What ever happened to the 6 nukes on the B-52 bomber ?

[blues90]

it was sept 5th 2007 and I have seen nothing about it since other than it being tied in a post to the NIE report . Does everything just vanish . wasn't there supposed to be an investigation that would take several weeks ?

Just wondering what rabbit hole this fell into .

[TomInTib]

1. Ask DUer Rick Myers. He is really up to speed on this.

But I will guarantee you that the Official Explanation (a breakdown at every level) was utter bullshit.

I have been around enough nuke handling and transport to know that there was something very strange in the air. There would have been a prejudicially lethal quick end to this before the weapons ever left the rack at Minot.

[Postman]

2. You did this sort of thing before?

In what way do you view this incident as strange?

[TomInTib]

7. Well...

Our Team would sometime be called from SE Asia for soft duty on a nuclear-armed warship that was in the Enterprise group.

The nukes (either real or dummies, we were never told) would usually be stored in the helo hanger.

There were always at least two of us (live-armed) and two techs. We were always in line-of-sight of one another.

Any order counter to our original instructions would have to come from the officer who originally briefed us or his superior.

The protocol is ironclad.

When protocol is interrupted or breached, there is no negotiation or headscratching. Shoot to kill. Immunity is a given.


With the B-52 thing, the fact that those weapons were armed (and who knows if they were activated - I certainly hope not) and pylon-mounted is scary as hell. And the damned plane sat at Barksdale, unguarded, for hours.

I know of no one who can rationalize what happened in the case of the Minot/Barksdale scenario.

But I have no idea at all what could have been the driver behind this.

I just know that none of it makes any sense whatsoever.

And when you are not making sense and nukes are involved, something is horrifically fucked up.

[Bakunin]

9. I have been under the impression that it is the Marines

that handle guard duty with nukes on ships, not Seal teams. Is that not true?

[warren pease]

3. There was an inquiry...

And, of course, "mistakes were made" and an "unprecedented breakdown in the chain of custody" occurred and "the guilty parties have been disciplined" and so on into official passive voice bullshit land. I think the commanding officer at Minot got canned, or maybe it was the guy in charge of nuke handling and security.

The result? We don't know any more than we did back when the story first hit the internets. The WaPo did a great job supporting the official incompetence theory, but that was about the only mass media coverage the incident got, I believe.

And what does anyone care about this old crap anyway? Isn't there a football game on? Isn't Oprah doing something important this evening? Have you heard anything new on OJ? Is Britany sober yet? It's getting late and there hasn't been a mall shooting yet? Churches in Colorado just don't provide the visuals that you get in a mall. Not even a new Osama video. Damn. Another slow news day.

And as Tom says, Rick would be the guy to talk to. Want to PM him, or shall I?


wp

[warren pease]

4. Sorry, dupe - self-delete

[DemoTex]

5. Sleep tight .. you (and the Nukes) are in the Lord's hands.

[tekisui]

6. Are they still at the southern base they were flown to?

Or were they returned to their proper storage area?

[whistle]

8. There is a very large lump under some carpet over at the Pentagon