Was it 5 or 6? Has the U.S. Air Force Lost a Nuke?
On August 30th, 2007 the U.S. Air Force “mistakenly” transported some live nuclear missles on the wing pods of a B-52 bomber enroute from Minot, ND to Barksdale AFB in Louisiana. This act was in violation of every possible protocol for transporting nukes. More importantly, early counts of the number of missiles transported don’t mesh with later reports. Was it 5 nukes, or 6?
How does the Air Force “lose” a nuclear weapon? Creative accounting? And why would such an incident be such a big deal (other than the obvious lack of control)?
Yes, dear reader, it’s time to put on the tinfoil hat and visit The Geronimo Manifesto - because there’s a story that made a brief splash a week back, and which (on the face of it) makes very little sense - unless you stop to actually think about it:
Early news reports spoke of five nuclear warheads loaded onto the bomber. Apparently, this information was provided from Barksdale.
That number was later updated to six weapons missing from Minot, apparently based on anonymous tips provided to Military Times by people at Minot. This information has also been forgotten.
Six nuclear weapons disappeared from Minot AFB in North Dakota.
Five nuclear weapons were discovered at Barksdale AFB in Louisiana.
Which leads to my chilling conclusion:
Someone, operating under a special chain of command within the United States Air Force, just stole a nuclear weapon.
(Unfortunately, the article at Geronimo Manifesto doesn’t contain any links - so here’s one and here’s another to get you going…)
Of particular interest is this excerpt from KXMC in Minot, ND:
Sources in Congress say the timeline shows the six nuclear warheads were not retrieved or even identified as being nuclear munitions for almost ten hours after their arrival at Barksdale.
Sources in the Air Force say it took that long because the airmen who first discovered the bombs could not believe what they were seeing and had a hard time convincing superiors that the missiles on the bomber were, in fact, carrying nuclear weapons…
As an ex-submariner in the U.S. Navy, I have at least a passing familiarity with the protocols for transporting, handling, and storing nuclear weapons. Something just ain’t right with the official story, the most chilling aspect being that there is a disparity in the head count of nukes. Someone in an official capacity needs to address that issue - and quickly - before this story turns into a real nightmare (hopefully, only from a PR perspective for the Air Force).
Hey, I read that whole thread yesterday and laughed my head off, both at the original post and the comments that followed. A simple “Hey, this doesn’t match up, what gives?” would be plenty sufficient but they suddenly have “proof” that a secret cabal will be nuking its own people. I give you credit for treating this with the seriousness the discrepancy of the reporting deserves and yet not jumping to all those *insane* conclusions. It is a serious problem to have nukes being flown around by accident, and that’s fine to point out and talk about. I think asking for clarification about the reportage is fine and proper, while assuming that most likely it is a mistake or miscommunication of some sort. The original incompetence makes it easy to believe more confusion was floating around at the time. The “nightmare” will not go beyond a PR hit to the Air Force and hassle for the individuals involved, I am almost certain. I am willing to bet that no matter what the clarification clears up, and how honest and easily elicited it is, the folks at Geronimo Manifesto will hold on to the original scenario they imagined. It is possible though that the Air Force will not address it, or address it poorly, and that will also confirm their worst fears. Early reports are often wrong, and then corrected. It’s a shame hardly anyone there was skeptical at all.
I caught this little comment at Daily Kos in a diary on the same topic, and thought it was rather, eh, disquieting. Picture Dick Cheney (as “Dirty Harry” Callahan):
Apparently, you missed the fact that 6 people (Airmen) involved in the story have suddenly, ehr, expired.
http://www.legitgov.org/minot_afb_nukes_oddities.html
Whoopsy. Probably just minor (Minot) coincidences. Sure. Yep. Right. True.
(Ducks into 10-year provisioned bomb shelter.)