There's a Nuclear Weapon Buried Somewhere And We Can't Find It

[@Thestargazer56]

I lived about 5 miles from this location. I was about 5 years old when it happened on 24 January 1961. A book titled The Goldsboro Broken Arrow by Joel Dobson is an excellent account of the "incident". The relief pilot who jumped out of one hatch only to be thrown out the roof hatch was the last survivor of the crash. He nearly parachuted back into the burning crash. He was one of the first black B-52 pilots. A family drove him back to Seymore-Johnson AFB and stopped them at the gate, not knowing about the crash, and tried to arrest the pilot for "stealing a parachute".

[@asadhafeez9681]

I live 25000 miles from the location, I was not even born, still terrified to know this incident

[@adamdemirs3466]

Damn you're old, me to, lol.

[@Yukikazehalo]

@@redstonemacanic2434 being born in 1956 means they are 66 years old.

[@octobsession3061]

This is simply one of the most American things i've ever heard

[@octobsession3061]

@@asadhafeez9681 you're lying I guess?

[@Ril3y400]

As a native to NC, this has always fascinated and terrified the hell out of me. My grandad used to tell me about the military crashing a bomber out in Goldsboro. This video hits extra special. Cheers Thoughty2!

[@Brosef336]

Good thing I live all the way in Boone a good 300 miles from Goldsboro! A lot of my family is from Goldsboro though so I’ve always been interested in this. If there are any Goldsboro natives my cousin started Goldsboro Brewery.

[@dogge929]

You're not Scott free yet bud, keep in mind that the NFS is only about 60 miles away in Erwin. If either of those things goes off, we both get to watch each other's skin melt off because I live in Burnsville.

[@EfenTyson]

@@dogge929 lol I was thinking the same thing. This nuke is so powerful that 300 miles wouldn’t be far enough.

[@NoNo-qd2rm]

Lmao I live within 10 miles of the place

[@arareanddifferenttune3130]

@@Brosef336Boone is so beautiful!

[@robertwilloughby8050]

"There's a nuke buried in the ocean off southern Spain" would be a great follow up! The Palomares Incident is another "Broken Arrow" moment, and a very scary one, too!

[@johnemerson1363]

US Navy divers finally recovered it in very deep water using what was then revolutionary deep diving equipment. The first black master diver was involved. There was a movie about him starring Cuba Godding Jr.

[@TurpInTexas]

My dad was part of a team that mapped fields where one of the 1 of 4 bombs had hit a mountain and scattered its contents over those fields. They had to scoop up the top few inches of the entire area and put them in 55 gallon drums and I think they dropped them into the ocean but I really don't know for sure what they did with all that dirt. Anyhow, we were living in Germany at the time and before he left he brought home a Geiger counter to learn to use before heading to the site to begin searching for radioactive stuff. He claimed a few years later some of the guys doing the mapping had died from radioactive exposure but I was just a kid at the time so I don't really know or remember much of those details either.

[@thesilentone4024]

We have concrete valts full of nuclear waste from medical and waste from power plants but mostly medical covering the ocean floor in multiple countries.

[@john_t_england]

@@edreynolds8721 The aircraft carrier, the USS Independence, was sunk roughly 30 miles off the California coast near the Farallon Islands, and was rediscovered in 2015. It was not sunk under the Golden Gate Bridge.

[@UserUser-ww2nj]

@@john_t_england So most if not all of what Ed Reynolds has written can be taken with a bucket of salt . Seems he has a big chip or maybe a forest on his shoulder regarding Britain. He also forgot to mention "Three mile Island " , conveniently . Doing the blame game very badly

[@whippet71]

A friend and myself helped and elderly man install gutters on his patio roof about 20+ years ago. After we finished, he thanked us and talked for awhile. He began to tell about his life and work. He was in the Airforce and told us this amazing story. We asked him how he heard about this incident. He told us he was a member of the crew and was one of the survivors.

[@DG-kq8zf]

Cool. Old school military guy passing on his story to be remembered by a couple kids. Edit: you might not have been kids, but you were to him.

[@herehere3139]

Airman whats our fuel!? About 22 elephants sir! Outstanding airmanship!

[@tom4208]

I wish I could buy you a pack of beers, funniest shit I have seen commented on this platform for many many years.

[@N0v4.fr05t.]

​@@tom4208irish?

[@tom4208]

@@N0v4.fr05t. I have irish in my blood but not enough to really consider myself an irish man

[@DG-kq8zf]

I wish more people could see this comment. It's hilarious! I can picture them yelling back and forth in the noisy aircraft. 😂

[@herehere3139]

​@@tom4208 😂 Thanks I'll gladly accept them in spirit 🥂

[@nickchristman1815]

I lived my whole life living in Goldsboro and just moved to Raleigh, I find it a little strange how especially for it being an all Air Force town and the vast history; in school we never spent anytime learning about this aside from just hearing about it back in middle school.

[@itsv1p3r]

Its funny bc it kinda gives u the perception that whatever you’re around is just a normal thing to be around and you assume they’re everywhere bc its all you know. Can only really appreciate that stuff once you see what other places are like

[@cowboybob7093]

This episode happened a few months before I was born in Raleigh. There are photos from Las Vegas of above-ground regular "atom bomb" tests, not H-bombs like this one. Those spindly a-bomb mushroom clouds photographed from the Las Vegas strip are as far away as Goldsboro is from Raleigh. If it was an H-bomb the cloud would fill the camera's view finder.

[@illbeyourstumbleine]

It crazier to think how many people in thos comment section wouldn't exist right now. Of course the people from that area, but others as well. I really don't think the US would've taken blame for killing their own people. So this would have been the start of Cold War and possibly the beginning of the end for many of not all depending on how dumb we were. Considering this even happened I would say pretty dumb.

