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By mental_floss contributor Erik Sass
During the Cold War the United States military misplaced at least eight nuclear weapons permanently. These are the stories of what the Department of Defense calls “broken arrows” -
America’s stray nukes, with a combined explosive force 2,200 times the Hiroshima bomb.
If you don’t have enough to make you lose sleep at night, read on.
STRAY #1: Into the Pacific
February 13, 1950. An American B-36 bomber en route from Alaska to Texas during a training exercise lost power in three engines and began losing altitude. To lighten the aircraft the crew jettisoned its cargo, a 30-kiloton Mark 4 (Fat Man) nuclear bomb, into the Pacific Ocean. The conventional explosives detonated on impact, producing a flash and a shockwave. The bomb’s uranium components were lost and never recovered. According to the USAF, the plutonium core wasn’t present.
STRAY #2&3: Into Thin Air
March 10, 1956. A B-47 carrying two nuclear weapon cores from MacDill Air Force Base in Florida to an overseas airbase disappeared during a scheduled air-to-air refueling over the Mediterranean Sea. After becoming lost in a thick cloud bank at 14,500 feet, the plane was never heard from again and its wreckage, including the nuclear cores, was never found. Although the weapon type remains undisclosed, Mark 15 thermonuclear bombs (commonly carried by B-47s) would have had a combined yield of 3.4 megatons.
STRAYS #4&5: Somewhere in a North Carolina Swamp
January 24, 1961. A B-52 carrying two 24-megaton nuclear bombs crashed while taking off from an airbase in Goldsboro, North Carolina. One of the weapons sank in swampy farmland, and its uranium core was never found despite intensive search efforts to a depth of 50 feet. To ensure no one else could recover the weapon, the USAF bought a permanent easement requiring government permission to dig on the land.
STRAY #6: The Incident in Japan
December 5, 1965. An A-4E Skyhawk attack aircraft carrying a 1-megaton thermonuclear weapon (hydrogen bomb) rolled off the deck of the U.S.S. Ticonderoga and fell into the Pacific Ocean. The plane and weapon sank in 16,000 feet of water and were never found. 15 years later the U.S. Navy finally admitted that the accident had taken place, claiming it happened 500 miles from land the in relative safety of the high seas. This turned out to be not true; it actually happened about 80 miles off Japan’s Ryuku island chain, as the aircraft carrier was sailing to Yokosuka, Japan after a bombing mission over Vietnam.
These revelations caused a political uproar in Japan, which prohibits the United States from bringing nuclear weapons into its territory.
STRAYS #7&8: 250 kilotons of explosive power
Spring, 1968. While returning to home base in Norfolk, Virginia, the U.S.S. Scorpion, a nuclear attack submarine, mysteriously sank about 400 miles to the southwest of the Azores islands. In addition to the tragic loss of all 99 crewmembers, the Scorpion was carrying two unspecified nuclear weapons – either anti-submarine missiles or torpedoes that were tipped with nuclear warheads. These could yield up to 250 kilotons explosive power (depending which kind of weapon was used).
There is one off the coast of Georgia as well. It is known as the Tybee bomb. I remember something a couple of years ago on the news that it may have been located.
posted by KIT CLOUD on 11-29-2007 at 8:44 pm
Don’t forget about the Tybee bomb. It was dropped in the vicinity of Tybee Island, Georgia following a mishap with an aircraft carrying a nuke. It’s still sitting there buried in the mud. So far, no one’s been able to locate it.
So far…
posted by Anthony on 11-29-2007 at 8:50 pm
There’s also the Tybee bomb. It is off the coast in Georgia, I believe. It’s still buried there, the Tybee.
posted by Dan on 11-29-2007 at 11:36 pm
It is interesting to me that there are eight (or more) losses in the 50’s and 60’s, but rather a perfect record through the next three decades. What did they change?
posted by Sparky on 11-30-2007 at 6:41 am
They simply got better at hiding the truth…still, that makes “only” 8-9 nukes…imagine all those 250(!) nukes the former USSR lost when communism disintegrated…I heard they went really cheap(some say from $400,000+)… so if the US Army never found any in Iraq is because Saddam was smart enough to move or bury them…he never needed a factory….
posted by maggie on 11-30-2007 at 7:41 am
Have you guys heard of the Tybee Bomb? It was dropped near Tybee Island off the coast of Georiga.
