Broken-Arrow_PPW

This one is for you history buffs. In January 1966 a B52G bomber carrying 4 H bombs collided with a KC-135 tanker over Palomares Spain setting off a huge effort of recovery and what is called a broken arrow. I was assigned to a 'Chrome Dome" operation as a maintenance officer in southern Spain and was sent down with a team to recover the wreckage. At the same time General Wilson sent down a team from the headquarters in Madrid. I have included some of many articles that are on the web about this, but there are many more. We were not properly prepared for what we found and I never had proper protective gear to protect me from the radioactive materials on the ground. Each day we were checked with Geiger counters and would decontaminate by jumping in the Mediterranean Sea. My clothes had to be destroyed because they became radio active. I was put in charge of one of the search teams looking for the 4th weapon on land, but it was actually in the Med and was eventually recovered by the Navy with an experimental sub. I participated for 60 days though I was not supposed to be there that long. When my team brought the general a cake to celebrate our 60 days together, we received orders sending us back to base a few days later. To my knowledge I never suffered any ill effects from the radiation, though many of the first responders did as stated in the NY Times clip listed below, but all the military disaster preparedness manuals were rewritten as a result of this incident.


This was our second encampment. early on we had nothing, no showers, no kitchen, etc. just roughing it.

The image was made with a film camera and then copied and processed in PSCS6 Extended using Picture Postcard workflow.

http:--en.wikipedia.org-wiki-1966_Palomares_B-52_crash


http:--www.rense.com-general45-drop.htm


http:--usgovinfo.about.com-library-weekly-aa081600b.htm
http:--www.nytimes.com-2016-06-20-us-decades-later-sickness-among-airmen-after-a-hydrogen-bomb-accident.html

http:--articles.latimes.com-2003-aug-24-news-adfg-nightmare24
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