1958 Mars Bluff Nuclear Bomb Incident
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
- In 2003 Walter Gregg, then 82, said "Not too many people can say they've had a nuclear bomb dropped on them. Not too many would want to." The 1958 Mars Bluff nuclear weapon incident deserves to be remembered.
This is original content based on research by The History Guy. Images in the Public Domain are carefully selected and provide illustration. As very few images of the actual event are available in the Public Domain, images of similar objects and events are used for illustration.
You can purchase the bow tie worn in this episode at The Tie Bar:
www.thetiebar....
All events are portrayed in historical context and for educational purposes. No images or content are primarily intended to shock and disgust. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Non censuram.
Find The History Guy at:
Facebook: / thehistoryguyyt
Patreon: / thehistoryguy
Please send suggestions for future episodes: Suggestions@TheHistoryGuy.net
The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered is the place to find short snippets of forgotten history from five to fifteen minutes long. If you like history too, this is the channel for you.
Subscribe for more forgotten history: / @thehistoryguychannel .
Awesome The History Guy merchandise is available at:
teespring.com/...
Script by THG
#ushistory #thehistoryguy #nuclearaccident
"unscheduled bomb drop" is a textbook example of military understatement.
Makes me think of "Undocumented immigrant.
@@maxwellcrazycat9204 or Military Intelligence or Honest Politician
Unacknowledged propaganda stunt.
Calling Mars Bluff, calling Mars Bluff! Did you feel your brain getting damaged by the whoosh of hot air between your ears?
@@alantasman8273 jumbo shrimp
like "casualty"
My father was a career Marine, two tours in Vietnam, decorated. A really good man and an archetypal combat veteran. He retired as a Lt. Col after 26 years in the Corps and went on to a second career in academia and public service. He taught university courses in history, mainly about WWII and Vietnam. He imparted a love for history in me, but I remember he often lamented how hard it was to get his students interested and engaged in things of the past. It is bittersweet for me to watch the History Guy because I think of my dad, every time, and how much he would have loved this couple's body of work. The segments are consistently visually appropriate and fascinating, and the scripts are always efficient and interesting, no matter the subject. If he were here today I would tell him a joke that he would have loved, and then straight to the computer for a History Guy or two to get him rolling. Thanks so much and keep up the stellar work!
Well, we sure gave him a nice ride.
Thank you for your father's service from a former Royal marine over the pond
@@garethgriffiths8577 Thanks, Gareth. I don't remember specifics, but my dad's unit did some sort of collaboration with the Royal Marines back in the day, which led him to a life long friendship ,with one Leslie Hudson, who I believe retired as a colonel and has since passed, and a lifelong respect for the Royal Marines. Col. Hudson brought me a Wooly Pulley over from the UK when I was in high school and it was a cherished garment. Another good man. Anyway, thanks for your service as well. Cheers !
God Bless your father! I served in Vietnam as a helicopter pilot first in the Infantry and then the US Air Cavalry. When my buddies were scootin' around town in their 68 Mustangs and 57 Chevys I was scootin' around the neighborhood in my Huey and then Kiowa, wishing I was on the ground wishin' I was up here! We were young and invincible, your father and I, brothers from different mothers.
History will judge us as trying to do the right thing, and one day soon I will see your father on " Fiddlers Green". HOOOAH!
@@Helismoke I'll have to do some research on Fiddlers Green, but if you see him there, tell him hello from me. I am proud of him and his service, and yours too.
"Granpa, how did you meet uncle Kulka"
"Well, that 70ft swimming pool in the backyard? He did the excavation. We had a blast that afternoon."
Good one..!!!
That Max Headroom?
@@kevintucker3354
The one and only. Usually gets mistaken for Eminem these days.
@@ShootAUT Eminem wishes he was as cool as Max Headroom .
@@pappy451 - I think Eminem would play a great Max Headroom and would love to hear some raps done that way LOL
Also they should use Max Headroom for the first AI that becomes sentient LOL That would be really cool :D
When that bomb went off, my grandfather was surveying land in NC nearly 40 miles away. He heard the explosion. As a captain in an army artillery unit, he recognized the sound as an explosion.
Rowland, NC? My grandparents lived in Raemon/Midway.
Hiroshima was only heard at 50 miles away
@@jonnyd9351 This makes sense. Hiroshima has mountains, the bomb in this clip landed on the coastal plains, so the land was flat for miles in every direction.
