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Title details for Broken Arrow by Jim Winchester - Available

Broken Arrow

How the U.S. Navy Lost a Nuclear Bomb

by Jim Winchester
Shawn Compton
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
Douglas Webster was a young pilot from Ohio, newly married and with seventeen combat missions under his belt. On December 5, 1965 he strapped into an A-4 Skyhawk bomber for a routine weapons loading drill and simulated mission. After mishandling the maneuver, the plane and its pilot sunk to the bottom of the South China sea, along with a live B43 one-megaton thermonuclear bomb.
A cover-up mission began. The crew was ordered to stay quiet, rumors circulate of sabotage, a damaged weapon, and a troublesome pilot who needed "disposing of". The incident, a "Broken Arrow" in the parlance of the Pentagon, was kept under wraps until twenty-five years later. The details that emerged caused a diplomatic incident, revealing that the US had violated agreements not to bring nuclear weapons into Japan. Family members and the public only learned the truth when researchers discovered archived documents that disclosed the true location of the carrier, hundreds of miles closer to land than admitted.
For the first time, through previously classified documents, never before published photos of the accident aircraft and the recollections of those who were there, the story of carrier aviation's only "Broken Arrow" is told in full.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    November 17, 2020

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781705276976
      • File size: 315694 KB
      • Duration: 10:57:41

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      February 18, 2019
      In this niche but accessible history, aviation writer Winchester (American Military Aircraft) recounts a Broken Arrow incident (code for the loss of a nuclear weapon) that occurred onboard the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga in December 1965. During a drill to test preparing a nuclear strike from an aircraft carrier, an A-4E Skyhawk fighter bomber loaded with an unarmed one-kiloton nuclear weapon slipped off the elevator of the aircraft carrier and landed in the water upside down, sinking more than 16,000 feet along with its pilot, Lt. Doug Webster. Winchester devotes attention not only to Webster’s background and the process of notifying his family of his death, but also to why the incident occurred and why the military kept some crucial details quiet—namely that a nuclear weapon was involved. (This later caused public uproar about potential health hazards, particularly in Japan, when Greenpeace disclosed the payload’s location in 1989.) Other aspects of naval aviation are also explored, including carrier operations against North Vietnam during the Vietnam War and the Navy’s role in overall U.S. national nuclear strategy. Despite occasionally wandering away from its center subject, this informative account will appeal to readers interested in the details of Cold War nuclear strategy or air operations during the Vietnam War.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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