No one has found it yet, but it’s believed to still be there. Buried. In time.
posted by Nick Castille on 11-30-2007 at 8:03 am
Well, I tried to be cool and make a joke along with everyone but my public education, also dropped off the coast of Georgia, seemed to trump my spelling skills.
GEORGIA GEORGIA GEORGIA GEORGIA GEORGIA
see! I can spell it! :)
posted by Nick Castille on 11-30-2007 at 8:09 am
The Mk45 Astors carried by the Scorpion had a Yield of 2.5 Kiltons NOT 250 Kt.
Most Nuclear accidents happened in the early days simply because they were new devices and the fact that the Military does learn from past mistakes and corrects the problems.
As for those who think there are all kinds of “cover-ups”, Broken Arrows (aka Nuclear Accident involving a Weapon) are well documented by the Government. Most of the accidents over the last 60 years is publicly available.
Oh, and one last thing, the USAF stopped carrying live nukes 24/7 back in 1968. They still do carry the “shapes” around but not the “pit” which makes the shape go BOOM.
posted by catcalloway on 11-30-2007 at 10:00 am
I can’t believe no one has mentioned the Tybee bomb yet.
posted by Paul on 11-30-2007 at 1:32 pm
And don’t forget the Tybee bomb.
Have you ever heard of that one?
posted by Sid Morrison on 11-30-2007 at 3:23 pm
To add to what catcalloway mentioned, the Navy started taking over the job of Nuclear sentinel in the 60’s with the George Washington class submarines. They proved a better platform due to there stealth and durability.
posted by Jay on 11-30-2007 at 5:40 pm
You guys are forgetting about the biggest disaster of all, the Tybee Bomb.
posted by TheUnibomber on 11-30-2007 at 7:37 pm
Forget the russian nukes. Why was G.W. Bush so sure Saddam had WMD’s?….
His Dad showed him the receipt.
posted by Jim on 12-1-2007 at 6:35 pm
this article is totally absurd. 8 bombs? Tybee Bomb. HELLO?? …
posted by Sui on 12-2-2007 at 10:15 pm
There was a story about a military plane that avoided crashing into a city by crash landing in a river, in the 1950’s. The military seemed to want to cover it up. A theory is that there was a nuke on board the plane. They said they couldn’t find the wreckage but witnesses said they watched them remove it from the river in the middle of the night. How hard could it be to find wreckage in a river?
But that Tybee incident was totally da bomb.
posted by Tdave on 12-3-2007 at 1:32 am
I believe the Tybee bomb was a “dud” because it wasn’t carrying its 150-kg nuclear core. As catcalloway indicates, the military often transported bombs without the uranium and/or plutonium that makes them go kaboom, for safety reasons. That’s why it doesn’t appear in the article. All the other misplaced bombs had some or all of their radioactive components. ENS
posted by Erik Sass on 12-4-2007 at 3:13 pm
Thanks for some truth CatCalloway, we
veteran USAF pilots and vets appreciate it!!!!
posted by phoenix anderson on 12-5-2007 at 12:47 am
Tdave,
I think you are referring to the B-25 that crashed in the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh, PA. I spent some time helping search for it a few years ago.
posted by Jim Collins on 12-7-2007 at 3:41 pm
so.. we lost all these wmd’s. america has proved to be the only country unable to take care of the power nuclear weapons. and we are getting primed to attack iran for simply having knowledge of how to make nukes, when plenty of other countries have these things. why arent more people upset about this?
posted by jugg on 12-8-2007 at 2:10 am
Tybee…can’t forget Tybee. Tybee
posted by jimbo on 12-11-2007 at 8:24 am
The only item missing from this list that comes to mind is the weapon lost near Tybee Georgia.
posted by Xavier on 12-11-2007 at 12:59 pm
Hey - I live in Savannah, GA. Hasn’t anyone ever heard of the Tybee Bomb>
posted by April on 12-11-2007 at 3:41 pm
What about the two nukes that Major Vic Deakins jettisoned over Utah from his “B-3″ bomber and then tried to kill Captain Riley Hale to cover it up? BOOYAH! I will never forget……Tybee.
