A NUCLEAR bomb, 100 times more powerful than the one
dropped on Hiroshima, is lying 10km off the east coast of the United States.
Until now one of the most closely guarded secrets in US military history, its
existence has been confirmed in newly declassified documents which reveal how it
was dumped in the sea after a mid-air collision more than 40 years ago.
Pentagon officials, though admitting they do not know the bomb's exact
location, insist it is safe.
They have rejected demands for it to be recovered, saying it is too dangerous
to be touched.
The 3450kg hydrogen bomb, known as a Mark 15 weapon, has been lying off the
coast of Georgia since February 5, 1958, when it was jettisoned from a B-47
Stratojet bomber after the plane was struck by a fighter jet during a training
exercise at 36,000ft.
One of the bomber's wings was damaged and an engine dislodged.
The pilot, Maj Howard Richardson, was ordered to drop the 3.5m bomb before
attempting to land.
He did so near Tybee Island, close to the mouth of the Savannah River.
Despite a 10-week search, the bomb was never found.
In a top-secret memo to the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), a
Pentagon official wrote: "A B-47 aircraft with a (word censored) nuclear
weapon aboard was damaged in a collision with an F-86 aircraft near Sylvania.
"The B-47 aircraft attempted three times unsuccessfully to land with the
weapon.
"The weapon was then jettisoned visually over water off the mouth of the
Savannah River. No detonation was observed."
Documents reveal the search was called off when another hydrogen bomb was
accidentally dropped near Florence, South Carolina.
A TNT explosive trigger detonated on impact, but the actual nuclear device
did not explode.
Troops looking for the bomb off the coast were then ordered to Florence to
conduct a clean-up operation. They never returned to Tybee Island.
"The search for this weapon was discontinued on 4-16-'58 and the weapon
is considered irretrievably lost," one of the declassified documents
states.
The military suspected the bomb plunged into water 6m deep, coming to rest
beneath about 5m of sand.
The bomb's existence was only made public when a salvage company, run by
former CIA officer Bert Soleau, offered to find it.
Now Georgians are demanding action, but the military is standing firm, saying
recovery could take five years and cost $23 million.
Officials claim the bomb is safe because, though it contained 180kg of TNT to
trigger the atomic explosion, a vital link between the TNT and the nuclear
device had been removed. Without the link -- in this case a capsule containing
plutonium -- detonation was impossible.
This has been challenged by former servicemen and residents, who have
discovered documents stating it was armed.
Derek Duke, a former US Air Force pilot from Savannah, cites a 1966 memo to
the Congress Joint Committee on Atomic Energy by W.J. Howard, then assistant to
the secretary of defence, stating that the bomb was a "complete
weapon".
Howard H. Nixon, a former crew chief who loaded nuclear weapons on to planes
at Georgia's Hunter Army Airfield from 1957 to 1959, said the bombs were always
armed.
"Never in my air force career did I install a Mark 15 weapon without
installing the plutonium capsule," he said.
The capsule debate has failed to convince Mr Duke. "It's a nuclear
bomb," he said.
"It's like if I take the battery out of your car, then I try to convince
you it's not a car."
Tybee Islanders agree. Mayor Walter Parker said: "It's in the best
interest of everybody that it be found to determine what condition the weapon is
in."
Resident Ken Wade was more blunt: "There is no doubt we've got a nuclear
bomb right here in our neighbourhood."