[@idontreallyknow1649]

As if the government would approve education about anything that makes them look less than stellar lol

[@ceilyurie856]

@@cowboybob7093 admittedly VERY briefly before the camera man died horribly, most likely

[@wesb1023]

I live 35~40 miles away from this location that would have been ground zero. I’m really glad to see you covering this as well, as even folks around here are still not aware of this. I too as others have commented wish thoughty2 would have included the pilots troubles getting back to Seymour-Johnson AFB. There are many videos on KZbin covering the incident since it was declassified in 2013. I have not traveled to the location, but it’s on my to do list.

[@alanbanh]

u go boom

[@wesb1023]

I’ve had a front row seat to this ALL of my life….a few inches closer isn’t going to make any difference.

[@stephenhurd1489]

There's no bomb there isreal stole it.

[@typescripth]

the plutonium buried there is worth 30m$

[@jeffperry8068]

Animation of the B52 refueling drove me nuts!! The plane that refuels the other plane is in front of and higher then the one receiving the full.. So the B52 would have been below and in back, and the refueling would be higher and in front. My OCD kicked in big time..

[@THE-BUNKEN-DRUM]

Also, the undercarriage of both planes was down. My inner nerd, was in full-on "Hulk mode" watching that.

[@THE-BUNKEN-DRUM]

Hmm, YT must've deleted the other comment 🤔

[@danielbradley5255]

@ADAM STEELE lol I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist pointing out two things: The first of which should be blatantly obvious, is it not? I too, have an "inner" 🤓 (nerd) The other would be my own personal, satisfying and egg headed love at discovering oxymorons. I'll leave it at that so as not to ruin the potential discovery for others 🔎🔬🔭🧪🔍

[@a-fl-man640]

last i knew B-52s didn't refuel any aircraft. they were the ones getting fueled. obviously someone clueless made that animation. kind of weird someone would go to the trouble and effort to make a video then not get something that simple right.

[@THE-BUNKEN-DRUM]

@@danielbradley5255 : Ha, I know what you mean. My original comment, did acknowledge the obvious mistake. But alas, for some reason, ze KZbin overlords didn't agree.

[@bertram-raven]

Little Timmy: "Grandma, what's that glowing thing in the fireplace?" Grandma: "I found it in a field. It keeps the house nice and warm."

[@DouglasKleim]

Grandmothers, always so practical.

[@Aaron-eu7ke]

The devil heater

[@AnnBearForFreedom]

We've all heard of "the demon core incident". That would have been "the demon HVAC incident".

[@vasiovasio]

😂😂😂

[@Svensk7119]

Mark Whatney-disco vibes, anyone???

[@akizeta]

I understood that the _second_ bomb, the one that didn't deploy the chute, was the one where they found that three of the four fail-safes had, um, failed. There's a quote from the officer in charge of the _Broken Arrow_ team that recovered the bombs: "Until my death I will never forget hearing my sergeant say, 'Lieutenant, we found the arm/safe switch.' And I said, 'Great.' He said, 'Not great. It's on arm.'"

[@oldman0995]

My wife and I were both children living in Goldsboro NC at the time. My father was in the Air Force, here father worked on base. Thank God it did not detonate. According to the story the switch that kept the parachute bomb from exploding was flipped on on the one that was buried in the ground. The officer leading the recovery said he got the chills when the recovery person told him it was flipped. Another interesting thing is that water table is within 10 feet of the surface in many places. That definitely hampered the recovery

[@Thestargazer56]

I lived near Stantonsburg, NC at the time. I saw the pit after they reopened the road. They had massive pumps removing water they supposedly quit at digging 165 feet. The hole was also used to bury pieces of the B-52 that were not returned.

[@Mrbio41]

Nuclear bombs don't detonate on impact, and are not armed just by dropping it. There are multiple safeguards in place, and has to be a legitimate drop for the computers to take over the fuse. Nuclear bombs need a very precise series of events and explosions to actually detonate. You can mash them into the ground at 50,000MPH, and it still won't explode.

[@jesscorbin5981]

@@Mrbio41 there's gotta be some chance

[@Mrbio41]

@@jesscorbin5981 I mean minuscule. A nuke takes a series of millisecond timed explosions that have to trigger pretty much perfectly to detonate. And those can explosions only happen when the bomb is actually armed, and the computer takes over. That’s why you can crash planes with nukes and they don’t go off.

[@StevenCampbell1955]

Plutonium would contaminate the ground water for centuries. I would be reluctant to drink or even use domestically any water sourced from that area. Crops too might be highly suspect. Official response from government would have been, " Let's bury it for the next generation. We will lose promotion."

[@stankfaust814]

Great video. My grandfather actually died in a B-52 crash working for boeing when the vertical stabilizer came off at low altitude / high speed. Took them awhile to sort out how to keep them on in turbulence.

[@MadZprod23]

I didn't realise you did podcasts, I was on a 5 hour round trip 3 days in a row and searched " random facts " and your podcasts came up, I listened to every one of them, ranging from Blood is valuable to eggs and history. Brilliant 👏. All the dad jokes made it so funny.

[@patrickmerritt2843]

That is a tiny refueling plane pumping in the wrong direction, no wonder they had issues lol.

[@spyroXcynder1000]

Fun Fact: The US has accidentally dropped, crashed, or lost nukes on its own soil a total of 5 times (outside of testing of course). Including this one, a couple of them have never been found and are near residential areas

[@denniskane1870]

I think some of those nukes ended up in other countries. They were not lost at all.

[@RobCCTV]

All Thoughty2 videos are fascinating. But this was extra special. A magnificent 15 minute production.

[@himawari_254]

did you change your thumbnail or am i going nuts

[@wajf2881]

You are 100% correct!

[@FilosophicalPharmer]

Well, doggone it!! I enjoy Thoughty2’s videos a lot also and to hear this one was extra good makes me jealous. Can’t enjoy the story as much because I’m a North Carolinian. Locally and colloquially, this story is “getting long in the tooth”. But Thoughty2 is welcome to come for a visit to work on a video. He and I can look for white squirrels and boomers, hunt for ginseng and lion’s mane, eat boiled peanuts and livermush, show him a proper tobacco plant and, heck, if he gets *too* bored, I’ll find a church with snakes as a part of the service.