posted by extr3m1st on 12-15-2007 at 7:05 am
Wow… there are about 50 people mentioning the Tybee bomb. Yes… we get it. :D
posted by Anon on 12-15-2007 at 6:05 pm
WHooaaaaa, whats this i heard something about the Tybee bomb, anyone else heard of it?
posted by IMPORTANT! on 12-19-2007 at 4:16 pm
Wikipedia states:
“The [Tybee] bomb is one of fourteen nuclear weapons known to be missing from the U.S. nuclear arsenal.”
… and one of the six missing from this list …
posted by Ken Sawade on 12-20-2007 at 11:19 am
“the United States military misplaced at least eight nuclear weapons permanently”
AT LEAST…it doesn’t say this is all of them, it doesn’t even say these are the biggest or the most important or most deadly, it just says these are the stories of AT LEAST eight that have been lost.
posted by lucy on 1-6-2008 at 12:47 pm
yes tybeee tybeee!!!!more tybeeee!
posted by bdfbdfb on 1-25-2008 at 12:18 am
Wow I cant believe that people are completely forgetting about the Tybee bomb in georgia.
posted by twodollars on 2-10-2008 at 8:47 am
I was on the flight deck of the USS Ticonderogaon 12 5 1965 about 25 feet from the aircraft that went overboard ran to the edge and saw it hit the water . I was the mechanical flight deck trouble shooter and Don JUDICE was the electrical trouble shooter . Plane went in upside down, squashed the pilot between canapy and body
posted by Philip L. Hara on 2-25-2008 at 11:31 am
I was on an island off the coast of Georgia back in the 60’s and a warhead kind of fell off of a plane and landed there. I decided to call it the “Tybee Bomb”. Don’t forget about it!
posted by Twillz on 2-25-2008 at 1:07 pm
NEEDS MOAR TYBEE!!!!
posted by Brain on 2-25-2008 at 1:08 pm
I CAN HAS TYBEE!?
posted by jiimm on 2-25-2008 at 1:09 pm
Wrong terminology
This whole article is refering to what the military calls an “empty quiver.” Look it up.
posted by philo on 2-25-2008 at 1:27 pm
STFU - we already heard about the Efing Tybee bomb… OMG i threww up in my mouth like 3 times already.
posted by TONY on 2-25-2008 at 1:33 pm
I hear the Tybee bomb hasn’t been found yet either.
posted by Jim on 2-25-2008 at 1:46 pm
Actually, despite all the jokery going on, there is one famous broken arrow that didn’t get a mention on the list.
It’s the Tybee bomb, lost off the Georgia coast… near Tybee. Which is pretty close to Tybee.
I think that one was missed and I’m glad to fix it here.
posted by Brad on 2-25-2008 at 1:48 pm
I knew a guy once who was involved in a fatal aircrash. His passenger plane fell into the sea somewhere off the coast of the US (I forget where). He was never seen again.
I believe his name was John Tybee. RIP John… Tybee.
posted by Michael on 2-25-2008 at 2:01 pm
No! They be losing my Tybee!!!
posted by Larz on 2-25-2008 at 2:07 pm
why has the Tybee bomb been repeated like 9+ times on the comments???
once was good enough!! read before you post comments
posted by Jeff on 2-25-2008 at 2:09 pm
To answer the question of why these happened so much back then, but nothing recently: I don’t think they are transported nearly as often, if at all, as they were back then. Not to mention technological advances such as GPS that have significantly decreased the odds of losing anything. We have only heard about (some?) of the ones they lost. No telling how many have been lost for a short time, and then found and swept under the carpet.