I was part of the ground crew that prepared the aircraft for flight. The Crew Chief and I were picked up in separate staff cars and kept separated for hours until the flight were questioned about our movements and if we had been in or looked in the bomb bay at any time. I never talked about the indecent until I read about it in a book about 10 years later. (Americas Necular Accidents)
Your part of history Sir
Amazing story! Thanks for sharing.
no you werent...that was 66years ago, that would make you atleast 84-86yrs old and more like 90....
so youre 85-90yrs old, fucking around on YT? lol please.... what do you people get iut of making this shit up, its like the new "first" post or "whoever reads this..." hoping for likes or something, every video has "that was my grandpa" and some story...like who does that? so pathetic
No fault of yours Arthur, thanks for sharing your experience with us, I hope it doesn't weigh heavy on you at all for it shouldn't. Much love!
Thank you for your service and yes it's crazzy the military will hide stuff and keep info from their own airmen and troops to hide things and not freak out the public. You sir are part of history and should not feel terrible about it not your fault at all. My dad was in the airforce for 27 years and mom did 23 years they both entered the airforce in the mid 80s and dad went to desert storm and the Gulf war and Iraqi freedom. And he went to a bunch other countries for missions and duty and service like Columbia to track drug trafficking planes during Pablo Escobar days in the height of it and he went missing for two weeks mom got through to the head of red cross after a week of not hearing from dad and she finally got the answers she needed apparently the hotel they was in was evacuated of all American military members due to bomb and sure enough Pablo had found out American armed forces was staying there had his guys plant bombs and blew the whole front side of the hotel out every room the had American service members in them was gone and they evacuated them secretly about 30ins before it went off and dad said they got tdonw the road and they looked back and the whole front side of hotel.blew out and was leveled cuse some dumb airmen was running around in bars about two days later telling ppl he is gonna kill Pablo himself drunk and then some females was pretending to flirt with him went back to his hotel which was where my dad was in same hotel but not room and told the two lady's that all the American airforce members that are in Columbia are all staying in this hotel and the one next door and those two chicks was informants for Pablo. My dad was a sergeant for radar operations and they was all given Canadian IDs and was supposed to tell ppl they are Canadians their on vacation and visiting and couldn't wear any military uniform or anything they got dressed on base in the tunnel they worked out of on radars tracking drug planes.
The air force has a massive budget, but couldn't fully pay someone back for accidently bombing their house and nearly killing them, amazing.
I agree. it is really disappointing to hear how the Greggs were treated in the reimbursement process.
Especially back in the 1950s
@@avilacanario you'd think ~5 to 10k would have been enough to fully build a brand new house in the 50s so how badly did they short him!
Probably the same amount it cost to circle that plane for 3 hours before landing.
@@Spencer481 specially when you think that they "build" entire villages to blast them in nuclear tests.
and the house was blasted by a "nuclear bomb".
the only house needed back,and...
I have a blasting licence, we set off 20kg of ANFO as a surface charge strictly for a percussion test. We were standing around 400m (437yds) away. Standing far away you get experiences from the blast, you see it, you feel it through the ground and then you hear it. It was an obvious sensation through the ground and when the sound wave came it moved my hair and clothing and you can see the camera move back and forward as the wave past. This was 45lbs @ 437yds, and these people experienced 2000lbs @ within roughly 100yds. Not a pure percussion blast as the blast would of had some load blowing the bomb structure apart, but still, this would be such an aggressive assault on the senses, it's pretty much impossible to imagine.
The nuke would have been supposed to air burst, for maximum bang… that would’ve moved it further away… still close though.
"Hey, what about Major Kong???"
Little did I know, that scene was almost entirely historically accurate. That navigator was so lucky he didn't ride that bomb out of the bomb bay after releasing it. 😱
Catch 22.😰 YEE ,HAW !
That's how your hard core commie works..
@@HeaanLasai Looking at nuclear accidents and close calls has you looking at humanity like a child with a lighter in one hand playing with a stick of dynamite in the other.
And we're still doing it.
@@richblantin1343 LOL 👍🏻😏👍🏻
No, it was Dr. Strangelove.
Thank you. The most impressive part of this story for me is the way old time journalists got every detail of a story that they could. Peoples names and ages, what they were doing at the time etc.
a time when people were more professional and took pride in their work.
