Please be sneaky when retrieving and replacing. You don't even
have to get out of your car if you park close enough. BYOP.
A Broken Arrow Lands in Mars Bluff
What is a Broken Arrow? A Broken Arrow is the code word for a
military accident involving a nuclear weapon.
Here’s the official military definition:
BROKEN ARROW
1. The accidental or unauthorized detonation, or possible
detonation of a nuclear weapon (other than war risk);
2. Non-nuclear detonation or burning of a nuclear weapon;
3. Radioactive contamination;
4. Seizure, theft, or loss of a nuclear weapon or component
(including jettisoning);
5. Public hazard, actual or implied.
Okay. Now you need to know where Mars Bluff is. Mars Bluff is a
rural area near the Francis Marion University which is just east of
Florence, SC. It’s not really a town, it’s more like a
crossroads.
This cache is about a Broken Arrow that fell to earth in Mars
Bluff, SC. It’s an almost unbelievable true story about the
day that a 30 kiloton Mark 6 nuclear bomb was accidentally dropped
in the yard of the Greggs who lived in Mars Bluff, SC. The entire
story is quite detailed, and can be read
here, but I’ll give you the Readers Digest version.
Here’s The Story:
The date was March 11, 1958. At 16:19 a B-47E bomber, Aircraft
35-1876A, accidentally released their nuclear bomb as they were
passing over the Gregg property in rural South Carolina in an area
called Mars Bluff. This event, a Broken Arrow, is also considered
to be the only time a nuclear bomb was ever dropped on America.
In the morning of March 11, 1958, a specialized crew of two at
Hunter Air Force Base, Savannah ran into some problems while trying
to set the locking pin, which holds the bomb in the plane until
it’s ready to be dropped, in place. They used a hammer to
complete the pin engagement. The men then hurriedly completed their
pre-flight checklist. They had to be finished by 10:30 or points
would be docked for the mission. During their haste, they failed to
check the release mechanism of the pin.
Air Force policy required that the pin be released prior to
take-off, in case it needed to be dropped, and to re-insert the pin
at 5000 feet until it was time to finally drop the bomb on its
intended target.
The bomber’s flight crew included Captain Earl Koehler,
the pilot; Captain Charles Woodruff, the co-pilot; Captain Bruce
Kulka, the navigator/bombardier: and crew chief Sergeant Robert
Screptock . They were part of a mission called Snow Flurry which
was a Special or Nuclear Weapons Exercise. Their bomber was
accompanied by three additional bombers also carrying atomic bombs.
They were all headed to Bruntingthorpe Air Base, England.
As the bomber took off the pin was released as per the policy
and when they reached 5,000 feet the co-pilot reached down and
operated the lever to re-insert the pin. The re-insertion failed
and a warning light notified them that the pin was not set.
Since bombardier, Bruce Kulka was responsible for the bomb, he
was instructed to go into the bay where the bomb was and find out
what was wrong. The crew had to go onto oxygen because the bomb bay
was not pressurized and the entire plane had to be depressurized
while Kulka was back there working.
The space where the bomb was stored was so tight that Kulka was
not able to wear a parachute. The bomb was almost as large as the
as the inside of the bomber itself. This required Kulka to feel
blindly above the bomb to try to re-insert the pin. So, here we
have Kulka; no parachute; wearing an oxygen mask; and working
blind. Kulka grabs what he thinks is the pin, but quickly finds out
that it’s the emergency-release lever as the 7,600 pound bomb
drops onto the bomb bay doors. When the bomb dropped, Kulka fell on
top of it. The weight is more then the bomb bay doors can hold and
they open with Kulka still on top of the bomb.
As the bomb drops out of the plane, Kulka manages to grab hold
of something and pull himself back into the plane and then he
radios the pilot what had just happened. The pilot transmits a
special coded message to Hunter Air Force Base, but the base did
not recognize the coded transmission because the procedure had
never been used before. The pilot was then forced to radio the
Florence airport, about 6 miles from Mars Bluff, to request that
they call the air base and tell them that, “Aircraft 35-1876A
has lost a device.”
While all this was taking place, the bomb was impacting the
Gregg property below. The high-explosives in the bomb detonated,
but, because the fissionable core of the bomb was stored in another
part of the plane, a full-on nuclear explosion did not take
place.
The explosion injured Walter Gregg; his wife; his son; and his
two daughters. Ella Davies, a cousin of the Gregg children who was
visiting at the time, was the most severely injured. They all were
taken to the Florence hospital. The Greggs were released, but Ella
required 31 stitches and an overnight stay.
The blast produced a crater that was 50-70 feet in diameter and
25-35 feet deep.
Every building and vehicle on the property was damaged beyond
repair. The Air Force offered the Gregg’s $44,000, which was
the depreciated value for the property – not the replacement
value. The Greggs refused the offer. The family didn’t even
get a housing allowance while their house was being rebuilt.
A special bill was signed by President Eisenhower which allowed
the Greggs to sue the Federal Government. After filing the suit and
more than three years in court, the Greggs received $54,000 (eaual
to about $380,000 today) and still had to pay their legal fees.
The crater is still there today. Trees are growing on the
perimeter, but nothing grows in the interior of the crater. It is
located behind a housing development called Francis Marion
Forest.
No historical marker is nearby to mark the location of the only
nuclear bomb that was dropped on America. Do you think that the
government would rather we forget this page in history? Sounds like
it to me.
I tried to find the location of the crater using a search in
Google Earth, but even GE didn’t know where Mars Bluff is.
But, by using GE and the description in the link of where the
crater is, I think I was able to locate it as shown in the photos
below.
Here's a recent satellite view of the crater and the surrounding
area.
Here's a close-up view of the crater in the above photo.
Congratulations to The Green Family on their FTF!
