Broken Arrow

How the U.S. Navy Lost a Nuclear Bomb

De: Jim Winchester

Narrado por: Shawn Compton

Douglas Webster was a young pilot from Ohio, newly married and with 17 combat missions under his belt. On December 5, 1965 he strapped into an A-4 Skyhawk bomber for a routine weapons loading drill and simulated mission. After mishandling the maneuver, the plane and its pilot sunk to the bottom of the South China Sea, along with a live B43 one-megaton thermonuclear bomb.

A cover-up mission began. The crew was ordered to stay quiet, rumors circulate of sabotage, a damaged weapon, and a troublesome pilot who needed "disposing of". The incident, a "Broken Arrow" in the parlance of the Pentagon, was kept under wraps until 25 years later. The details that emerged caused a diplomatic incident, revealing that the US had violated agreements not to bring nuclear weapons into Japan. Family members and the public only learned the truth when researchers discovered archived documents that disclosed the true location of the carrier, hundreds of miles closer to land than admitted.

For the first time, through previously classified documents and the recollections of those who were there, the story of carrier aviation's only "Broken Arrow" is told in full.

©2019 Jim Winchester (P)2020 Tantor

Total Ticonderoga

Very complete coverage of everything Ticonderoga. But Mr. Winchester missed a critical detail. I would have interview other pilots, as opposed to ship’s crew, to find out what Doug was looking at or for in the A-4 cockpit. I suggest he was baffled that the brake light was not coming on. I don’t think he was distracted, but instead there was something wrong with his instrumentation. The sailors who moved the plane are not going to know the A-4 like another pilot would.

A second point. The pilot did not eject. Why not? A guy I used to work with was a Vietnam Veteran stationed on a carrier (sadly, I don’t know which one). He told me about an A-4 pilot, who after a landing, went over the side with the plane. My co-worker said that they had managed to hook the plane with a cable and he would have been all right. But the pilot triggered the ejection mechanism which due to the angle of the plane, had him slamming into the side of the carrier. That killed him. Doug may have been aware of this hazard and elected not to eject.

Meticulous research

Very thorough story, not just of the title incident, but the history of the ship, the airplane, the people, and even Japanese-American relations.

The surprising part of the story is got little anyone seemed to care about the lost nuclear weapon, other than covering up its loss.

Recommended.