This is about 50 miles from where I grew up, and it was legendary amongst locals. I’ve actually visited the site. It was very overgrown but I did find the crater pond back away from the main road.
Jiggling the pin with a hammer...Translation: Beating the Holy crap out of it.....
Or, as it likely was put in the official reports, "percussive maintenance methods were used."
The engineering term for that is "percussive maintenance"
Has Ave joined the chat?
This is the approved first response for all military equipment.
... gentle persuasion my_ss!
I’ve known of this “incident” for years, but never had heard anything about the family, folks nearby, and related stories/information. That’s what I love about TheHistoryGuy; all that extra information gleaned from what has to be pretty exhaustive and skilled research. Another great vid. Thank you!
Yeah TheHistoryGuy is great at patching out some nonsense creative story about the cat Mitzi....
Mark Felton Productions all the way! Ahem, Dr.
Just playing The History Guy is amazing!!!
@@msgstar4933 The story was also told in "Atomic Accidents" by James Mahaffey. I think we accidentally almost nuked ourselves 117 times, and that's just us.
Great humanizing of what could have been a jumble of technology.
this is the first I"m hearing of it despite only living about 110 miles from there
@@msgstar4933 if they are using Florence SC as a landmark that explains a lot. I'm surprised there were a dozen homes around to be damaged.
I knew Mr. Gregg and I used to work with his son Walter. He was a fine man that was always smiling and happy. He loved telling this story. I’ve heard it several times from him.
I was born and raised in Florence, always a trip to hear it come up, even tangentially. We had a Mars Bluff Road, and the story of how the Air Force dropped a nuke on us is local legend. Thanks for sharing the story!
The scarier conclusion is: there have been ALOT of "broken arrow" accidents and our understanding of all things nuclear THEN....was pretty archaic compared to now.
Until you look at the nuclear secret incident currently happening in politics and you realize that it's really just how well we keep the ignorant idiots away from positions of power. Mainly the presidency
Nothing has changed. We still only know what we have been told.
Drop a nuke on his house and injured his kids but didn't rebuild his house? Poor form!
But gee, I bet he got a pretty neat letter to frame with President Eisenhower's autograph!
It's still a vacant lot.
"Poor form" at best. "Piss-poor treatment of a citizen bombed by their own country" is a bit more like it.
@@mickenzie5863 Got a Google Earth (or some such) image link? I'd like to see that.
@@haplessasshole9615 As if they gave a shit.
“Sorry we dropped a nuclear dud on your house” probably can’t be found in the hallmark isle
maybe in the russian hallmark isle...
Roses are red
Violets are blue
So sorry we dropped a bomb on you
USAF
-pretty lame I must admit! :) -but who can do better! :)
"Secretary Baird : Broken Arrow. It's a Class 4 Strategic Theatre Emergency. It's what we call it when we lose a nuclear weapon. Giles Prentice : I don't know what's scarier, losing a nuclear weapons, or that it happens so often there's actually a term for it." From the movie of the same name.
Too funny. Thanks I’ve started my day with a good chuckle 🤭
Hahaha good one 🤣
I knew a nuclear weapons safety officer and he gave me a thick stack of papers that described all of the unclassified accidents involving U.S. nuclear weapons. The first was in 1946 and it included this incident. It included the incident off the coast of Savannah and the one that is the basis of the book, "Thunderball". Scary stuff.
Imagine the classified stuff! 👀
How come we are not all dead? All that radiation!
I've always loved history but hated it in school until I had a teacher that was probably similar to The History Guy. He enjoyed history and thus, so did his entire class. Thanks History Guy, you do a great job, Mr. Klassen would be proud of you.
My uncle, MGS J. Kuptz, served and lived at Paris Island, SC, and courted his bride who lived in Savannah, GA. Uncle told me this story he’d read up on of the dropped and exploded nuke on nearby Tybee Island, in or around 1990, I’d thought that certainly he must be misremembering, I’d been to Tybee Island and there was no gigantic pit. Now I know the whole story. Thank you.
THG: "By jiggling the pin with a hammer."
USAF: "I want you to beat on this nuclear bomb until the pins seat properly or you see a white light."
Don't force it.
Use a bigger hammer.
WD 40.
Yes!
They could have tried holding the bomb in place with duct tape.