[@Xogroroth666]

Not even close, with the 5 minute ad banter. These attack and destroy billions of my braincells per picosecond encountered by it. I need an in-video ad banter killer. Anyone a suggestion?

[@FilosophicalPharmer]

@@Xogroroth666 Meditation, bro.

[@RB-bd5tz]

3:02 I imagine the person doing the animating did some internet research and found an image of a B-52 receiving fuel from a fighter-sized tanker, while being positioned above and in front of the tanker ...

[@n108bg]

And so made an animation of a b-52 with its gear down getting fuel from a third scale model of a xi'an y-20 that was behind and below it...this is leaps and bounds beyond that time that sam o'nella re-painted a p-51 to be a japanese plane.

[@RB-bd5tz]

@@n108bg That's exactly what I thought! Funny you should mention it, though, because I only found Sam O'Nella's channel a few weeks ago. Was the P-51 backlash the reason he stopped posting for two years? (BTW, I just went there and he put up a new vid a couple days ago.)

[@n108bg]

@@RB-bd5tz I'd say indirectly, I don't think he ever came out and said why he was on hiatus.

[@Pyrothebored]

I was a 135 maintainer, i died a little

[@therocinante3443]

honestly i unsubbed because of that

[@Stephan1988]

How is it that Thoughty2 always has an interesting story that I’ve never heard before!

[@regularpit1508]

I learned about it years ago on Mysteries at the Museum which is interesting. We also had a incident in Spain aswell.

[@FastDuDeJiunn]

Thought2 and MrBallen 2 my fav story tellers on youtube. Thoughty does more uploads i think. But admit Ballens way of telling the stories is usually better.

[@panzerveps]

In most cases I've already heard the story he tells several times before, but he usually tells it a lot better than many others.

[@mattdelarosa6819]

It’s the moustache… that glorious, perfect, manly moustache. It grants him immeasurable knowledge and otherworldly story telling abilities

[@granand]

He is thinking *2 times ?

[@jamesa2961]

I used to be an emergency fuel mechanic at Msp Airport. It's amazing how much temperatures and the fuel contract and expand on warm days vs. cool days . Fun job working in the controlled chaos

[@jimclark6256]

Stationed at Seymour Johnson AFB in 64-65. I worked on the flight line where the 52's were positioned on the tarmac. Never heard about the "incident' until years later, everyone was very tight lipped. don't ask, don't tell.

[@sarj743]

Michael H. Maggelet and James C. Oskins, authors of Broken Arrow: The Declassified History of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Accidents, disputed the claim that a bomb was only one step away from detonation, citing a declassified report. They point out that the arm-ready switch was in the safe position, the high-voltage battery was not activated (which would preclude the charging of the firing circuit and neutron generator necessary for detonation), and the rotary safing switch was destroyed, preventing energisation of the X-Unit (which controlled the firing capacitors). The tritium reservoir used for fusion boosting was also full and had not been injected into the weapon primary. This would have resulted in a significantly reduced primary yield and would not have ignited the weapon's fusion secondary stage.

[@buckhorncortez]

Details...details...it's not nearly as scary...

[@melsterifficmama1808]

Good to know.

[@borisgalos6967]

Nice to see a comment from somebody who knows how a Teller-Ulam design bomb works. Thanks for saving me a bunch of typing.

[@gregoryhagen8801]

Finally! Someone who knows the truth.

[@cowboybob7093]

Cynical reply: Yeah, but how many decades did it take to come up with all those details. Honest reply: Things like the tritium bottle being full - makes logistical sense, reassuring.

[@bushkangarutha7849]

"22 hefty African bull elephants of fuel" you know, for the Americans that will measure in anything but the metric system

[@LarryDickman1]

Or 22 fat broads from the local bar room dive.

[@kd6420]

That's one of the biggest differences between the U.S. and Europe. - One uses the metric system - The other has been to the moon!

[@DG-kq8zf]

Like 23,621 stone?

[@gemeindebautv3156]

@@kd6420 they actually used the metric system to get there xD

[@SooSmokie]

​@@gemeindebautv3156You mean they also used the metric system to get their. They used both systems.

[@ConfesstoChrist]

This episode is filled with “Dropping loads”, burying tips in the ground”, and “exploding in holes”

[@davidarundel6187]

And long thick round things , both thick and thin - which is still in situ . A good find , if precautions are taken , to find the buried treasure - and thin long rod , to fit your post .

[@jeffery1harris941]

Somebody is down bad . haha

[@philipwalton4877]

‘Can I just put the tip in , nothing will hapen’

[@grahambuck8463]

Imagine penetrating so hard and so fast that you could only recover one of your 2 cores.

[@Litepaw]

Don't forget that untrimmed patch of overgrowth

[@markrainford1219]

I found cutting out granola and blueberries completely, and replacing them with a 'full English' made me extremely happy.

[@kelsopotsak9301]

Dude moved his hands so much in his ad that I couldn’t believe a word he said 🤣🤣

[@cor2250]

True Lol

[@MrDDiRusso]

It is common practice to under load fuel on large military planes at take off and then top off the fuel tanks via mid air refueling once the plane is airborne. This allows the plane to carry more weight.

[@digitalcurrents]

Why must we use bigger planes to refuel slightly less big planes?

