Defusing Nuclear Bombs: The Goldsboro 'Broken Arrow'

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 18 May 2018

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

How Lt. Jack ReVelle disarmed two thermonuclear bombs which crashed in Goldsboro, North Carolina in 1961. The bombs had been sucked out of a B-52 bomber which broke up in mid air and crashed on a flight over the eastern United States. Accidents involving nuclear weapons are known as Broken Arrows in US military terminology. At the time, Jack Revelle led a US Air Force Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) team based in Ohio. Photo: One of the bombs Jack disarmed remained virtually intact.(USAF)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless
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0:25.7	and a lot more auction. Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:30.0	Hello and welcome to the Witness Podcast from the BBC World Service with me Alex Last.
0:35.8	And today we go back to 1961 and the story of one man who was sent to diffuseuse two nuclear bombs which crashed in North Carolina.
0:47.0	It was early in the morning, around five or six in the morning, and I got a phone call.
0:55.0	It was my boss.
0:56.0	Instead of using the code names and code words
0:59.0	that we had practiced many, many times,
1:01.0	he just blurted it out. He says, Jack, I've got a real one for you.
1:06.8	In January 1961, 25-year-old lieutenant Jack Ravelle led a US Air Force explosive and ordnance disposal team based in Ohio.
1:16.9	The real one he had just been told about was an accident involving nuclear weapons, a broken arrow in military terminology.
1:24.6	Jack was the advanced party for his team.
1:27.4	He's sped to his air base and was met by a pilot who'd been
1:31.0	ordered to fly him immediately in a military jet to Goldsboro, North Carolina.
1:36.3	Pilot says, well I gotta tell you, this is the first time I've ever, ever been cleared on the ground
1:42.0	before I even got in the aircraft.
	...

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