@@Underwatergoat1 I used to work for a guy who said that all the time. If ya think about it, there is some validity to it.
I was 4 y.o. and lived not so far away. Scared my parents when they saw the hole. I had forgotten about this incident.
I lived in Darlington at that time and some of our friends lived in Mars Bluff and were affected.
@@topixfromthetropix1674 Conway.
@@bloodybones63 hey y’all. Pamplico here. I saw Mars Bluff and thought could this be our SC Florence county Mars Bluff?? I literally live 15 miles from there and have never heard of this
12 minutes from there, buddy of mine lives only a couple blocks from there right now
I lived in Mars Bluff briefly during my high school years. I've always gotten a bit of kick out of having lived somewhere that had an 'atomic bomb' dropped on it. :)
Hah! My dad was on the AF investigative board for this one (and the one of the coast of Georgia!)
There were some pretty "obvious design flaws" with the drop mechanism..as well as we were not supposed to be having nukes in England....as far as the public was concerned.
*Edit after watching: That was the most complete description I have heard since my dad used to talk about what he called "the time we nuked a chicken coup".
"Also, this incident is said to be what inspired Kubric' last scene in Dr. Strangelove. (One of my dad's favorite movies. He marveled at the accuracy.)
Nuked a chicken coup...class! Lovely story. Thank you.
Slim Pickens riding the bomb. Yahoo
@@drakefallentine8351
Only one is a movie that makes fun of it and one is reality big difference
@@Mr.Robert1 Truth in the movies and lies on TV
That's how Chic-fil-A was born, and they cook 'em the same way to this day.
The "A" is for atomic!
My grand parents were a pastor couple in the town of Tonopah, Nevada during the above ground testing days of the late 50's to 60s?. One evening she went out for a walk...the next morning she awoke to find half her body had turned red. The symptom eventually went away- but she died within 8 years of an extremely rare form of spinal bone cancer. I've often wondered if this was all connected to military activity back then. Have you ever explored this area of questionable atomic testing from that era?
Sounds like they were downwinders
Look up the filming location for the 1956 movie "The Conqueror" where John Wayne portrays Genghis Khan (an absolutely horrible movie). It was filmed in Snow Canyon Utah and was directly downwind of some of the continental nuclear tests in the mid 1950's. It is reported that of the cast and crew of 220 people, 91 developed cancer.
Running around in a dusty environment that is still laden with radionuclides, breathing that stuff in and living and sleeping in it is definitely bad for your health.
@@Tishers Yup- I remember reading
about that.
The Boeing B-47 is one of my favorite aircraft. Just finished building a model of it the Hasegawa 1/72 scale model first introduce in 1968. It is still being issued. The years 1957 and 1958 were deadly years for this bomber having lost 175 crew members to accidents. All toll about 462 crew were lost in accidents from 1951 to 1968. Take offs were so dangerous. If one engine faltered somewhat that side of the wing would dip striking the runway resulting in a fully fueled up aircraft exploding in a ball of flames.
My ex's father was a navigator on a B-47 and was killed via rough landing and subsequent fire in the mid 60's. There were few details, as I believe his crew was photographing places that were officially "off-limits" over Europe based on where the crash happened.
I was 4 years old when this happened. Grew up about 30 miles east of Mars Bluff. We went to Florence shopping quite often. I remember my grandmother pointing out the site as we passed by on hwy 301. Brings back fond memories of my grandmother! Thanks 😊😊😊
1) Mark Felton
2) The History Guy
3) Dark Docs
All I Need To Get Me Through The Day
My goodness but that plane has a sleek, sexy profile with that narrow fuselage and swept wings.
You should watch the film "Strategic Air Command" starring Jimmy Stewart for lots of B-47 footage. Jimmy was a bomber pilot in WWII Europe and stayed in the USAF Reserve throughout much of his acting career.
The B-47 is definitely one handsome aircraft. Not particularly successful, but darn good looking.
The wings used to crack from doing their bug out loop after dropping a device (USAF procedure.) So they left service pretty quickly.
Carlin was right!
Was thinking the same thing. What a beauty!
We need guys like you in our schools sir. History would be more exciting for sure.
We're allowed to have schools?
Well not lately apearintly
*Apparently. We can tell lol.
Too late History is now canceled for everyone in the United States
@@shawngoldsberry747 not in my family. If they dont learn it at school, I have family the get xtra education when they get home from school. They dont like it but at least they'll be a little smarter then most
I was 12 years old when this happened. It was about 15 miles from where I lived. It was the talk of all of the near towns..