[@MrDDiRusso]

@@digitalcurrents mid air refuelling is an important method used to extend the range of aircraft so they do not have to land. This saves time and fuel. Aircraft have a limited maximum take off weight but can actually hold more weight once they are in the air. Fuel is heavy, so by using only a minimum amount of fuel at take off, this allows the plane to carry a larger payload. Once in the air, it can add the extra weight of the fuel. Tanker planes, by necessity, are larger in order to carry more fuel and to be able to refuel many aircraft. Interestingly, the SR71 BLACKBIRD spy plane had fuel tanks that were not liquid tight. The SR71 operated at high speeds that caused incredible friction and therefore extreme heat. To deal with this heat, the plane was made of titanium, a metal both lightweight and strong. Titanium is also heat resistant and won't melt at these higher temperatures. However, when metal is heated, it expands. To account for the expanding metal in the plane, the seams between panels and in the fuel tanks were left with gaps so the metal would expand when heated and seal the gaps. So when the SR71 took off, it was leaking fuel and immediately after takeoff it would refuel to top off its tanks. Once it reached operating altitude and speed, the fuel tanks would seal when the heated metal expanded.

[@williamwalker1264]

@@digitalcurrents When I was active duty in the AF in the late 70s we used KC135s to refuel to F111s routinely and they were nuclear capable strategic bombers used for deterrence as a part of the MAD triad but I never saw one loaded with nuclear weapons actually fly missions. That would have meant its time to party like there's no tomorrow and kiss your butt goodby.

[@MrDDiRusso]

@@williamwalker1264 thank you for your service.

[@nom6758]

@@MrDDiRusso thats some crazy old world engineering shit lol. That plane would have never been made nowadays.

[@daverauschenfels7047]

With all the arrogance of the Cold War, you could do an entire series on near misses and broken arrows.

[@ZERO_O7X]

This is "Military Intelligence" defined. 😂

[@cowboybob7093]

Considering the adversary was Soviet Russia, and how Russia has always covered up disasters (there are stories of Tsars ignoring inconvenient serf-catastrophes because the festivities must go on! seriously) - What I'm getting at is: *Imagine the horrific near-misses and real disasters ordered to be silenced (by) Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev etc.*

[@ProfPoindexter1968]

Amen! I was a Cold War soldier in the early 1970s. I'd hate to tell you how many times we fired anti-aircraft missiles with live, "tactical" nuclear warheads at Russian bombers, only to cancel the launch sequence with scant seconds to spare. Once we actually did launch such a rocket, but destroyed it in the air when the Russian pilot broke off his attack. The "Cold War" was the most badly-named war in history.

[@ModernProspector]

@@ProfPoindexter1968 Sources?

[@reiniernn9071]

@@ModernProspector I assume top secret. Those sources I mean.

[@lorellgingrich6603]

I was 10 yrs old at that time. We had air raid sirens that would be tested from time to time. I was terrified with each testing. I'm shocked at what you have revealed in this video. It's all just a game to the Military Industrial Complex Money, money, money...

[@cowboybob7093]

Yeah, air raid sirens - and they had to be tested - during fifth period in junior high school - glad it was only once a month! Do a search for the KZbin title _Chrysler V8 Air Raid Siren. At "Big Daddy" Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing._ And this clip explains how they work (not how I thought, mechanical not electrical) _Klaxons; What makes them sound like that?_

[@weswheel4834]

Would have been even more badass if the guy had jumped out of the B52 and held onto the bomb as it opened its parachute, Point Break style.

[@nakamotolikesyou]

US Citizens: YOU LOST WHAT???!! US Government: Oops :3

[@jonathonE]

Thoughty2 is preventing my boredom. Keep it up, you mustachioed hero!!

[@zwippie92]

That mustache is preventing the end of the world

[@Isnotreal42]

Think it's preventing the start of the new world simultaneously

[@cliffside5849]

So true🤣😂

[@patfre]

All comments above this is true. At least at the time of writing this

[@canadianguy521]

The flavor saver

[@duckygibson2075]

Agreed….but what’s it hiding 🤔😳

[@jillking5876]

Wonderful presentation once again, Thoughty. The best part of the story for me was the pilot jumping out of the plane and surviving. Excellent story.

[@billwendell6886]

Chrome Dome was airborne alert. The best weapon is the one so good you never had to use it. Love how you explained the parachute was step one to Boom Town. And it's only an hour away, one road trip coming up

[@keithsavagelives]

The one thing I find impossible to believe is that they couldn't find "a six kilo core of weapons-grade plutonium"!

[@MakeshiftMartyr]

I was a child in the 80s and I still remember the nuclear drills we had to do every year at school. I lived about 30 miles outside of Washington D.C. on the Maryland side so everyone was on high alert until I turned 10 in the very early 90s. Good times I tell you.

[@MakeshiftMartyr]

@@patricktaylor4431 really? We had to hide under our desks and everything lol

[@tubedude54]

I went to grade school in the 60's and 70's and we never did the drills either. Guess they didn't care if we died back then.

[@illbeyourstumbleine]

@@MakeshiftMartyr I'm from Kentucky and I remember those drills. We actually had a fallout shelter between the two school, the elementary and middle schools. So it's possible since we had that we would practice going into it from time to time. I was a sensitive little soul, well still am, so I cried my eyes out the first couple times.

[@MakeshiftMartyr]

@@tubedude54 😂

[@MakeshiftMartyr]

@@illbeyourstumbleine yeah, it took me quite a while to under what was happening.

[@balesjo]

Always look forward to and enjoy these videos. This has always been one of the more interesting stories that came out of the Cold War Era. Others include the B52 crash in Spain (which released nuclear bombs), another was the 1980 Damascus, Arkansas Titan II missile incident, where a dropped wrench set off a chain events ending with the missile exploding, blowing away the huge concrete blast doors over the silo and ejecting the bomb outside. Good times, right?

[@gnarthdarkanen7464]

Oh yeah... I can still remember nuclear bomb drills in school... just what a younger generation should be taught. ;o)

[@whiskeykilmer1866]

Hahaha

[@kbanghart]

@@gnarthdarkanen7464 I'm so wondering if that's better or worse than the active shooter drills of today.

[@thebigdog2295]

I believe one of those nuclear bombs is still somewhere in the ocean oof the cost of Spain as well.