Also, why hasn’t anyone mentioned the Tybee bomb? It’s clearly THE defining symbolic Broken Arrow.
posted by Trevor T on 2-25-2008 at 2:09 pm
what was the one off the coast of Georgia called again? I’m really surprised it wasn’t mentioned here.
posted by Beau on 2-25-2008 at 2:09 pm
Quote taken from: lutins.org/nukes.html#bombs
“22 January 1968
A B-52 crashed 7 miles south of Thule Air Force Base in Greenland, scattering the radioactive fragments of three hydrogen bombs over the terrain and dropping one bomb into the sea after a fire broke out in the navigator’s compartment. Contaminated ice and airplane debris were sent back to the U.S., with the bomb fragments going back to the manufacturer in Amarillo, Texas. The incident outraged the people of Denmark (which owned Greenland at the time, and which prohibits nuclear weapons over its territory) and led to massive anti-U.S. demonstrations. One of the warheads was reportedly recovered by Navy Seals and Seabees in 1979, but a recent (August 2000) report suggests that in fact it may still be lying at the bottom of Baffin Bay.”
posted by PPK on 2-25-2008 at 2:21 pm
People, please read the other comments before posting duplicate material.
Also, the Tybee bomb was lost near the coast of Georgia. That was a loss from which the country will probably never recover. Please add Tybee to the list.
posted by Joe Thompson on 2-25-2008 at 2:46 pm
My Dad was once a navy pilot and told me this story when I was a kid about a military cargo plane he flew that was carrying a nuke. He was flying over the coast of Georgia and, in a hilarious accident, he mistakingly hit the button to open the cargo bay doors when he dropped his coffee on himself. A bunch of equipment fell out of the plane, including the nuke. Today it’s known as the Tybee bomb (because it fell near Tybee island) and it still hasn’t been found. I thought it was an interesting story. My Dad is a General now.
posted by Flech Johnstonn on 2-25-2008 at 2:53 pm
After reading the article, and all of the comments, I am stunned that no one has mentioned the Tybee bomb.
posted by Jim Bob on 2-25-2008 at 3:06 pm
japan needs to chill about our nukes, pretty much the only thing standing between them speaking either Chinese or Korean.
posted by Seth Brundle on 2-25-2008 at 3:10 pm
will people please stop posting comments about the tybee bomb? jeez… what the hell? only about 200 people made the same comment.
posted by shutupabouttybee on 2-25-2008 at 3:14 pm
I believe it’s to cleanse the palette.
posted by djnastyknight on 2-25-2008 at 3:21 pm
Tybee beach is a dirty terrible beach. Let the Tybee fans have their fun. The only people that go there live 15 minutes away.
posted by sier on 2-25-2008 at 3:47 pm
I live in Georgia, and I remember a while back there was a huge political mess ’round here when they lost a nuke around Tybee. There was Army and Navy people here for weeks lookin for that thing. Never found it as far as I know. It was down there near Tybee Georgia.
So that makes 9!!!
Gosh. I’m afeared to walk around barefoot now!
posted by Butch on 2-25-2008 at 3:52 pm
The reason you don’t see many recent incidents is that the control and procedures around moving, carrying or destroying nuclear arms have been greatly altered because of these specific incidents (and a few more).
Live nukes can not be transported via air travel anymore due to the number of incidents in the past (many of them are listed above). To transport a nuke the carrier (missile) may be flown, but the warhead itself can only be transfered via ground transport or sea transport (BIG NAVY SHIPS). Thus preventing many of the above incidents from ever happening again.
There is also the fact that we tend to care a bit more where our nukes end up these days. We also don’t accidentally drop billion dollar aircraft off an aircraft carrier.
posted by Andrew on 2-25-2008 at 3:54 pm
I’m ashamed that the Tybee bomb has yet to be mentioned.
hahahaha
posted by Jim Tybee on 2-25-2008 at 3:55 pm
There are alot of unanswered questions regarding the Alaska B-36 incident.
The bomber crew all bailed out over the Queen Charlotte Islands except for the NAVIGATOR, who PILOTED the disabled bomber back over land.
Why, he did this has never been fully explained by the few surviving crew who are still sworn to secrecy, or the US Government. However, it should be stated that a B-36 Navigator’s other flight duties included weapons arming and bomb dropping!
He actually flew the crippled bomber on 2 engines for an hour before crashing into a mountain in the British Columbia interior. A massive search for the plane ensued with the US Airforce forgetting to tell the Canadian Military that nuclear weapons were aboard!