Interesting episode. We had a B47 base here in our town and I had classmates whose fathers worked on B47’s. My dad loved airplanes so we would go to the base and watch the B47’s take off and land. There was a designated parking area on the East side of the base where civilians could watch. It was a special time in my life growing up and I have always been fascinated with this airplane. Thanks for the bit of history.
Ever heard anyone call it the BUFF-lite?
My Uncle was a Major in the USAF at this time, and 2 years prior had been a radar observer on a B-52 that crashed near Tracy, CA (he survived). His wife always swore that every time they were moved by the military to a new base she could expect stuff to be broken, lost, or stolen, or sometimes all three. Apparently they ran moves like that as cheaply and slowly as possible - just like paying for the damage to this man’s house, apparently.
My dad was one of the first people to fly a KC135. He was very proud of that fact and absolutely loved flying one of them.
As usual, History Guy delivers with impeccable, detailed research and great delivery. You put so much into a 10-15 minute piece. Always interesting!
Man got a new phone and account I completely forgot about this channel , so glad I just randomly clicked this always enjoyed this show !!!
Mitsi having 9 lives was untouched.
But she was short one of them afterwards.
Did she still have her skin on?
I was raised in Darlington, SC and heard the explosion. Our friends, the Hunts, lived on the property next to the Greggs. Their daughter, Susan, was also wounded in the mishap and had a permanent scar on her nose. The device lost at Tybee Island was never recovered and there were rumours of a Soviet sub in the area.
I understand that Mike Hunt was terribly violated.
@@kingboagart899 not nearly as bad as Buster Hymen
i'm reminded of dr strangelove.
Kulka very nearly went down like Slim Pickens.
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel What is so strange about Dr. Strangelove is that it failed to convince the US & CCCP to dismantle their Nuclear Arsenal...
@@davidhollenshead4892 It is time to stop worrying and learn to love the bomb.
@@GnuReligion But today, the mantra should be: It is time to stop worrying and learn to love the virus.
@@marbleman52 That is clever. It is peculiar, that political alignment can be determined by how pro-mask, or pro-shutdown someone is. th-cam.com/video/HKsDem1r4_A/w-d-xo.html
My Uncle was the commander of that B47. He never told me the true story, even though I was his nephew and a active Flight Instructor , but his son did. The third crewman responsible for securing the bomb during the pre landing checklist was too short to reach a panel in the bomb bay. He placed his duffel bag down and stood on it. They hit turbulence and he slipped off and he grabbed the panel and tripped the switches for dropping the bomb. My Uncle said no one’s career went any further and the farm house and other structures were rebuilt in two weeks
There once was a man named Gregg
Who received quite the dreadful "egg";
Though it wasn't a nuke, still there was a rebuke
But he still became friends with the crew...
History Guy still just out here delivering content
This is a really interesting episode. Keep up the good work, I love the amount of detail you research.
"We have met the enemy and he is us."--- Pogo
I'm 'borrowing' this...
"Swaller dollar cauliflower, aligaroo!"
I am still amazed at how anyone can possibly thumb down your videos.
Thanks. I grew up in Timmonsville (see lower left corner at the 7:38 mark) some 26 miles from Mars Bluff. I don't recall hearing the blast, but my family (including me) visited the site on the Sunday five days after the blast. The 40-foot-wide crater by then had become a pond.
While the US was much more public with incidents like this, I wonder what problems the Soviets had in the same vein.
There are some Soviet incidences that have been made public. such as the time somebody accidentally loaded a training program into their early warning system and they nearly launched their entire nuclear stockpile because they thought they were under attack
Probably the same or worse, we'll just never know because instead of compensating the victims they shot them or put them in the Gulag.
Makes you kinda glad the RAF didn't fly around with nukes on board.
@@rogueriderhood1862 What do you think the V bomber force was for?
They were only made public because the public found out.
An especially well done presentation on this particularly huge moment in our history, THG.
Much appreciate your efforts on this channel - it's truly noble work you do here!
- Ed on the Ridge
Thanks! I always enjoy your series of history that deserves to be remembered. What a great way to start my day!
A terrific story with an amazing amount of details for a "top-secret" subject. Would be nice to do a summary of "broken arrow" events for the US and the world.