[@gnarthdarkanen7464]

@@kbanghart Well, at least in elementary, we had "intruder" drills... They seem similar, but the bomb drills specifically got kids away from windows as if it was likely to make a difference. We also had to "duck and cover" for a bomb that sounded like a really big firecracker we weren't supposed to look at... A lot wrong with the 80's, but I occasionally miss my innocence. ;o)

[@Architectofawesome]

I am now convinced Humans have some unknown luck buff that makes massive rocks in space not hit us and nukes falling dropping from the sky by accident not explode.

[@buckhorncortez]

Then how come I never win the PowerBall...?

[@marigoldzephyrnio3647]

@@buckhorncortez because if everybody has the buff and only one person can win it's like nobody has the buff

[@Architectofawesome]

Exactly we cancel each other's buff when we compete. It's pvp scaling XD. But then there are still people who are lucky on their own merit so they are just kind of annoying.

[@okechicharles4762]

because that would be too quick, we're to go slowly and painfully...

[@nateh8syou]

Maybe it’s Earth itself with the luck buff and not humans?

[@rickd650]

It's like a 'wet paint' or 'keep off the grass' sign- surprised some contrarian hasn't gone out there with a shovel...

[@prelawnoob]

Imagine in a very distant future where humans have gone back to hunting and gathering, and this goes off. I wonder what their reaction would be

[@prestonbyrd8443]

As a North Carolina local, I'm happy you covered this. It's one of our lesser known interesting facts.

[@braves3526]

I worked on B52s for 6 years. I’ve heard this story many many times. It’s terrifying and hilarious because of the decisions made. Also compared to the stupidity of flying nukes from Minot to Barksdale in 2011.

[@AR-xy4jy]

Very interesting history lesson. The idea behind Chrome Dome ( patrolling B52s with nuclear weapons) is part of the story of 'Dr. Strangelove' with Peter Sellers. Did the public in the 1960s know that Chrome Dome existed?

[@cashflyer]

Yes - the public knew about Strategic Air Command and their mission.

[@stanjarosz7517]

Arrived as a 2nd Lt at Seymour in late spring 1969, and was assigned to crash recovery. While exploring the surrounding area by jeep, I happened to drive by the wooded patch surrounded by a high fence with all kinds of NO TRESPASSING signs on the fence. Asked my senior NCO's about it, and got the story about the B52 crash and the nuc that could not be recovered. The story was the soil was so mushy that the deeper they dug the more loose and squishy the soil became, so they bought the land, ran concrete in the hole til it topped out and fenced it. This became a more realistic explanation when 2 months later we were dispatched to the site of a Marine A4 that had gone in at near a 90 degree angle. We arrived at the crash site about 9:30 AM and all that was there was literally a smoking hole, with several very small trickles on the sides of the hole running in. The hole was about 50' wide and possibly 25 to 30 feet deep cone shaped. When we watched the 6 o'clock news, the crew had filmed the hole...now a hole brim full of water. Don't know what time the news crew arrived, but it certainly was late enough to film a new swimming hole. The story about not being able to recover the bomb then made sense.

[@My-Pal-Hal]

Yeah,. We have one sitting out in the Puget Sound here in Washington. I'm assuming salt water is a good storage medium. Because assuming it isn't... 🙄

[@nunessilva2162]

Brilliant piece of History. Narrated by the man that has been for me, and for a good while, the best storyteller on KZbin. "42"

[@josephbrownjr3564]

And just a couple hundred miles away is yet another lost nuclear weapon or broken arrow. Somewhere near Hilton Head Island and under several meters of mud and water is another fine example of military precision.

[@Here_is_Waldo]

That's just the stuff we know about. It's no wonder people have no trust in governments when this is what they do as a hobby.

[@IronFist080]

Man US problems are effing large scale. How many plutonium cores they have dropped around the world. I think there is one in Himalayas or there was I don't know.

[@hunterbear2421]

main problem they have lost one whole bomb in a swamp. I can just imagine our future a dude decideds to build a skyscraper on a swamp because the city grew too much and turns out he digs up a intact bomb and goodbye city.@@IronFist080

[@pdes_]

3:20 1) Airplanes refuel form behind the tanker. 2) The C17 is not and never has been a tanker 3) The B-52 is not that actually significantly larger than planes like the KC-135 (which is a more realistic tanker for it to refuel from) which is based in the Boeing 707 design.

[@HunLander13]

this is when a millenial makes a documentary xD

[@marcshields3536]

I currently live in the middle of former TITAN II missle base area of the former Stratigic Air Command McConnel Missle Wing in Kansas. In the 1980's I worked at the factory they all were built at and in fact operated the same 1956 Giddings & Lewis skinmill they were manufactured with. I remember (and could take you to) the former base sites around Wichita & south central Kansas as there is still evidence of their being.

[@Graves-81_69]

I live in NC a several miles from Goldsboro and that place scares the hell out of me. It’s like the remake of the Crazies but with a nuke. Just imagine being on that recovery team!

[@TheLampMan-JaE]

My Grandpa saw the plane go down. I remember seeing that patch of random patch of trees in the middle of the field and wondering what its deal was. I played in that tree patch when I visited my Grandparents there.

[@nostalgia3979]

Another great vid as usual thoughty2, your consistency is insane.

[@rollinsyenga1628]

Mr Fourty 2 got a rocking new haircut

[@fishzmfgo1]

The amount of nuclear warheads that just went missing during the cold War is scary I think there was one that went into a swamp that they couldn't locate and the ones the soviets had after the cold war ended how many of them got sold or just dispeard

[@donalain69]

If the soviets had sold a nuclear warhead, we would know about. Someone who has interest in buying a nuclear bomb either does so to scare off others or to use it. Or would you be hiding a radioactive nuke in your basement just for fun?

[@vyctordraco948]

1) the second core, we know where it is, it is just too dangerous to get to and is technically safer left in the ground. 2) It hasn't been a secret broken arrow incident for a very long time. There is even a plaque near the site where you can read all about it.