The plane was eventually found, and a secret US demolition team eventually blew the remains to bits using the plane’s own conventional nuclear tigger payload (No Flash or Wave Disturbance was ever independently witnessed in the Pacific or on the Islands. The bomb jettison happened within sight of shore).
I think the body of the pilot/navigator was never returned to his family and his name is stricken from the memorial dedicated to the crew that died that night.
Makes for a great work of fiction doesn’t it!, too bad its totally true.
BTW a B-47 stratojet also jetisoned a nuclear bombload over the province of Quebec a few years later. I guess the Brass Hats just couldn’t get it through their heads that nuclear fallout doesn’t stop at national boundaries
Cheers
posted by Sixback on 2-25-2008 at 4:00 pm
The first one, the Alaska to Texas flight, was originally reported by the airforce as a drop into the Pacific ocean, but actually crashed into the Canadian Rockies in British Columbia, Canada. There is a good discovery channel documentary on it. The Canadian government let a team of US Special Forces operatives mount an expedition to the crash site, where they removed fissionable material and destroyed all other material. A Prince Rupert (small town in BC) guide led them to the site. Artifacts such as Heggies cups (local Print Rupert cafe) and ration boxes have been recovered recently from the location, and melted wreckage has been found at the site.
posted by RTM on 2-25-2008 at 4:40 pm
I’m not here to ‘MAKE FUN’ of anyone for being ‘OBLIVIOUS’ to the truth. BUT…. there was in fact a 9th broken arrow, shameful as that is.
Ladies and gentlemen, a bomb was lost off of the coast of Georgia, near Tybee Island. I work for RCI that huge timeshare exchange company. People try and try to get an exchange into this resort on Tybee Island. It’s the only resort on coastal Georgia, and the closest resort to Savannah.
I used to tell people who called in: “other members of RCI who own on Tybee Island, won’t give us their weeks to exchange them, so you can’t go.”
Now I tell them “(sir, mam), let me tell you a little story about a certain ‘broken arrow’……”
posted by Rick Daigle on 2-25-2008 at 4:41 pm
i didn’t have the patience to read all the posts… certain recreational substances tend to give you that,… tendency…
However, here’s my question. Do you believe the U.S. may have strategically placed some of the bombs in case of emergency?
posted by SammyDaBull on 2-25-2008 at 5:33 pm
1966: A U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber collides with its refueling tanker jet in
mid-air over the Spanish coast. Its four hydrogen bombs fall to earth near
the fishing village of Palomares.
The bomber collided with the KC-135 tanker at 31,000 feet. Exploding fuel
completely destroyed the tanker, killing all four crew members. The B-52
broke apart, spilling its payload — four Type B28RI hydrogen bombs equipped
with 1.45-megaton warheads. Three hit the ground near Palomares while the
fourth fell into the Mediterranean Sea.
Three members of the bomber’s seven-man crew were killed in what became
known as the Palomares hydrogen bombs incident.
Although the conventional explosives contained in two of the four bombs
detonated, there was no nuclear holocaust. But there was radioactive
contamination around the crash site, with plutonium scattered over 2 square
kilometers. Around 1,750 tons of earth was excavated and shipped to the
United States for disposal.
posted by ROBERT D HAMILTON on 2-25-2008 at 5:58 pm
Broken Arrow!
Colonel Howard Richardson’s Story
Colonel Howard Richardson flew thirty-five B-17 bomber missions from Great Ashfield, England during World War II. He and his crew flew the “Mississippi Miss,” not unlike the “Memphis Belle” which was popularized in a recent movie. Colonel Richardson stayed in the Army Air Corps (later the US Air Force) as a pilot and helped organize flight logistics for the Berlin Air Lift. Later, he flew planes carrying hydrogen bombs on practice runs in the U.S.