Lazerpig did a video about all the Broken Arrow incidents he could find.
Idaho Falls, SL1 nuclear accident deserves to be covered. My uncle, Ed Velario worked there when the incident occurred. If you visit the site today no mention is made of the first nuclear accident in the United States, but its impact on safety in the airline and medical community is still being felt. Please consider covering. Thanks, Toby Free.
Is that the one with the people pinned to the reactor dome by the control rods or fuel rods? Or something to that effect.
@@Smedley1947 Yup. My uncle was one of the 5 that went in to rescue the single survivor and the last of the 5 to die of cancer (multiple myeloma).
Reg. the second one lost in Georgia: On Feb. 5, 1958, a B-47 bomber dropped a 7,000-pound nuclear bomb into the waters off Tybee Island, Ga., after it collided with another Air Force jet. Fifty years later, the bomb -- which has unknown quantities of radioactive material -- has never been found.
They never found the one they lost over Tibee Island. There was another incident over by Greensboro, NC were thankfully the third safety held or it would have exploded.
Goldsboro- talked about that accident in this episode: th-cam.com/video/yIrSBmG46n8/w-d-xo.html
@@TheHistoryGuyChannelThank you, sir. Love your daily history lessons.
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel It actually dropped outside the small town of Faro, NC. Which is not to far from Goldsboro.
They "think" they found some of the wreckage from the nuclear bomb carrying plane that went down in Northern BC near South West Alaska but they aren't positive, nor did they ever find the bomb.
Goldsboro, NC, fly from Seymore Johnson AFB, I worked on the B-52 pad at that time and the security blanket was so tight we never heard about it. The crew never turned to the base. Talk about a lock down.
I don't know how I missed this video, but I'm glad I found it. Having graduated from Francis Marion University pretty much across the road from where this occurred this story means so much more. I am glad that you covered this little known unique story!
btw...History Guy Our Brother.....Thank You for this post....and helping to ease the wounds that these ppl their relatives are still feeling the burn of.....it's easier to live with when none has swept such events...its victims under the rug. There are some events in history that should always be passed along
I have a patient who was a B47 pilot. He knew the crew of the plane described here. He tells the story much as you do here. He said 50,000 chickens died. He was friends with the fellow who accidentally dropped the device.
I would love it if you could give a talk on the sinking of Virbus Unitis.
Thanks
Frank
The B-47 was, as pilots call it, "temperamental". IOW "a handful to fly", or as maintenance crews would say "a disaster waiting to happen".
It actually had a terrible service record that was a result of both aircraft and training issues. 10% of the airframes built were total losses due to accident.
Ten percent?! That's a very unstable platform to be delivering a nuclear bomb on an enemy. Any practice with live bombs poses a significant elevated threat of crashing with a bomb on friendly territory and spreading around its radioactive materials, such as plutonium, uranium, and polonium. I've read that bomber crews were told to crash on land instead of in water, if possible, because uranium is highly reactive with water.
@@oahuhawaii2141 many of those accidents were in landing.
Landing a B-47 wasn't really important on a nuclear bombing run as the bomber wasn't expected to make it home, or if it did it was expected that the base would no longer be there.
@@jwenting: Well, I hope they could've landed in East Asia, Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Western Europe, ...
@@oahuhawaii2141 Nope, the missions would launch from the US (over the pole) and from the UK and Turkey, then fly over the USSR.
Landing fields were designated in places like Pakistan but it was assumed few if any of them would make it that far, that most would either be shot down, be damaged and crash by being caught in their own nuclear blast radius, or simply run out of fuel.
This was the era of one way missions.
Later when the B-52 which its greater range entered service that changed, obviously, as those did have the range needed to return home.
But there too very high combat losses were expected.
Sounds like a book I once read: "'Oops!' and other things you don't want to hear when nuclear weapons are involved"
They would not rebuild the home. That’s not fair, that’s just not right.
No, it is not right.
In our time, he'd probably make a fortune off the royalties from the rights to the story.
Correct but you are talking about a country that stood US Army trainees in shallow trenches in front of an atomic bomb to see what the results would be.
Different times, different thinking!
@@outdoorfreedom9778 - they did more than just stand there, they actually were ordered to run towards it. Saw that here on TH-cam one time.
