Document text
Machine-read from the scan, so expect some errors. Lines that couldn’t be read are left out.
Page 1
[Nuclear Safety Men From Aibuquerque at Dramatic Scene as Advisors Recovery of Missin H-Bomb SpectacularInvolved in recovery of the missing hydrogen bomb line broke during the shifting ^ probably be sent to was the Directorate of Nuclear Safety, a Pentagon-level, maneuver in March. an Atomic Energy Commisquerque which sent advisors to Spain immediately after, sub passed within six feet of ^ e s nppe an i s nuthe most spectacular peace-time incident involving nu- its object before once again clear devices. This makes this dramatic article more pinpointing the bomb, interesting here. Then, an unmanned elec tronic device operated like a By BOB HORTON robot s was called into action. WASHINGTON, April 9 W — The United States lost This unit called CURV — I the elusive H-bomb a second time for nine days duringcal3le - controlled underwater the great 80-day search off Spain — and was in danger r®searc^ vehicle use meof losing it forever in a yawning undersea canyon, it was nylon lineg ^ Jtrieved from 2,900 feet deep in the Mediterranean Thurs day, had shifted two weeks earlier along a widening r'avine to within a few hundred feet of a canyon extending to depths of 4,000 feet — beyond the capability of . retrieval i This exasperating develop ment occurred when j^e-inch as a surface vessel’s winch dragged the bomb up a 70degree slope toward level The silvery, eight-ton bomb toppled 100 feet back into the underwater ravine and sank: in the muck-filled bottom. There it remained hidden un til April 3 when the miniature Isub Alvin, after repeated 1 groping about the black Idepths, sighted a piece of the ftrading from the mud. Four days later, in the earlly morning hours in -WashingIton, a cryptic message from I Rear Adm. William S. Guest I in Spain clacked off a teleJtype machine in a Navy com- |mand post in the Pentagon: “Target on deck of Petrel The 10 - foot long, 3 - foot I thick tube had been hauled lup by the recovery vessel PeThen-,— and only then — 700 feet long in the bomb’s was.it definitely identified by parachute lines, serial number as the hydro- Like a dead fish the bomb gen bomb which spilled from was reeled up — but only afa B52 disintegrating after col- ter the CURV became snarled liding with a refueling tanker jn the works for two hours six miles above Spain’s coast during an attempt to secure Jan. 17. a third line. On Friday the bomb was: “It looked for a while we being displayed like valuable; were in real trouble,” Guest, pirate treasure before news-: commander of the task force men and Spanish officials who, assigned to the recovery, said folk the nuclear intruder had: Despite the massive under at last been apprehended. taking — some 180 scuba and The exact price of the un- hard - hat divers were used— precedenfed operation — 110 0116 was injured. unique not only from a tech- Alvin* however h a d tlle United States calls a trainmeal standpomt but also be- The Alvin, however, naa Actuallv these are cause of volatile security and one scare. In an attempt to ^^SnefsU S diplomatic aspects - m a y drag the bomb from a slope Sf^ed whh nuckar never be know n.- But the to a more secure area, the p s armea witn nuclear Navy acknowledges the cost parachute billowed over * he necessary Retaliation agaiTit sub s portholes, rendering the necessary r tauation against crew not ' only blind but po- an enemy attack. _ tentially trapped like a fish, TVendorf had signed for jjj a nej. four hydrogen bombs. He was! been anchored down there toi Somewhere near the Span-i clear components : analyzed for the effects of 80 days sub mersion in sea water. The weapon’s plutonium and uranium components can be returned to the nation’s nu clear arsenal for future use, provided they meet strict] Secretary of Defense Rob messaged his appreciation to those who recovered the bomb, praising “the determi nation, dedication and pro fessionalism” of all hands. The recovery is a study in scientific achievement, and one which military officials already are studying for pos sible future application. The story — the problem itself — really began Jan. 17 when the B52 piloted by Capt. Charles J. Wendorf soared out of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C., on what iruns into the millions of dol lars. Alvin Is Hero The sea search involved 18 that bomb, and there would have been very little we could It is a rather sweet bit of irony, then, that with this vast force at work, the bomb was: first found by the tiny Alvin do/to get them,” one source creeping baokwaik down said, a 70-degree sea slope. Fortunately the Alvin — ward down the slope because thrust — was able to back at that angle the crew out of its undersea trap, and an official explained. cautiously from then on. The Alvin had its work to!. Navy officials said yesterdo all over again when the day that the H-bomb will be I returned from Spain to the United States on the ship Cascade for intensive study. ish coast, about 300 miles! from headquarters of the 16th| tanker to refuel. What happened next is un-j der investigation and has not been explained. Apparently the tanker’s trailing boom which feeds fuel down to the B52 ripped up the back of the| bomber like a can opener. Both went down. The four] crewmen in the tanker were trapped. Four of the B52’s seven crewmen ejected safe ly. Wendorf was one of them. The B52 crashed near the village of Garrucha, five miles] from Palomares Beach.