Colonel Richardson, remained in the Air Force from WWII through the Korean War but seems to prefer talking about his B-47 days. This is his favorite story:
I had a B-47 crew at Homestead AFB, Florida with the 19th Bomb Wing. The wing was flying a USCM. We took off and headed out over the Gulf and picked up an air refueling, flew further west then turned north and went almost to Canada then east. Our bomb run was made in the Northeast; then we turned south to head home. This was in February and we were flying at around 38,000 feet. Over the Carolinas we entered “friendly territory” (no longer in simulated combat). I noticed about three or four F-86s flying below but they soon disappeared. We were not supposed to be working with any fighters at this time. All of a sudden we felt an impact and a flash off my right wing which was the fighter going down. I saw that the number six engine was no longer attached at the rear and was hanging down. The wing tank had disappeared.
I later found out that an F-86H was making a run on the rear of my B-47 when his automatic release failed to work. The F-86 pilot looked up from his radar and saw my plane but too late. His wing shoved my aileron into my main spar and broke it. Some debris went back into my vertical and horizontal stabilizers and punctured my auxiliary fuel tank. I alerted the crew for possible ejection but told them to hold for now. We called the tower at Savannah and told them to tell SAC Headquarters.
We had a Mark 15 nuclear bomb on board. It was not, however, a complete bomb (the detonator was deliberately removed for safety). The Air Force Tactical Doctrine at that time said that the first priority in any incident was the safety of the crew. This doctrine was changed later after other incidents and releases. I used my own emergency procedure which was to descend to 20,000 feet and put gear and flaps down to see if I could control the aircraft at landing speed. The control was marginal so we elected to go offshore and release the weapon because if we crashed, it would come forward through the crew area like a bullet through a gun barrel. We called the tower and told them what we planned to do. We released the weapon offshore and descended to enter the traffic pattern. I had a big job, keeping the aircraft lined up with limited control. We touched down at a higher than normal speed, bounced and skipped. I pulled the brake chute and turned off the runway. We were safe, but the B-47 would never fly again — the main spar was broken. I had the crew write down every detail before we went to sleep. We got little sleep before we were awakened and told to brief General Power, who had flown up from Homestead to Savannah for the briefing. I guess everything went all right because he asked us to fly back to Homestead in his aircraft.
This incident was written up in the November 1990 issue of Air and Space Magazine. The following is quoted from that article by Curt Newport: “All the major players in the 1958 accident have long since retired from the military. Leland Woolard, the navigator of the B-47, died in 1986. Richardson, the bomber’s pilot, seems to regret jettisoning the bomb, even though he did it to save his aircraft and crew. After receiving the Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions during the accident, he became a B-47 squadron commander, went on to fly B-52s, and now dabbles in real estate. Copilot Lagerstrom is today a flight captain for a major U.S. airline. He and Richardson never flew together again. Clarence Stewart, the F-86 pilot, was able to prove that his radar scope was defective. He later spent several years flying jets in Southeast Asia, where he was forced to eject from, an F-105 fighter after being hit by small-arms fire. He retired from the Air Force in 1977 and spends his time flying his two light aircraft. It’s been more than 30 years since the incidents of that dark night in February, but for Clarence Stewart, Howard Richardson, and Robert Lagerstrom, the memory of what happened is still embedded as deeply in their memories as the hydrogen bomb is in the sea floor.”
Editor’s Note: The military has code words for mishaps that involve nuclear weapons. The most serious are those in which a weapon is lost or an area contaminated with radioactivity. They called them “Broken Arrow.”
See the Broken Arrow letter (Site7) for an epilogue. Read the rest of the story 2005. Click the star
Send Corrections, additions, and input to:
WebMaster/Editor
Visitors since
June 6, 2000
posted by ROBERT D HAMILTON on 2-25-2008 at 6:44 pm
Tybee or not Tybee,
That is the question,
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The brok’n arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to drop nu-cu-lear arms into a sea of troubles.
posted by Hamlet on 2-25-2008 at 7:13 pm
This thread really has me a little on edge. Bombs falling off of planes, planes laden with warheads sinking in the marshland, airplanes that fly into a cloud and are never seen again. It’s sobering to hear how many opportunities there have been for terrorists to acquire nuclear materials. This on top of the extremely lax security surrounding warhead storage sites in the former Soviet Union paints a rather depressing and bleak picture as far as the likelihood (inevitability?) of a terrorist nuclear attack in one of our major metropolitan areas.
How can it not happen, given the state of things?