From what I heard they paid enough to repair the damages, just not rebuild from the ground up. Also since it's taxpayer money, regulations force them to be as cheap as possible to save taxpayers from more waste.
This incident deserves a history channel or similar documentary that's at least 50 minutes long you are the longest video I've seen on TH-cam when I was just randomly looking for the Mars bluff incident.
Please keep it up! Enjoy seeing some of the stories about occurrences that I remember a few different things about.
Always fascinating! I was 7 at the time. Living in N.J. No memory of this particular "cold war" incident. However I do remember an early memory of Nike missiles popping out of the ground in a field. Thanks for sharing. :)
Love your research and dedication to your work. Keep it up!
Great stuff, as always! Thank You!
Very frightening. I was almost 12yrs old but don't remember these incidents. Living in SF Ca. at the time. However, I do remember standing in a field a rocks throw from the hiway in 58 or 59. We had just heard on tv that Nikita Kruschev had landed at the SF airport. A few minutes later I was standing in the field and saw an unusual sight moving towards me over on the hiway. It was 3 long black limo's with flags flying on top of the fenders I knew it was Kruchev since the cars were coming from the airport direction. I was the only one standing in the field, and while staring at the windows of the cars I wondered if Kruschev saw me I think I waved. Then ran screaming in the house I saw Kruschev!!! I also saw Ike and Maimie (spelling might be wrong) some time later when they drove past me and my older brother on Bayshore Blvd in SF. Ike was smiling and waving. Another thrill for me. Thanks for the video
PS I also met and spent some time on a few occaisons with David Packard. I called him Dave. He was a wonderful man very sweet and kind and helped me put up straight a crooked Christmas tree.
Love your stuff... Cant wait for the next one!
All these nuclear accidents, you sometimes have to ask yourself was Homer Simpson involved. DOH!!!!!!
I never realized how many nuclear accidents there have been until I watched the "Plainly Difficult" youtube channel.
It’s pronounced nuckulear.
I think I read somewhere that losing a device has happened something like 32 times. I don't know how many times they lost a " device" before they came up with the term Broken Arrow for such an incident.
No, Homer is a Navy Nuke, the USAF is much worse about losing or breaking nukes.
Grabbed the bomb release lever because he needed something to hold on to. Good Grief!!!
Somewhere in your house Pookie is thinking "I'm glad Mitsy made it out OK."
Was it an accident or an incident...
Accident sounds like it's down to earth and real and being honest...
Incidence sounds like it's politically correct,,,,
While whitewashing it!
@@davidleethompsoniii8263
🤤⁉️
Probably used-up one of her nine lives though...
"loss incident" is the Air Force term, and I suspect it is intended to make it sound less egregious than "bombed South Carolina."
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel Might have been appropriate for the B47 crew to report, " Hunter Control? WE HAVE A PROBLEM HERE!
I met the bombardier. The incident seemed to be life defining.
How so?
@@swillm3ister He never uttered the word "oops" again..
@@darrellsmith4204 LoL sounds about right. That's definitely a memorable mistake.
@@swillm3isterMy wife knew his wife from a "self-help" program. They were much older, of course.
@@harleylawdude I imagine it would have been quite a life changing event. I wonder if he remained in that role after the ordeal.
You deserve a commendation. Thanks so much.
This is such a fantastic channel. He's great narrating everything and the content is so fascinating every time.
This reminded me of one of my favorite movies: "No Time For Sergeants", which came out the same year that this amazing event occurred. At least, the airplane crew didn't "quit their post"!
Oh man, I loved that movie. Thanks for posting this, seeing as how I had forgotten about it. I'm gonna have to try and find it on a streaming site.👍😀
@@nayrecitsuj7426 "No Time For Sergeants" was first run as a Broadway play, and it is where Andy Griffith and Don Knotts first met, forming a lifelong friendship. Also look for Dub Taylor as the draft board man, Raymond Bailey as the base Colonel, and Jamie Farr as the B-25 co-pilot!
ROFL! Talk about a "shit your pants" moment for the guy in the bomb-bay.
Thanks for another amazing story! I once read about this incident on a website that listed 10 reasons why humans should be allowed to handle nuclear bombs. This incident was among them. Nice to hear more about it.
Im a bit late, but HUGE congrats on 1M!!!!!!
I always look forward to these!!
Thank you for posting them !!
As always, a great, informative presentation.