Page 2
LY: Publicly shown for the first time in the nuclear age is this eightrecovered in a tense struggle from the sea off Spain. Admiral William iKirtland Advisors at the Scene Marked by Tension Drama might have dropped. Mf“:..what -w 6 r 1 sand dunes — places Thai ly looked suspicious. Soon it became obvious |where the bomb had gone: ^The sea, which posed not 1 only a frustratingly wide I area but also a new dimenfly trained people. At first, searchers merely! waded out as far as possible,! at times walking shoulder toj From overhead depths out! ffto 80 feet deep the Navy scu-| ba divers moved in, scouring! Ithe bottom like their counterling among the rocks and [muck and vegetation of the Next came the helmetedl divers in pressurized suits! feeling along the 80 to 300 feetj depths, probing with acousti-! cal tools and seeing as best! they could through s m a 11| panes in armored hats whichl limited vision to straight! ahead. Lot of Water The search spread over a '3.25 square mile area and in volving a million square feet of water, and still no bomb. Now, with additional scientific computations and one rather crude variable —- a fisherman’s report that he saw a parachute drifting out over the ocean — the big If the-bomb’s” parachute deoperation moved to a tw0'mile Navy Task Force 65 commander, is congratulated by Spanish General Arturo Montel, At right is Maj. Gen. Delmar E. Wilson, commander of at left is unidentified. (UPI) |jA third was recovered intact, The word flashed back to Seymour Johnson AFB and was relayed’ to Kirtland AF Base near Albuquerque, N.M., where teams of technicians remain on the alert to in In six hours a half dozen nuclear, armament experts were being flown to Spain to form the nucleus of a search force which would grow The initial search, by neces sity, began by foot on a whose - available basis while air and sea forces could be mobilized. U.S. airmen, Span ish military personnel and of-l ficials were pressed into servLike tractors plowing a cornj| mieni nave mupijea. i:r~ “"r"*’...x'fleld the Alvin and another This involved reconstruc-l^® wind velocities and ^irec submersible, the Aluminaut, in the collision — envisioning Meteorologists had to <M would have fallen where. The their calculations such vari ables as the differing wind currents between the point of impact and the six miles' down to earth. searched back and forth overjl a rugged sea bottom which! had been photographed by! cameras on an underwater] sled named .the Mizar. Each day” the submersiblesl There were a number o: possibilities where to star ■ looking but since the plane it! self hit land, initial searching*? cover, guided m their locacentered near the village oftion-blind condition by surface Cuevas de Almonzora. vessels which, in turn, nayi- ' Another ponderable: Ho w1 Hundreds at. military per-gated though fee use of si|. long did it take the B52 to dis- sonnel, some bareiy knowing^d h For a plane traveling near- ally a fingertip probing of the^geantenns Pthe ly a thousand feet per second, groxmd, covering some places mt V g this was a crucial factor in dozens of times. coa?t- t th bomb te condition of the missing! of hole it might make and secrecy imposed by both If solid it would .have, had a; Some carried Geiger counters near6d whien the Mv®- camel predictably wide trajectory toj earth, like a spent bullet. In broken it would curve more] to measure radiation upon a rut on an underwater] For six weeks they poked hillside five miles offshore, into lead mines, water wells, The smaU sub followed the ing over some, object