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The B-52 was envisioned as a nuclear strike bomber, so it is only natural that BUFFs would have been used to airdrop nuclear test devices. The nuclear test proving ground in the Pacific was in full swing in the 1950s, having seen the word’s first thermonuclear weapon detonation, Ivy Mike on 1 November 1952.
In March of 1956, B-52B 52-0004, the first production B-model which carried nose art of The Tender Trap, was equipped to test nuclear weapons effects on the new bomber. It carried a JB-52B designation and flew to Eniwetok Atoll for the test. A veritable fleet of bombers and fighters had gathered at Eniwetok to participate in the test, whether to study effects or to gather air samples of the radionuclides following the explosion. B-52B 52-0013 carried the test device (codenamed Cherokee) from Albuquerque (Los Alamos National Laboratory) under the Operation Redwing for the 20 May 1956 test. An error by the radar navigator (bombardier) led to the test device being release 21 seconds too early, and missed its aim point by 19,000 feet. Even with the error, no aircraft or crew was lost by being too close to the explosion.
On 26 June 1956, Operation Redwing shot Dakota was detonated and a B-47E was damaged by the blast overpressure, about five miles from ground zero. The Tender Trap (JB-52B 52-0004) was also damaged, suffering damage to bomb bay doors, flaps, landing gear, brakes and braking chute. The incident proved the aircraft could survive that close to the detonation. Officials found the 52-0004 was facing tail toward the detonation, but wanted to test the effects of a nuclear explosion to the nose and flanks of the BUFF.
In 1958, the B-52D, Tommy’s Tigator (half tiger/alligator nose art) 56-0591 was heavily instrumented and flew to Eniwetok as the sole weapons effect test aircraft (not the fleet of 20+ aircraft from the Redwing series). The BUFF flew several effects missions during the Operation Hardtack series, gathering plenty of data from side, and angles to the fuselage. It was flown at low-level to gather more effects data for one mission; the turbulence that day was sufficient to remove large chunks of the aircraft’s skin on the horizontal stabilizers, which was later repaired as it was believed to be superficial damage. The 56-0591 was then flown back to Boeing for extensive low-level flight testing. At the time, low-level flight wasn’t planned, but the dynamics of low-level flight caused the horizontal stabilizers to catastrophically fail, dooming the Boeing aircrew and the aircraft in a 23 June 1959 crash.
After a test moratorium lasting almost three years, Operation Dominic commenced in 1962 in the Pacific Proving Grounds. Of 36 nuclear tests planned, B-52s airdropped a full 29 of them.
To find this cache, calculate the coordinates from the information in this listing.
N 48° 19.ABC W 101° 15.DEF
A= Serial number of first production B-model, The Tender Trap, serial number 52-XXXN, A=(N+2)
B= Day in May 1956 of B-52 airdrop of Cherokee test device, NN May 1956, B=(NNx0)
C= Serial number of B-52B that carried the Cherokee test device, serial number 52-XXNN C=(NN-6)
D= Serial number of test instrumented B-52D, Tommy’s Tigator during Operation Hardtack, serial number 56-XXNX, D=(N/1)
E= Day in June 1959 of tragic B-52 crash during low-level testing, NX June 1959, E=(N-1)
F= Number of B-52 airdrop tests in Operation Dominic in 1962, NN airdrops, F=(NNx0)
Dorr, R. & Peacock, L. (1995). Boeing’s Cold War Warrior: B-52 Stratofortress. London, UK; Osprey Aerospace.
https://fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/nuclear/209chron.pdf