Every day I wake up and thank god that I live so very far from such terrorist payload targets, here on peaceful Tybee Island (just off the coast of Georgia).
posted by Blake on 2-25-2008 at 7:26 pm
@maggie: Saddam never had any nuclear weapons! Its hard to believe that there are still fools out there repeating this nonsense.
posted by Netmonger on 2-25-2008 at 7:30 pm
Cmon - the Tybee Incident where John Milton Tybee had a high-altitude fistfight with his copilot and then ejected along with the nukes to make it seem like they were lost when in fact he planned to sell them to the Dutchess of Worceshtershire but was never heard from again? That Tybee Incident?
posted by Gen.JackDRipper on 2-25-2008 at 8:10 pm
TYBEE is da bomb
posted by jeb on 2-25-2008 at 9:06 pm
From what I understand, with the loss of Russia’s nukes, there is not much concern. They were built with a short shelf life. Most that were “lost” are no longer functional. Except if one were to take it apart to make a dirty bomb.
posted by Zoob on 2-25-2008 at 10:45 pm
I love how everyone mentions the ‘Tybee’ bomb.
However, no one is named Tybee (tybee=’salt’ from the Euchee Indian dialect).
Tybee is NOT the only resort area in coastal GA (St Simons Island is another).
Several other bombs mentioned here were lacking the plutonium core, which hardly makes the Tybee bomb unique.
posted by Matt on 2-25-2008 at 11:20 pm
Tybee, put directly on the forehead.
Tybee, put directly on the forehead.
Tybee, put directly on the forehead.
posted by HeadOn on 2-26-2008 at 12:17 am
What are you freakin crazy?
Back in the 60’s the US Govt realized that bees would make a great carrier for weapons. They’re smart, trainable, and doggone it just plain cute. Well, the only trouble was that they’re a bit small for most types of weapons. The US Govt realized they had two choices:
1) Make the bees bigger
2) Make the nukes smaller
Intelligent chaps, they decided to do both. By making a tiny nuke that a humble worker bee (in this case, named Ty) would carry to a hive full of other bees, the genetic modifications would also cause the other bees to grow to gargantuan proportions. Unfortunately, the tiny bee-nuke crashed under the weight of its payload somewhere off the coast of the southeastern U.S. and, sadly, all hands were lost.
And so, Ty, the bee, passed to the bee paradise in the sky. However, the nuke DID detonate in the water, and there was a tiny lizard passing by that would later invade NY, wreaking havoc in Madison Square Garden…
posted by Don't forget Ty Bee on 2-26-2008 at 9:53 am
I can’t believe no one has thought about the Tybee bomb!!! I have been searching for it with no luck so far. I think I will get it soon! I now have a larger magnet and a mining pick so I feel good about my next trip!
posted by Tybee Hunter on 2-26-2008 at 2:34 pm
Somebody set up us the tybee
posted by arn on 2-26-2008 at 11:39 pm
I liv neer the coast of GA an I no where Tybe Island is. My unkle and I wud go ridin our dune buggys until we found a krater that had a round metal thing in the bottom of it.
I kan’t believ nobody mentioned how dangerous nukes can be in the rong hands! How due planes drop em without esploding?
posted by GA treazur huntr on 3-14-2008 at 12:38 pm
Doesn’t this make you feel all warm and fuzzy all over?
I will sleep better at night knowing that our government is taking good care of us!
The Mad Ape
www.tatumba.com
posted by The Mad Ape on 4-13-2008 at 1:03 pm
8 Nuclear Weapons the U.S. has Lost?! | politikly.com…
\r\nDuring the Cold War the United States military misplaced at least eight nuclear weapons permanen…
posted by politikly.com | politics and world news on 4-13-2008 at 3:24 pm
go to my webiste and look up “pentagon audit” for a list of what was missing as of 4/1 in this country. I’d post the direct link but I’m not allowed to.
posted by pentupentropy on 4-13-2008 at 11:05 pm
I cannot for the life of me figure out why you jerks think mentioning over and over and over again some little island in the state of GA is funny. Stop it NOW!
What’s my name?
posted by Dont Forget Tybee on 5-10-2008 at 3:59 pm