrees Fahrenheit. Cited in Stumpf, Titan II, p. 56.

On the way up, a barometric switch closed:… On the way down, an accelerometer ignited: I learned these details from a weapon designer who worked on the W-53 warhead.

set for an airburst:… at an altitude of fourteen thousand feet: Cited in Penson, Titan II Handbook, p. 135.

At first, perhaps 70 to 75 percent… were expected to hit their targets: Cited in “Missile Procurement,” p. 532.

that proportion would rise to 90 percent: Cited in ibid.

“the biggest guns in the western world”: “Nuclear ‘Guns’ Ready, Aimed at Likely Foes,” Los Angeles Times, June 22, 1964.

The first launch crews had to train with cardboard mock-ups: For the challenges that some of the first crews faced, see Grant E. Secrist, “A Perspective on Crew Duty in the Early Days, the 308th SMW,” Association of Air Force Missileers Newsletter, vol. 13, no. 4, December 2005, pp. 4–6.

Sergeant Donald V. Green was serving as a referee: Interview with Donald V. Green.

General LeMay liked to run these tests: They were prominently featured in the movie Strategic Air Command and in the Life magazine profile of LeMay, “Toughest Cop of the Western World.” The author and historian James Carroll described how his father, a high-ranking security officer at the Pentagon, spent years attempting acts of “faux sabotage” against LeMay, as part of a friendly rivalry. See James Carroll, House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power (Boston: Mariner Books, 2006), pp. 214–19.

“Scallorn, just be quiet”: Quoted in Scallorn interview and Moser interview.

“Roger, General”: Quoted in ibid.

“Little Rock, this is Martin-Denver”: Carnahan’s recommendation that nothing be done is the only quote in the entire three-volume accident report that comes from a tape recording of discussions on the Missile Potential Hazard Net. The quote is long, it’s verbatim — and it absolves Martin Marietta of responsibility for what later went wrong. The recording was made at Martin-Denver. See “Report, Major Missile Accident, Titan II Complex 374-7,” Testimony of Charles E. Carnahan, Tab U-11, pp. 1–2.

“It’s hot as hell”: Quoted in “Report, Major Missile Accident, Titan II Complex 374-7,” Kennedy statement, Tab U–46, p. 10.

PART FOUR: OUT OF CONTROL

Decapitation

a B-52 bomber took off from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base: My account of the accident is based on interviews with Bob Peurifoy and Bill Stevens, as well as on documents that have been released through the Freedom of Information Act. See “Summary of Nuclear Weapon Incidents (AF Form 1058) and Related Problems — January 1961,” Airmunitions Letter, No. 136-11-56G, Headquarters, Ogden Air Material Area, April 18, 1961 (SECRET/RESTRICTED DATA/declassified), pp. 1–27; and “Official Observer’s Report, Air Accident, Goldsboro, North Carolina,” Ross B. Speer, AEC/ALO, February 16, 1961 (SECRET/RESTRICTED DATA /declassified). A good explanation of why the accident was so dangerous can be found in a memo written by Parker F. Jones, the supervisor of Sandia’s Nuclear Weapon Safety Department: “Goldsboro Revisited, or How I Learned to Mistrust the H-Bomb, or To Set the Record Straight,” Parker F. Jones, SFRD Memo, SNL 1651, October 22, 1969 (SECRET/RESTRICTED DATA/declassified). Joel Dobson offers the best description of the accident itself and the fate of the crew in The Goldsboro Broken Arrow: The Story of the 1961 B-52 Crash, the Men, the Bombs, the Aftermath (Raleigh, NC: Lulu, 2011). But Dobson’s book is less reliable about the inner workings of the weapons.