Command and Control

Two thirds of the Thor missiles used in the tests: Four of the six missile tests ended prematurely. Project 8C in the Fish Bowl series of Dominic had been carefully planned to determine the effects of a nuclear detonation on a reentry vehicle’s heat shield and other components. “The experiment was not completed,” a report later said with disappointment, “because after approximately 1 minute of flight the missile blew up.” One of the two successful tests had unexpected results. During the Starfish Prime shot, a 1.4-megaton warhead was detonated at an altitude of about 250 miles. The electromagnetic pulse was much stronger than anticipated, damaging three satellites, disrupting radio communications across the Pacific, and causing streetlights to go out on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, about eight hundred miles away. See “Operation Dominic: Fish Bowl Series,” M. J. Rubenstein, Project Officers Report — Project 8C, Reentry Vehicle Tests, Air Force Special Weapons Center, July 3, 1963 (SECRET/RESTRICTED DATA/declassified), p. 6; “United States High-Altitude Test Experiences: A Review Emphasizing the Impact on the Environment,” Herman Hoerlin, a LASL monograph, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Ocotber 1976; and “Did High-Altitude EMP Cause the Hawaiian Streetlight Incident?” Charles Vittitoe, Electromagnetic Applications Division, Sandia National Laboratories, System Design and Assessment Notes, Note 31, June 1989.

three workers at an Atomic Energy Commission base: For details of the Medina explosion, see “Run! Three Do; Injuries Are Minor,” San Antonio Express, November 14, 1963; “‘Just Running’: Panic in Streets for Few Moments,” San Antonio Light, November 14, 1963; “Tons of TNT Explode in Weapons Plant,” Tipton [Indiana] Daily Tribune, November 14, 1963; Hansen, Swords of Armageddon, Volume VII, p. 272; Maggelet and Oskins, Broken Arrow, Volume II, pp. 98–100.

a B-52 encountered severe air turbulence: For details of the Cumberland Broken Arrow, see Airmunitions Letter, No. 136-11-56N, Headquarters, Ogden Air Material Area, March 10, 1964 (SECRET/RESTRICTED DATA/declassified), pp. 2–17; Dan Whetzel, “A Night to Remember,” Mountain Discoveries (Fall/Winter, 2007); Maggelet and Oskins, Broken Arrow, p. 198.

Another accident with a Mark 53 bomb: For details of the Bunker Hill Broken Arrow, see “B-58 with Nuclear Device Aboard Burns; One Killed,” Anderson [Indiana] Herald, December 9, 1964; “Memorial Services Held at Air Base,” Logansport [Indiana] Press, December 10, 1964; “Saw Flash, Then Fire, Ordered Plane Abandoned, Pilot Recalls,” Kokomo [Indiana] Morning Times, December 11, 1964; “A Review of the US Nuclear Weapon Safety Program—1945 to 1986,” R. N. Brodie, Sandia National Laboratories, SAND86-2955, February 1987 (SECRET/RESTRICTED DATA/declassified), p. 13; “Remedial Action and Final Radiological Status, 1964 B-58 Accident Site, Grissom Air Reserve Base, Bunker Hill, Indiana,” Steven E. Rademacher, Air Force Institute for Environment, Safety, and Occupational Health Risk Analysis, December 2000; and Maggelet and Oskins, Broken Arrow, pp. 204–10. After an accident that exposed five hydrogen bombs to burning jet fuel, the Air Force told the Kokomo Morning Times that there had been “no danger” of a radiation hazard.

a Minuteman missile site at Ellsworth Air Force Base: See “Accidents and Incidents,” Incident #2, p. 182; and “Review of the US Nuclear Weapon Safety Program,” p. 14. The most detailed account can be found in Maggelet and Oskins, Broken Arrow, Volume II, pp. 101–9.

a group of sailors were pushing an A-4E Skyhawk: The story of this long-hidden accident has been told in detail by Jim Little, a retired chief warrant officer with a long career managing nuclear weapons for the U.S. Navy. Little watched the plane roll off the deck of the Ticonderoga. His account of the accident can be found in Maggelet and Oskins, Broken Arrow, Volume II, pp. 113–16, and in his book, Brotherhood of Doom: Memoirs of a Navy Nuclear Weaponsman (Bradenton, FL: Booklocker, 2008), pp. 113–14.

“Brakes, brakes”: Quoted in Little, Brotherhood of Doom, p. 114.

recently graduated from Ohio State University: Webster had flown seventeen combat missions in Vietnam and gotten married the previous year. One of his close friends from high school, Roger Ailes, later the president of Fox News, created a scholarship fund in Webster’s name. See William K. Alcorn, “Webster Scholarship to Help City Youths,” Youngstown [Ohio] Vindicator, July 3, 2006.