[@f5tornado831]

This reminds me of the scene in NanyMchPhee where a nuke is dropped on their farm and all their woried about is the crops and not the fact that they are about to be blown to smithereens by a nuke.

[@paoloviti6156]

What an interesting video but to say that everybody has been incredibly lucky that those two Hydrogen nuclear bombs did not explode is pure understatement. I'm really surprised that I never heard about this story but I was especially surprised that the USAIRFORCE knew the big issues with the wings yet they let it fly carrying those bombs? I find it incredible also because some of the crew lost their life! Really a good job you did 👍👍👍

[@timmotel5804]

That's how Governments work...

[@SirTools]

Great story and perhaps explains a bit of why another bomb was lost in Warsaw Sound, just South of Savannah Georgia and never recovered, I guess that switch was set in No Boom back then. They say due to the swampy marshes of the area the bomb could not be found and so it still lays there to this day.

[@prodigypenn]

you cannot accidentally set off a nuke, they are made to be deliberately set off, in order to prevent a nuclear explosion from happening on accident and wiping out a US city

[@justinhouse8330]

You never fail to amaze Thoughty2! This 1 was really great! You really are my 1 hero that I can brag & hype about to my fam & friends with full confidence that you want let me down! From the bottom of my heart, thank you to you and your team for the great work you guys do! Keep on keeping on!

[@stevenh.5181]

The new look , LOOKS real good , my mom tried to get me to use (V-05) When I was in high school?, said no then and wish I had the hair to now 😢

[@jimbeckert7946]

The refueling plane flies ahead of the plane being refueled. LOL.

[@generalkayoss7347]

I was born, raised and still live about 60 miles from Goldsboro. Almost directly downwind of where the fallout would go. While I have vaguely heard about the incident, this is the first time I've actually heard the story.

[@vaffel1355]

One of the most underrated channels on KZbin

[@richardbottom9843]

almost 5 mil subs, hardly underrated

[@vaffel1355]

@@richardbottom9843 Still underrated

[@willswalkingwest7267]

And no mention of the radioactivity produced by this missing weapons grade plutonium? No one's used a geiger counter around there? I mean, it was radioactive. They couldn't trace where that was coming from? It seems there must be a whole lot more to this story.

[@SteveHofsaess]

That is too logically, we are dealing with the government, who downplayed the situation

[@ronniewilliz153]

They probably knew it opened 19.5 feet under the ground an just buried it an never even tried to look for it. But how's it ok to farm it an grow crops around it but not build on it. Wouldn't it leach into the ground water if anything ?

[@darkwinter6028]

It’s probably still intact - remember, it’s designed to be robust enough to maintain it’s symmetry while being compressed by the explosive initiators. Also, it’s likely sufficiently well shielded that the sensing technology of the time couldn’t pinpoint it. Modern computer-based imaging systems that use radioactive sources, if adapted to the problem, could likely find it, given enough time to acquire data points. This is assuming that the core in question is, in fact, the fission-based primary, and not the fusion-based secondary. If what’s missing is in fact the fusion core, there may not be enough radioactive material present to be a major hazard. I’m no atomic expert, but I was under the impression that the fuel used in the secondary was principally tritium; not plutonium or uranium as is used in the fission based primary.

[@danielbradley5255]

Now see, I knew I wasn't the only person who thought this story smelled far too fishy to end on the way described. The recovery team was confident enough the radioactive material was dislodged from the bomb itself into the ground yet unable to find it at all but still certain it was somewhere under the field and stable enough that the field is still farmed to this very day?

[@georgejones3526]

“Excavation of the second bomb was eventually abandoned as a result of uncontrollable ground-water flooding. Most of the thermonuclear stage containing uranium and plutonium was left in place, but the "pit", or core, of the bomb which is needed to trigger a nuclear explosion was removed.”

[@ViscountAlbany]

Funny thing is the British countryside is peppered with those little patches of woodland in the middle of fields as they're fox hunting coverts, I don't think any of them have nuclear bomb cores hidden there

[@timmotel5804]

9/2023: I've seen much on Nuks in my life. Born in 1952. This is a new one on me. I lived in Arlington Virginia at that time. Those were truly dangerous times for the world. They're getting that way again... "Humanity" is it's own dangerous weapon. Educational and very interesting. Thank You and Best Regards.

[@thomasebeling8403]

Love your stuff Thoughty2. You´re my favorite pre work/post work youtuber. Thank you for making my days bearable and a tad more interesting.

[@mistral-unizion-music]

You are right, he is on my top 3 YT channels, along with Mr.Ballen and Fascinating Horror. Honnorable mentions: - Bedtime Stories - Dark History - Scary Interesting If you don't know any of these, please try em out, they are worth it. Cheers

[@thomasebeling8403]

@@mistral-unizion-music Thx mate, you just added to my list. Cheers!

[@seabreeze3992]

“Why did the most powerful military on earth by a random patch of turf“ “It probably won’t surprise you one bit that this was utter bull shit” Bars 🔥🔥

[@koenth2359]

Truth should be sacrificed more often in favour of cripple rhyme.

[@BigTechGist]

Excellent work. You might want to do a full scale series for some of the big networks at some point in time.

[@semeionsho]

[@dexterhuntington2495]

I think he would also make a really good interviewer.

[@johnsmith-zs9jq]

And loose any credibility that he has? Your better off staying on youtube.

[@jstriker623]

That month the Air Force purchased: A toilet seat for $5,000 A hammer for $3,000 and a Switch for, $2,000. Looking back, we should all feel better about the Pentagon's frugal spending habits.

[@ronporter2477]

My father, just a child 6 y/o in 1960 still refuses to talk about life during this era. I couldn’t even imagine the amount of paranoia and anxiety believing the world could end at any time.