I love the friendship between the crew and those accidentally bombed. Such friendships, even when previously enemies, are seemingly contradictory to what would be expected. Nobuo Fujita is probably the best example. How often does this happen and what other stories are there? The ability to overcome the inherit animosity of being at different ends of a bomb delivery gives me hope for humaity.
I really like listening to these true stories and i must admit I also love the way you seem to get really into the story and tell it so well. Great content keep them coming
Sad I missed this when it came out but I lived in Florence SC for a few years and there are a few clubs and civic groups that make reference to the incident. The largest is the Atomic Mountain Bike Club and both local breweries have an Atomic or Mars Bluff beer on occasion. Thank you for the video.
I really love your videos! If you ever decide to make longer ones, I for one would not be disappointed. Thanks!
The only problem with that is holding peoples attention. Most humans don’t have long attention spans and I believe the limit is around 10 minutes, according to studies. And that’s even on a subject that they are interested in.
"Jiggling the pin with a hammer": Tonya Harding.
That’s Exactly!👌
Tonya Harding’s favorite song to skate to
“If I had a Hammer”
Over 25 years later, and Tonya still gets the hammer jokes.
A flyover during his burial might or might not be appreciated.
The "Missing Bomb" formation.
@@The_Bermuda_Nonagon 😂😂😂
But without digging the grave until it had passed.
😁
@@PhilJonesIII Lol
Absolutely interesting, Sir! I was quite astonished, looking in hindsight, that incidents like this could have changed the course of history VERY easily. That this one did not, is ....History, To Be Remembered (and more importantly, Learned From).
Just found this channel and I am glad. I really enjoy the way this guy talks for some reason.
It was really refreshing to hear a history story like that where no one got killed or seriously injured.
"Broken Arrow!"
Thanks for posting! Juan.
Dang, Juan, you sure get around. I didn't expect to "see you here!"
Best one in a long time. This one reminds me of the Palomares, Spain incident and the Canada incident.
Talked about Palomares here: th-cam.com/video/yIrSBmG46n8/w-d-xo.html
Dont forget the North Carolina incident or the Greenland incident.
It's seriously amazing that there wasn't a nuclear blast at some point during this time period. So many close calls.
I think that the reason for lack of explosions are all the safeguards in place. The other reason is getting a nuke to go off is still one f the most expensive, design intense, machining precision and technical requirements to actually make it work. That’s why there’s only so many countries that have them. Certainly could have had release of material but even that seems unlikely.
My dad was in the Air Force and flew on the B47 as a navigator. He later got into a car accident and was a desk jockey for a year. After that, he was fortunate enough to get into the F4 program as rear seat. He could fly the airplane but he was not a rated pilot due to his corrected vision. He would have loved this episode. He was in the Air Force from 1954 to 1968, he could very well have been aware of this incident.
Thanks for sharing this little known, but potentially devastating incident. Today in 2022, Mars Bluff is pretty much just a wayside signal on the CSX railroad. In 1958 the Atlantic Coast Line. The same railroad Mr. Gregg was conductor for.
Love you TGH! Please consider covering the goldsboro broke arrow! 1961
th-cam.com/video/yIrSBmG46n8/w-d-xo.html
YES! If I remember correctly, one of the bombs was never recovered.
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel awesome! Thank you. I was born in Goldsboro, so this means a lot.
Wow. At least 50 people in the comments were either neighbors with the victims, lived in the near vicinity, or worked for the service who carried the bomb. Crazy so many seen this video so fast and commented. Truly a small world!
The site Plainly Difficult has many reports on nuclear accidents.
lol, I have watched em all
So have I.
Plainly Difficult is a most excellent channel.
Omg!!!! This is history I've never heard of but we must remember!!! Ty History Guy and Wife. Amazing story here !!!
Love your channel and the great stories you tell
Great how THG brings the actual people into his narratives.
Speaking of Metallurgy in history, you might do a segment on the USAF Heavy Press Program. Very interesting stuff!
I love that, the one bloody thing he grabs onto was the bomb release handle. Brilliant.
well it was there...
-I've been told by pilots that have flown them that at 35,000 feet a B-47 had a 10 knot window of operation between mach buffet and stall buffet. This airplane routinely flew in the "coffin corner" and it's pilot needed to constantly monitor the airplane when they were pushing the sound barrier.
Thank you for a short trip back in time. Your presentation was excellent.