FEBRUARY 5

WARNING:  This not a joke.

On this date in 1958, sixty years ago today, the U.S. Air Force lost a hydrogen bomb.  The live nuclear weapon weighs 7,600 lbs and is 12 ft long.  That bomb includes 400 lbs of conventional high explosives and enriched uranium.  It lies somewhere just off the coast of Tybee Island (near Savannah, GA) where my son and his family have recently vacationed. 

The bomb was being carried by an Air Force B-47 bomber.  The bomber had a mid-air collusion with an Air Force F-86 fighter during a night exercise.  The fighter pilot ejected, his plane crashed and he survived.  The bomber crew was able to right their aircraft and limp back to Homestead Air Base.  The crew asked and received permission to drop the bomb for the safety of the crew and air base lest  it might detonate during the impending emergency landing.  The crew did not see the bomb explode.

To this date, the bomb has not been found. It is probably buried under many feet of soil.  It probably would not explode now but the radioactivity of the uranium, when the shell deteriorates, could someday begin to poison the waters of the Upper Floridan Aquifer.  Yikes!

Be careful where you swim.
💣