[@davesthedude]

And.... welcome back to those times... were living it again bahahahaha

[@vast634]

duck and cover

[@AlexKarasev]

@@vast634 My father served in the Soviet strategic missile forces, and according to him, duck and cover was actually the right thing to do. Because to die from direct effects of a nuclear blast meant you were a VIP at one of the key sites. In which case, light up a cigar and take a sip of good scotch; out of the corner of your eye you may catch a streak in the sky like a plane makes but 20x faster, from a reentry vehicle, the first of a dozen or so to connect to your site. Your eyes will have seen what happens next but the brain won't be there to process the visual nerve's signal. 80% of the common folk would die from the EMP taking out the supply chains and the fabric of society with them. There will be NO warning except maybe a few min prior just for history books, as a warning would interfere with extraction of key personnel, and 80% of folks dying is part of the national survival strategy - there simply won't be use or resources for them. However, 1960s / 70s EMP will induce 50,000 volts per each meter or yard of conductor. Copper or iron water or gas pipes are conductors, and they may burst as a result. Ducking and covering will protect you from such effects.

[@nop3noperson]

I'm so glad I found this channel. Remarkable voice and quality

[@Turrican60]

Yet another great video by Arran. From now on I'll probably think about how close mankind came to potential catastrophe every time I flick a light switch.

[@zsmackYT]

i live about 8 minutes away from there and I always thought those trees were weird but now I know why and i drive by it every day

[@akizeta]

You need to have a word with your animators about research. In mid-air refuelling, the tanker is the lead plane, and the plane being fuelled is the trailing plane. The refuelling hose or boom is let out of the tanker and the receiving plane docks with it. In the animation your lead plane is very obviously a B-52, which should be trailing, and the trailing plane is some goblin representation of a cargo plane (maybe a C-17?) shrunk to the size of a pick-up truck. Tankers are usually airliner designs, like 707s, just with fuel tanks instead of passenger seats. I've stopped the animation to write this, but if the dinky C-17 or whatever crashes while the B-52 flies away, they're going to hear my 'WTF?' on the Moon.

[@oldtimefarmboy617]

Thermonuclear (fusion) bombs require a small fission bomb as a detonator to set off the fusion bomb. That is how much energy that is required to cause the deuterium (H2) to star fusing into helium. A fission bomb require TNT place in precise positions on both ends of a tube that contains the two halves of an uranium sphere that have to detonate at precisely the same time so the two haves of the uranium sphere can be slammed together with enough force to initiate fission in the uranium. The slightest bit of misalignment will make it impossible for the fission bomb to detonate. Crashing into the ground will cause that misalignment to occur. That is the main reason why all nuclear bombs dropped from aircraft have to detonate while still in the air.

[@SMILEYRLR]

That's the best discription I've ever heard.

[@davedave5787]

so, those lost nukes will never go off? what about erosion over the years? thx!!

[@Kwispy6395]

I work at an aircraft heavy maintenance facility and I can confirm, wings falling apart mid-flight is not compatible with lift

[@drewdavidson9891]

thats crazy....ud think the wings falling off would make it more streamlined lol

[@Fr0zenNightmare]

4:14 I honestly can't tell if he's being sarcastic or not. When he mentioned the elephants I thought "What a weird unit to compare"... then he said it's the official one and promised. And knowing what already weird measurements the U, S and A use I wouldn't be surprised if that really is the normal measurement...

[@BlueZirnitra]

You heard all the words he said but seemed to miss the raised eyebrow look of exasperation and pregnant pause while he said "promise...". Gotta look at the face to pick up on British sarcasm.

[@wolfhaddock8211]

Hey Tony too I live probably 20 minutes from there I live in Aden North Carolina right around the corner.. dispatch grass growing it glows at night lol

[@ak_boiii5525]

And the hunt begins...

[@kght222]

5:04 keep in mind that unless those bombs were armed (and they were not) the worst possible risk they posed was if their casings were destroyed and the radioactive material were spread. there is no way that an unarmed nuclear weapon spontaneously explodes. the scientists and engineers who invented those things were crazy for sure, but they weren't that insane.

[@taabeermurtaza1494]

Edit:" ... they were crazy... but not idiots..."

[@cybersentient4758]

Yea that checks out but wouldn't fissile material go critical or something when it's not stored properly (demon core experiment thing) that would make the bomb as dangerous as it exploding with all that radiation coming out

[@bennett420316]

I thought that the 1 switch failsafe left , if had broken would've made the 1 bomb active. Thus killing most of the east coast, and wiping Carolina off the map

[@kght222]

@@bennett420316 that was an overstatement by the presenter. there was physically no way for that switch to be thrown without physical interaction from a person, and by the time a crash could have caused it to be thrown the rest of the loop would have been broken. there is just flat out no way that an unarmed nuke could go off.

[@bennett420316]

@@kght222 I thought it was a bit of a stretch but I don't know how nukes failsafes work anyway. Wasn't sure what switch he was even talking about

[@jimc.goodfellas]

It's crazy to think how many near-misses there have been with nukes....

[@lilheinz9496]

Really not that many compared to nuclear power plants malfunctions.

[@fordaith]

​@@lilheinz9496 To date, there have been 4 class 1 nuclear plant malfunctions (all as a result of arrogance and complacency), and 2 near misses (1 at a plant similar to Chernobyl in 1975, and the other at TMI's sister plant in Ohio). Please stop fear-mongering nuclear power. You're aiding in setting humanity back decades in the effort to provide clean carbon-neutral energy.

[@lilheinz9496]

@@fordaith whoa dude chill, I’m not even against using nukes, let alone much less do I believe in the idea that nuclear power is too dangerous.

[@bowenwerner3085]

What’s scarier is that I’m a regular viewer of the channel who lives an hour away from Goldsboro 😳

[@shaneintegra]

Wait... wouldnt the agriculture grown around that piece of land show some signs of radiation? Id imagine even today it would set off a geiger counter

[@garritycook2656]

I’m in the Air Force and I’m stationed in Goldsboro and I’ve been wanting to go see that site for a while now.

[@dr_edward_richtofen69]

Jesus that's horrifying. Awesome video Aaron! Always an interesting watch

[@OsbornIOW]

As always, great story, well told. I always watch these stories whilst eating my evening meal 😁

[@SMILEYRLR]

I was pooping.

[@Orunk777]

This dude has such a vivid imagination it's impressive, he should totally write novel IMO

[@myscreen2urs]

He's written Stick a Flag in It, and Bread and Circuses. Not fictional novels but if they're anything like his videos, they're probably an entertaining read.

[@weswheel4834]

I wonder if there's a switch on the bomb for the parachute and if the airmen split into 2 teams and the 2 teams made different decisions on whether or not to switch the parachute off.

[@ej4842]

Good point

[@FerdinandCesarano]

0v48 - "...which **RAISES** the question..." The act of begging the question is rhe logical fallacy of putting forth the issue that is in question in support of an argument about that issue.

[@michielb206]

Another wonderful job Arran! I thoroughly enjoy watching your videos and can only imagine the amount of research that is put into each and every one of them!

[@ajsphinx]

I never miss his videos, no matter what subject he picks!

[@kd3283]

Do you want a medal ? Or can you come up with something that isn’t generic

[@ajsphinx]

@@kd3283 you are interrupting Mr. 🤫 I’m not done watching yet, I’ll get back to you soon

[@seabreeze3992]

@KD ratio

[@-Chooka]

The US government would definitely have tried to blame the Soviets.

[@goingfubar7182]

An interesting article, and there's a couple of things I would mention, in regards to what JFK would have done if it went off, during the Cuban missile crisis the Soviet leader was convinced that JFK would launch against the Soviet Union if he was pushed, even though they not only had the missiles in Cuba, but also fast attack speed boats carrying nukes in order to attack the US coastal bases. Another fun fact that in the late 50's in New Mexico a nuke was dropped by accident just outside of the Albuquerque and it did actually explode the chemical explosive but not the nuclear trigger, talk about a serious pucker factor, which is one of the major problems when you look at how many times that the US government has accidentally dropped nukes over the years, that are known about (at least 4 more times that I've heard about) and why in this day and age there's so many safeties on standard nukes.

[@michaelmurray6197]

The craziest part is that this isn't the only B52 that went down over America that had nukes on board. This happened multiple times, near as I can tell this is just the one that got the closest to resulting in a nuke going off. As has been mentioned before you also have to wonder about the engineers that decided that they needed to add just one more safety device on that nuke, and if any of them thought that they already had enough, or did they all agree that they needed to keep on adding more?

[@totalcreativegaming6681]

Damm that’s a scary thought and also rather interesting & crazy to think that a Nuke is apparently technically safer if it falls without a parachute than with one. But another thing that comes to mind is that, if there’s a nuclear core buried somewhere under that patch of land, wouldn’t that potentially make the crops grown around it radioactive? Thus causing a spike in potential cancer risk for anyone who consumes the product of the farm around it? Or could that lost buried core potentially become unstable and explode?

[@user-ij6ve5ek7e]

The chances of those crops not being contaminated are likely slim to none. The fact that they bought that little piece in the middle and left the whole field available as farmland is disgusting. They should’ve compensated the farmers and bought the whole field

[@SMILEYRLR]

Is this where them giant tomatoes come from? Thier Delicious.

[@ekronberger]

Your story telling is great! I love watching your videos

[@SirThanxalott]

Being an American in Mississippi, I can say this: about today's sponsor, I feel that if children spent less time at McDonald's and more in the classroom, Mississippi would not be the half as plump and ill as it is today.

[@cowboybob7093]

By the way, great user name / handle, Sir.

[@14rnr]

I'm glad the crew got a mention.

[@michaelhuggins4595]

I had an uncle killed in a mid-air collision between a B-52 and a KC-135 over Hardinsburg, Kentucky on October 15, 1959. They were part of operation Steel Trap which was renamed Chrome Dome later on. There were two nukes on board which were recovered in "remarkably good condition...with no radiological hazards."

[@williamromine5715]

Very exciting story, with just one problem. The ending is B.S. The bomb was never armed. If the little "switch" had also "failed", the bomb wouldn't have exploded. At worst, radiation could have escaped, which is is not good, but millions of people wouldn't have died from a thermonuclear explosion. And, don't discredit M.A.D. It worked. Unless both sides realized that using a nuke first only resulted destruction of both sides, somebody might have tried a first strike. Considering how much you hyped up the possibility of a nuclear explosion, I question your explanation for why the B52 went down. I don't have enough knowledge about that, but I bet it's not as clear cut as you report.

[@maxttk97]

Why wouldn't the bomb have exploded? What about what the declassified document stated?

[@cowboybob7093]

@@maxttk97 Why wouldn't if have exploded? Many things need to be perfectly engaged or it will be anything from a dud (which is what happened,) to a dirty bomb (regular explosives scattering plutonium for example,) to an a-bomb (Nagasaki,) and when everything is perfect, an H-bomb. They wouldn't have an armed bomb during refueling.

[@maxttk97]

@@cowboybob7093 You didn't answer what I asked.

[@williamromine5715]

@@maxttk97 Cow Boy Bob answered why it wouldn't explode. The, so called declassified document was referring to the arming of the bomb. Before it could then explode as a thermonuclear device, other failsafe steps would have been necessary. It is damn difficult to set of a nuclear bomb. Quardinates(sp), coded instructions have to be entered, altitude settings, and many more that are classified have to happen in a specific order. Remember, this story has been told many times, both before and since the internet, that it's not really news. He hyped it up to try to claim something "new". It sells newspapers, as they say. I don't begrudge him doing so, but he skipped over a whole lot of things and his readers need to know that.

[@maxttk97]

@@williamromine5715 so wait, there was never a threat of it exploding then? That's a good thing to know. I never knew that regardless of the countless times I have heard this story.